IstanbulPolitics of ArchitectureArchitecture of Politics

PolitectureArchiliticsAchilles

Eye

“If you want to destroy one culture, firstYou have to destroy the architect.

When you have managed to destroy the architect, thenYou can start to destroy the language.”

Barbaros Sansal

Fashion designer / Political Activist

Recent years, UNESCO has been the protector in charge of restoration of these old buildings.

Yet there are too many of these old buildings, most are left to rot.

Survival

Turkey’s entire modern political and social history could be read in their rotten beams and leaking roofs.

Timber house traditions stem from the great earthquake in 1509.

Timber bends when short waves travel through them, unlike solid substances like brick and stone.

However, are vulnerable to fires.

Dates

1600s- rise of wooden constructions1560- imperial decree declaring Janissaries responsibilities of fire-fighting1714- first fire engine built by French engineer1871- serious fire founds the first fire department19th to early 20th- current remaining wooden housesWW1- authorities banned construction with woodEnd of Ottoman period- decline in wooden construction

Large, single central space for most living functions may have come from tents used by nomadic Turkish tribes.

Living above animals kept on the ground floor also functions as a heating system.

Reason of material (wood)

1. Humidification (retains moisture- cleaner air)2. Earthquakes3. Fast and lighter protection4. Eaves- fires, revolutions, invasions, street sailor? ; [vision] <- insecurity

Wood- mainly Turkish, invaders, efficiency (cheap, light)

Stones, bricks- Christians, Armenians, Jews

Jewelry, textile, hands and craftsmanship- non-MuslimsPalace art, writing, decorations, miniatures- Muslims, Turks (not allowed to trade)

-breakdown of Ottoman empire -> minority groups suffered-1.5 m Armenians, Syrians, Greeks killed or died on forced marches1955- Greek community prosecutedBeginning 20th- non-Muslim = 40%Today- 100,000 remain in Istanbul

(60 000 Armenians, 20 000 Jews, 17 000 Syrians, 3 000 Greeks)(3 000 000 Kurdish)

-Brick structure, wooden skin-Bulgarian style

Corruption

1923- independent republicDemocratic and Republican party, strong military presence1940s- nationalization1950s- “Islamization”, construction of apartments -> cement + bricks

Rich districts either destroyed the wooden ruins or covered themselves with a wooden skin.Wooden houses on islands are rather untouched.

Urbanization

on Kurdish policies (book)

https://books.google.com.tw/books?id=7QEjPVyd9YMC&pg=PA411&lpg=PA411&dq=kurdish+architecture+istanbul&source=bl&ots=uqsLVKmBKC&sig=bqkkoXtxEG9OmH3WhiKfCIHDJ44&hl=zh-TW&sa=X&ei=UNEOVYaXNsbX8gWEuYDQDQ&ved=0CFIQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=kurdish%20architecture%20istanbul&f=false

Hope

Taksim Square is an essential space of division (conflict) and distribution (coexistence) that must not be annulled.

That crisis is revealed by the actions of purportedly democratic regimes that do nothing more than replicate imagistic devices, real and discursive (such as those beautiful Ottoman facades), which hide the true nature of political agendas.

Power is sustained by the illusion that it speaks for us, for our history and our future, for our democracy and its values. What we are beginning to see is the proliferation of democratic powers that grant us the possibility to express ourselves, but on no account to express our rights.

The singular democratic right at stake is the right of politicization against aestheticization: the right to access the political realm from which we have been deprived, thepolis, the only place where we may ensure our individual and collective freedom.

http://www.ibb.gov.tr/tr-TR/Pages/Haber.aspx?NewsID=20709#.VRCCWPmUcrb

Buyukada/Prinkipo island

RUM ORPHANAGE

The Rum Orphanage was designed by the prolific architect Alexandre Vallaury (1850–1921) as a luxury hotel and casino for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, the European passenger train company that operated the Orient Express. However, Sultan Abdul Hamid II would not issue a permit for its operation, leading to the sale of the building in 1903. It was purchased by the wife of a prominent Greek banker, who donated the complex to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which operated it as an orphanage.The orphanage, which housed as many as 1,000 boys at its peak, was closed in 1964. After almost half a century of neglect it is now in a state of heavy disrepair.

Marvel; Innovation

http://es.gizmodo.com/casas-fascinantes-y-probablemente-ilegales-construida-1148236547