istanbulmetro . istanbul architecture design

Zaha Hadid project in Kartal, Istanbul, an update

Zaha Hadid master plan for Kartal, Istanbul, stone quarry area around E5 highway

In an era of massive change in urban centers, Istanbul is set to make its mark as a major world city with a signature project for the 21st century. The Kartal, Zaha Hadid project, or as it is officially known, the Kartal Industrial Area Central Business District Plan (Kartal Sanayi Bölgesi Merkezi İş Alanları Planlaması) is the city’s most ambitious building project undertaken in recent memory. If it is built according to Hadid’s master plan, the 555 hectare site stretching from the Sea of Marmara up to the stone quarries of the E5 highway will be an important business district and center for tourism and leisure. Furthermore, the project’s focus on business and tourism activity will make it an important alternative business district to Istanbul’s current Central Business District in the Levent-Mazlak zone as the city attempts to make a mark on the global stage. Hadid’s design, an ambitious architectural vocabulary of flowing forms and undulating lines in steel, glass and concrete never seen before in the country, promises to be a bold statement in futurism for a city dominated for so long by it’s history.

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2 comments May 13th, 2008

This is design in Turkey, a manifesto. With thanks to Ilhan Koman for leading the way

Ilhan Koman, PI Series of experimental forms derived from mathematical formula, 1980-1983. photograph by Tayfun Tunceli. Courtesy Koman Foundation.

The history of design in the West is one that is tied closely to industrialization and excludes elements of the vernacular and everyday, what I would call anonymous design or design by non-designers. In a country like Turkey where most objects lack design pedigree, different social and designs traditions of local origin are more relevant to object making and design then one this closely tied to the canon of Western design history, industrialization and capitalism. For example, the recognition of the sensory dimensions of the environment seen in design from places like Brazil or Mexico or the efficacy of handicraft and materials in Scandinavia, these contexts show another history of design outside of industrialization and ultimately more relevant to this Turkish context.

Today because of the ecological crises the notion of universal or standardized concepts of living promoted by industrialization and capitalism is starting to lose validity. Instead we are starting to see that there are certain efficiencies to be gained from an individual’s built environment in the history, culture, and climate of his or her immediate surroundings. In Turkey today this question of the role of universal/standardized concepts of modernity is being questioned. I believe this questioning, in these first years of the 21st century, in the light of the ecological crises the canon of design is an extremely valuable contribution to the global discourse in design. We can no longer be so concerned with a particular style or idiom mordern or not, we instead need adjust this addiction to only the modenr to accept other ways of living and social practices.

These premodern social practices are those that need to be studied today to create a new value system for contemporary design and object creation in Turkey. We need to focus on a combination of environmental, social and mental realities existing in the cultures found in Turkey’s geography for thousands of years. Cultures such as the nomadic Turkic culture, Selcuk, Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations, Islamic philosophy, Shamanistic religion, Anatolian peasant society and Sufi traditions are just a few of the many premodern practices that should be accessed. I want to be clear that the cultures should be accessed not for any aesthetic or cultural agenda. Instead what I am proposing is that in an era when basic resources such as oil, food, water, are beginning to dwindle, we need to figure out other ways of doing things that are not as wasteful as industrialized capitalism. The source for other ways of doing things are these premodern ways of doing and creation that are still found in great number and still in use in Turkey and Anatolia.

Turkey’s geography is a great source for these practices relying on hand-made and craft and for natural, organic and authentic materials. From soap to silk, ceramics to candles, marble to iron, there is abundancy of local materials and techniques that can be be utilized that are valid today. The task is to combine these materials and technical practices with contemporary ways of doing things in technology especially that also provide similar efficiencies. The resourceful combination of the two, the premodern practices with the very contemporary technologies and methods will yield new and valuable ways of doing things. These ways of doing and creating will be extremely important as a change in the way industrialized capitalism works. Turkey is at a position now where it has the resources to articulate this agenda, advanced know-how and technology on one side, valid premodern ways of doing things on the other. It is a matter of combining the two to create a new vision for 21st century living based on the unique perspective afforded by Turkey’s geography and cultural heritage.

Add comment May 12th, 2008

More Zorlu, project in rough waters, court suspends construction

The Zorlu saga continues this time on the legal side. Last week a local Istanbul court suspended the project’s zoning putting this hallmark project of the AKP era into jeopardy. Zorlu is apparently appealing the case according to news reports. With the current unstable political environment seemingly continuing into next year Zorlu will have to wait until the political dust settles to figure out where to focus it’s “lobbying” efforts.

