The Polyvalent Forms of the Galata Bridge • Revista De Arquitectura Vol
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24 Esen Gökçe Özdamar • The Polyvalent Forms of the Galata Bridge • Revista de Arquitectura Vol. 24 · N° 36 · Junio 2019 • Formas de habitar • ISSN 0716-8772 · ISSNe 0719-5427 • pp. 24-31 Las formas polivalentes del The Polyvalent Forms of the Galata puente de Gálata Bridge PALABRAS CLAVE • MULTITUD URBANA · POLIVALENCIA · PhD ESEN GÖKÇE ÖZDAMAR · Namik Kemal University, Turquía · [email protected] ESTAMBUL · PUENTE DE GÁLATA KEYWORDS • URBAN CROWD · POLYVALENCE · ISTANBUL · Fecha de recepción: 15 de marzo 2019 · Fecha de aceptación: 30 de abril 2019 GALATA BRIDGE RESUMEN INTRODUCTION properly due to the rapid growth of population Este artículo se centra en el potencial del puente de and migration. Thus, the metropolitan city of Gálata como un espacio de “polivalencia” para reunir ARTÍCULO multitudes urbanas y permitir relaciones arbitrarias en “Without the bridge, you cannot know the İstanbul can no longer carry the over-requests Estambul. El puente se presenta como un reflejo para city. The bridge is, in fact, a city, though one and traffic of the dwellers and pedestrians of the las interacciones diarias modernas en términos de must not take that too literally; the bridge is city. superposición, la vida urbana arbitraria y fragmentaria. Compuesto de múltiples capas de espacio en not the city and the city is not the country, diferentes niveles (pisos), los valores culturales not by a long shot. The bridge is, above all, İstanbul is a poly-centric city, with overlapping del puente amplían un mero enfoque funcional. itself, and we shall leave it at that” (Mak, multi-centered polyvalent forms of content La polivalencia, un término acuñado por Herman Hertzberger, puede ser una herramienta para expresar 2009, p. 8). and meaning, as well as a city with different múltiples relaciones en el espacio urbano y extiende “dimensions in motion” in Deleuze and un mero espacio funcional donde las diversidades se fusionan entre sí. En este contexto, el puente puede Aydın Büyüktaş’s series of creatively warped Guattari’s terminology. It is a city unlike trees and definirse como un espacio organizacional espontáneo photos of İstanbul are a re-reading of the current their roots, as there is no singular root (Deleuze que produce su propia entidad, en la que se dense urban fabric of İstanbul (Büyüktaş, 2018). & Guattari, 1987, p. 21). In this city, different superponen acciones y actividades humanas. Así, el puente permite el desarrollo de relaciones arbitrarias In his photos, we see a dense accumulation of kinds of pedestrian movements and activities exist en Estambul. buildings, roads, and transportation that overlap at the same time. Therefore, the city is rhizomatic each other. These photos include a second by its nature, and in every different part of the ABSTRACT hand car bazaar, a gecekondu area, a mosque, city, different ways of living exist. By virtue of This article focuses on the potential of the Galata an infrastructure, a terminal station, and İstanbul’s indeterminable expanding urban Bridge as a “polyvalence” space for gathering urban infrastructural spaces, such as the Galata Bridge, nature, identifying a specific or planned pattern crowds and enabling arbitrary relations in İstanbul. The bridge is a mirror for modern daily interactions where people gather. Thus, his photos extensively of urbanization in İstanbul is not easy. with the bridge in terms of superimposition, arbitrary become more crowded. and fragmentary urban life. Composed of multiple layers of space on different The Galata Bridge is the second largest bridge levels (floors), the cultural values of the bridge Another well-portrayed projection of İstanbul as in the world, with its 80-meter width, and is first extend a mere functional approach. Polyvalence, a an over-dense city and its catastrophic effects place in the world with its bascules that can lift term coined by Herman Hertzberger, can be a tool for expressing multiple relations in urban space and is Esra Akcan’s heterotopian book (Land)Fill 1800 tons at a time (Tanyeli & Kahya, 1993, extends a mere functional space where diversities İstanbul: Twelve Scenarios for a Global City, in p. 359). However, it is not this physical and fuse into each other. In this context, the bridge can which she renders the relationship between its technical feature of the bridge that is important. be defined as a spontaneous organizational space that produces its own entity, in which human actions waterfront and how it acts in different roles, such In the heterogeneous urban fabric of İstanbul, and activities overlap. Thus, the bridge enables the as the unifier, as well as a separator in different the Galata Bridge has a special role in the development of arbitrary relationships in Istanbul. periods of İstanbul’s waterfront history (Akcan, unification and separation of different cultures. 