Add comment May 8th, 2008

Zorlu Gayrimenkul invited competition for Karayolları plot in Levent…gossip

Update: February 18
My sources are telling me that the results from the Zorlu competition will be announced this week. From what I can gather there will be no one winner but instead parts of the project will be awarded to three architects, Arolat, Bozkurt and Tabanlioglu. This is my assumption for the moment.

Some people are asking me for the latest on the nebulous process that is leading up to the design of the old Turkish Highways Administration, Istanbul Directorate plot in Levent. I had a few months back report on the sale of this plot to the Zorlu conglomerate, one of Turkey’s largest industrial group. According to what I’ve gleaned from gossip in various internet discussion groups the short list goes like this…

- Cafer Bozkurt Architecture Ltd. + Asp Architekten Stuttgart Partnership (Mete Arat, Cem Arat)
- Mimarlar Tasarım (Han Tümertekin) + Hashim Sarkis + George Hargreaves Consortium
- Tabanlıoğlu Architects Ltd. (Murat and Melkan Tabanlıoğlu)
- EAA Emre Arolat Architects

Alternate

- ERA Urban Planning & Architecture Ltd. (Ali Hızıroğlu)

Amongst this group, Tabanlioglu seems to be the favorite with Tumertekin second choice. Stay tuned for more…

Add comment January 31st, 2008

Emerging hyperarchaic design from Istanbul, “Fibrous Room: Evolving Structural Logic”

Architecture in Turkey today is largely a matter of concrete and cement. Steel reinforced concrete formed largely by hand in rectilinear shapes, this is how we create our buildings. Contemporary architecture in Turkey consists of large boxes full of smaller boxes of concrete with no curve or acute angle that could provide difficulty in construction or cost. This has been case in our building culture since the 1940s and does not seem set to change anytime soon.

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Add comment January 21st, 2008

Two terrible articles on the Istanbul design and architecture scene

The current hype around Istanbul architecture and design while a boon for the local scene has also produced some unfortunate coverage in the international media. As evidence, lets look at two articles that have recently appeared in the U.S. press that are particularly egregious in their superficial and haphazard treatment of Istanbul design matters.

The first one is in the Boston Globe with the pedestrian title of “Inspiring Istanbul” written by Tom Haines. This article highlights the architect Gökhan Avcıoğlu who recently returned to Istanbul after what was apparently an unproductive stint at architecture in the U.S. Staying away from scuttlebut on this front, reading this article and the architect’s commtns, I was taken aback by Avcıoğlu’s failure to grab the moment. Given the opportunity to say something “inspiring” about Istanbul and its architecture he comes up with this line, and I quote…

“How can you deal with 5,000 years of history? I’m not afraid of it. I think I’m building a kind of history. I’m human, and I can add something.”

Whaaa…?!? He is building “history”? He can add “something”? We can all build something that will eventually be history…you can do this pretty much anywhere in the world I think. Build something and it will be history, sometimes sooner then later. This is as bland archispeak as I’ve heard in many a day.

If you read the rest of article and see what he has so to say, the thing that irks me is Avcıoğlu’s flippant attitude toward the subject that is designing and building architecture in Istanbul at this moment. After many years of not being allowed to build anything, with the new found interest by Turkish society in design, architects in Istanbul right now have some clout to design that they are throwing it away by failing to articulate what their architecture is about and why it is relevant. The vision thing, to put it simply.
Getting back to Avcıoğlu’s remark and its lack of vision, the question for contemporary Istanbul architecture and design is not just building some thing, it is what and how you are going to build that thing. Of course, this is a problem that has occupied modernism in Turkey and Istanbul’s architecture for almost 100 years. That is to say, the problem of the critical ground for the aesthetic and architectonic basis of Turkish architecture in light of history - a vision for what contemporary Turkish architecture should be and what it should represent.

That’s the reason Istanbul otherwise lacks great pieces of modern architecture. Largely because of this lack of a critical discourse surrounding architecture that we can clearly see exhibited in examples like Avcıoğlu’s. To be fair to the guy, the failure of vision in most Turkish architecture is not one person’s fault (and do I like his design for a public restroom in Kadiköy) but spokesman for contemporary architecture in Istanbul he is not. That role I would give to architects like Nevzat Sayın or Can Çinici who have been working steadily and surely here for the last 20 years with a historical and critical agenda.

Another guy who shouldn’t have been allowed to talk about design in Istanbul is one Efe Buluç, a Pratt educated young industrial designer recently moved to Istanbul. In an article in Dwell magazine by Reyhan Harmancı entitled this time, “Inside Istanbul” the Ankara born Buluç when asked to name a Turkish designer from Istanbul that he likes he comes up with…nobody…

Question: Contemporary designer from Istanbul that you like…

Answer: “Hmmm…no… [Buluc smiles apologetically]“.

Later in the Dwell article the reason Efe Buluç drew a blank when it came to contemporary Istanbul designers becomes sort of obvious. Commenting on a mystifying relationship between his hangout spots in Istanbul and the architecture of the master Ottoman architect Sinan, he comments…

“It’s interesting to have Kanyon (ed. shopping center) in Istanbul. You can’t compare Sinan to Kanyon—Sinan worked on a fantastic human scale—but Kanyon is very important because young Westernized Turks such as myself need a place to go and feel that there’s a modern environment.”

I’ve got some advice for Efe Buluç 1) your not going to learn too much about Istanbul design hanging out in a shopping mall 2) if you want to know more about Istanbul design, check out the work of these Istanbul designers… Aziz Sarıyer, Adnan Serbest, Tanju Özelgin, Ali Bakova, Yılmaz Zenger, Can Yalman and Oya Akman, to name just a few…

And to all those magazine and design editors out there who are considering covering Istanbul, I’ve got the title of the article for you, “Innovative Istanbul”. If you do more than scratch the surface, you might even find out why.

Add comment December 10th, 2007

The new Otomotion automotive lifestyle space, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak

Main showroom space, Otomotion, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak, Istanbul - lead designers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik

The Otomotion showroom, activity center and permanent exhibition space, the first of its kind in Turkey and the world, will include a number of different features highlighting the Volkswagen Group automotive products sold by the Doğus Group under one roof in a large 11,500m2, 11 meter high space located in the Doğuş Power Center shopping center in Maslak, Istanbul. This unique hybrid facility open year round features a flowing space mixing automotive showrooms and sales points for Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche with leisure and exhibition facilities. Designed to encourage browsing, these automotive showrooms and exhibitions stands are integrated with unique multimedia exhibition spaces which are surrounded by features including a 180 degree multimedia exhibition room, conference facilities and meeting rooms, amphitheater, Kids Club, Café and hospitality center, shop, lounges and office space.

The first of its kind in Turkey, the hybrid space was designed by a team of designers led by Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik of Istanbul, that combined experts in interior and retail design, exhibition design and multimedia design. Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik, one of Istanbul’s better known architecture and interior design firms, led the design of the hybrid space in conjunction with noted exhibition designer and creative consultant to the project, Walt Behnke of New York. As lead designers and design managers their strategy was to create a dynamic and engaging multimedia environment that will function as a public space allowing visitors to learn more about the automotive products in an informal recreational setting similar to a museum or art gallery. Instead of consumers shopping for cars, Otomotion is intended as a casual environment where brand values are emphasized in a more ambient and passive way.

Realizing this goal, the large, central space is organized around amorphous fluid blob forms that create flowing lines that will facilitate casual browsing through the auto showrooms and exhibition spaces or leisure activities in the cafes and children’s areas. As design managers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik integrated the complex functions in this one-of-a- kind space to create a harmonious unified experience that includes the work of an international team featuring graphics designed by Apple Graphics of London and unique and specially created dome exhibition pods by Atelier MarkGraph of Frankfurt. In its architecture and overall proportions, the achievement we see in this project is that it sets the stage for a new type of space for Istanbul that reorganizes commercial retail space into something that resembles more of a public building such as an aquarium or museum. Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik’s success has been to create an ambient and subtle environment that puts the emphasis on experience and less on “shopping” to create a feeling of a public area. At a time when Istanbul is being filled up with one shopping center after another, Otomotion, in parts, retail showroom, exhibition and leisure spaces, provides a good example of how through innovative strategies and architecture, new public settings can be created for the benefit of all. Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik’s design supports this feeling by providing a casual, informal environment of abstract shapes and volumes for this new kind of public/private space.

Entrance, Otomotion, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak, Istanbul - lead designers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik

Theater area, Otomotion, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak, Istanbul - lead designers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik

Shop, Otomotion, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak, Istanbul - lead designers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik

Add comment December 10th, 2007

More Istanbul design …. literally, Takeaway Istanbul

Erdem Akan, maybe Design, Takeaway Istanbul, Ring, 2007, takeaway-istanbul.com

Young entrepreneur Seda Ertem’s new takeaway istanbul brand is a unique take on Istanbul culture. Her collection of objects inspired by the geography, architecture and street culture of Istanbul incorporates these motifs into a range of products ranging from typical souvenir items such as t-shirts, magnets, coasters and mugs to Istanbul specific objects such as soap, tea glasses and hot plates. The most elegant of the lot has to be the ring which places the outlines of the Bosphorus strait separating Europe and Asia on your finger, Istanbul design at its most literal.