2004). These two heterotopian projections of This density is experienced differently on the İstanbul’s waterfront emphasize the unplanned shores of the Bosphorus. The Galata Bridge is an infrastructure, in which they cannot function in-between space and infrastructure connecting Esen Gökçe Özdamar • The Polyvalent Forms of the Galata Bridge • Revista de Arquitectura Vol. 24 · N° 36 · Junio 2019 • Formas de habitar • ISSN 0716-8772 · ISSNe 0719-5427 • pp. 24-31 25 Karaköy and Eminönü, two traditional trade the Galata Bridge can be a useful tool in at the northern end of the bridge, acted centers and two different worlds of the Eastern reinterpreting these self-organizing associations similarly: at this key point, the main tramway and the Western. The bridge was a space of that are needed in today’s structures, where the stop and the lower terminus of the subway were hybridization of these two worlds and engaged crowd strengthens the meaning of space and located. Today, these two locations still provide them into a heterogeneous topography. Today, interacts with it. As also mentioned by Zeynep the main transportation connections” (Çelik, this separation has diminished, since the city Çelik, “the bridge is important because it is a 1993, p. 102). Before the first Galata Bridge has fused all of the sharp separations into one further representation of the general goal of was constructed in 1845, sea “transportation entity. Moreover, apart from this separation, defining a larger metropolitan area by uniting between Galata and Tophane was carried out the bridge has become a rare urban space İstanbul and Galata” (Çelik, 1993, p. 88-90). by boat at the historical peninsula. Over time, in İstanbul, where the user experience can Thus, the bridge becomes a “breathing and alive ferry services to the bridges and Bosphorus emerge spontaneously in a crowded urban landmark” of İstanbul, unifying the European and villages connecting the two sides of the Golden setting, differentiating in the context of the Turkish parts of the city and integrating the trade Horn played an important role in the expansion hybrid marriage as it enters with other spaces, centers located in the Eminönü-Sirkeci region and development of the area of influence of the buildings, urban spaces and users. The bridge and Karaköy (Kuban, 2000, p. 358-359). The region” (Akın, 2002, p.139). reveals “the potential of water as an active Galata Bridge differs from other bridges existing medium—an alternative public space” (Özdamar in the Bosphorus in the context of the relations In the nineteenth century, Karaköy, at the root and Filiz, 2014, p. 2). This article is concerned established with the user and the sea. This is also of the Galata side, was already an international with reading the space in many aspects, formed due to the fact that it is the closest bridge to the trade and business center with Venetian bankers. by stratifying the various types of activities on the sea. The coastline heading to Tophane and Kabataş water. Thus, the bridge is an example of the form area nearby, where İstanbul harbor is located, and content interaction in its tectonic setting. was a continuous axis into the city (Çelik, 1993, THE EVOLUTION OF THE GALATA BRIDGE p. 80). In the mid-19th century, with the increase The bridge was rebuilt five times between 1845 IN THE HISTORY OF İSTANBUL of commercial relations, “the use of other and 1994 due to its wooden structure and being palaces as well as the Topkapi Palace by the damaged by fires. Furthermore, there was a In the 16th century, during the reign of Sultan sultan” (Evren, 1994, p. 63), and the moving need to increase the strength of the structure Beyazit, Leonardo da Vinci was invited to İstanbul of the palace from the Historical Peninsula to and to enlarge it due to the city’s growth and for the construction of a bridge to provide the Beşiktaş, led the inner city transportation to shift increasing traffic. From all of these bridges, the connection between Eminönü and Karaköy. to the Eminönü-Karaköy axis. Besides this shift, 1912-constructed bridge, also named the “Old Leonardo, who decided to come to İstanbul horse-drawn passenger cars imported from Bridge”, which was later demolished due to a to make a bridge, was abandoned by the Europe became widespread, causing the need fire, created a special memory in the minds’ of administration of the time at the Port of Venice1 of a second bridge in the Bosphorus between its passersby, with its polyvalent architecture, (Deniz Hizmetleri, 2018). This shore of the city the two sides of the Golden Horn to serve new tectonic setting and urban confrontation in a had already derived a cultural and architectural transportation vehicles. This bridge was later modernizing city. The following bridges also heritage developed by the Genoese and later, named as the Cisr-i Cedid (Tanyeli & Kahya, continued this heritage and spatial potential but Venetian trade colonies, at the beginning of the 1993, p.