2 comments November 26th, 2007

Istanbul Dolmuş and Minibus Map - superpool

For the uninitiated, Istanbul is a city that is notoriously difficult to navigate. While getting back and forth across the Bosphorus via ferryboat or going up and down the Levent-Taksim subway are fairly easy operations, anything else more complex requires lots of local knowledge and/or pluckiness. One of the urban transportation systems that most visitors to the city never, or honestly speaking are unable to use because of the sheer difficulty of figuring out how they work are the city’s vast networks of minibuses and dolmuş (shared taxis). These minibuses and minivans run point-to-point from centers throughout the city allowing passengers to get on and off anywhere en route for a shade of what it would cost for a taxi. Extremely efficient but devilishly inscrutable in their operations for non-residents, the dolmuş and minibus lines are a ubiquitous presence in Istanbul’s famous snarled traffic.

For years I thought that the city government would eventually publish a map of these bus systems being as they were a de facto part of the public transportation system. Of course, they never did but lo and behold, two enterprising young architects, Gregers Tang Thomsen and Selva Gürdoğan of Superpool have. These two ex-OMA staffers have put together an accurate map that looks more like a subway map then an a fairly ad-hoc network of buses. The map will soon be available for purchase to both visitors and residents alike. More details when i get them.

1 comment November 22nd, 2007

istanbul design and architecture, istanbul architecture and design, istanbul design and architecture…

Sorry, it’s been crazy for me the last couple of months. I’ve been writing the history of post WWII Turkish design, no mean feet I would have to say. The old Istanbul Metro has suffered as a consequence. But I am back and there’s been a lot to write about. Here’s the quick and dirty version…

1. Istanbul Design Week, the annual hodge podge aggregation of design activity in Istanbul which though quite lively ultimately lacks the focus or direction to make it a meaningful event. The city and the design scene here deserve better.

Stray tray, Gökhan Karakuş, Barbarians’ Banquet, Barbar group, 2007

2. Barbarians independent design initiative of which I am a part. We put together an exhibition entitled, Barbarians Banquet, of abstract objects and prototypes using 3D printing technologies, SLS. Our goal was to attempt to the synthesize local practices with universal techniques. We received some attention from the likes of ID and others. My inclusion in the exhibition, the Stray tray was an attempt to pull apart the parts of a traditional Turkish tray, geometry and pattern, mathematics and object, into a new combination of the very old and the very new which I call hyperarchaic. In my method I produced a new pattern through writing a computer program in Processing which I then extrapolate into a 3D shape. The pattern once objectified is then pushed through a double disc tray, straying through the tray as an object onto itself. Pattern, mathematics, geometry and objectivity are aspects of the traditional Turkish handmade tray that are now reorganized using the techniques of 3D Rapid Prototyping. The Barbarian group is set to organize new exhibits of similarily produced products in 2008…

3. I’ve been writing a lot these days. I’m the Updates Editor of the Wallpaper/Phaidon Istanbul city guide. In addition, I’m on the editorial board and the primary architecture critic of Icon magazine, Turkish edition. Just thought you all should know. I will be posting my articles for Icon in a new section as soon as I clean them up, subjects include, santralIstanbul / Emre Arolat, Nevzat Sayin, Han Tumertekin, curated exhibitions of contemporary Turkish design (Ilk in Milano, Ilk in Istanbul, Sex and Design / Erdem Akan, Barbarians Banquet), Sulan Kolatan, Zaha Hadid, Kocaciklioglu Mimarlik / Otomotion and my history of Turkish furniture design,1950s, KareMetal-Sadi Öziş, Şadi Calık and İlhan Koman, 1960s, Azmi Koz, Bediz Koz, MPD, Şark Mobilya, Ali İhsan Şark, Yıldırım Kocacıklıoğlu, Interno.

4. More shopping centers, M1 Meydan by Foreign Office Architects opened in September. Istinye Park in October, and City’s Nisantasi set to open next month. Look for my full review of Meydan soon.

5. Zaha Hadid was in town last week. She first spoke to a befuddled group of real estate developers at the Forum Istanbul conference at the Swissotel organized by the Turkish branch of the Urban Land Institute dramatically walking out of the lecture room when her presentation was cut-off prematurely by some coot that was leading the session. Despite the theatrics, Hadid could be seen at the conference the next day hustling for business with players and big whigs from Istanbul’s ever expanding real estate sector. Later on in the week, she was comfortably back in her element lecturing to a group of primarily young designers and architects at an event organized by the Arkitera people sponsored by the office furniture company, Nurus. The gossip is a version of her exhibitions from the Guggenheim in New York and the Design Museum in London will land in town next year the Istanbul Modern. Her Kartal urban design master plan seems to be stuck in the typical conflicting interests that usually bog things down here. More on Hadid and Kartal in a later post.

Add comment November 20th, 2007