BECOMING ISTANBUL an Encyclopedia

RABIH MROUé BECOMING ISTANBUL An Encyclopedia PELİN DERVİŞ BÜLENT TANJU UĞUR TANYELİ SALT015-RABIH MROUÉ-A001 PREFACE SALT015-BECOMING ISTANBUL-002 BECOMING ISTANBUL This encyclopedia was conceived to accompany extent of ridiculing some expectations dependent the exhibition of the same name, in the Autumn of on a longing to recreate Istanbul as a “new traditi- 2008 at the DAM (German Architecture Museum) onal city.” Dissolving the ideal of a metropolis that in Frankfurt. Publications are destined to live their is non-cosmopolitan, homogenously populated, own lives, beyond the original intentions of their built without noticeable divergences and desig- authors. Six years after its publication, not only ned with a historicist imagination was our main the contents of this encyclopedia but also – and objective. This ideal seemed to us then, rather it more radically – the metropolis that is the subject still is today, a dangerous attitude destructive of matter of the book, have changed. Thus, a large the newly emerging metropolitan pluralism, both portion of the articles in it perhaps have become socially and architecturally. out-of-date. We still believe that the book is still readable beyond the doubtful actuality of its con- Five years after this encyclopedia was publis- tents, since it is neither a statistical handbook of hed, Istanbulites, or an important part of them, the facts regarding Istanbul, nor is it a compilation showed that they shared our anxiety about the of brief historiographical texts. An innumerab- immediate fate of their city, at least in a single le amount of similar books existed then – and but important case: an almost unexpected event still do. At the beginning of the exhibition-cum- shook Istanbul and Turkey in the peaceful riots book project in 2008, our aim was to try to contest of Gezi Park in Taksim in 2013. With a high pro- the clichés and stereotypes concerning modern portion of the younger generation and an unan- Istanbul, which were prevalent both in Turkey ticipated density of urban middle classes, they and abroad. We especially intended to shake the were involved in what came to be called the Gezi conservatism guiding recent urban thought on Resistance. What they wanted to defend was the Istanbul with irony and amusement, even to the plurality they thought to be under the threat of SALT015-BECOMING ISTANBUL-003 BECOMING ISTANBUL authoritarianism. Moreover, during these activi- ties they placed urban issues at the forefront of the protests. It was the first time in Turkey that an architectural project became a cause of civil disobedience. As the editors of this book, we felt our positions verified and even justified by the de- mocratic and pluralistic demands and behaviour of the protesters. Like them, we too had intended to set into motion an understanding in which every city dweller was to be tolerant towards the acts and thoughts of his/her fellow citizens without being blinded by prejudices. In this respect, we think this publication is still undoubtedly in- formative and humorously inventive. However, our original expectations are yet to be fulfilled. This is why we are re-publishing this encyclopedia of the most architectural city in the world. It is that most architectural city, where all of its inhabitants build, speak of, write, fight for, and destroy architecture on a daily basis. Pelin Derviş, Bülent Tanju, Uğur Tanyeli SALT015-BECOMING ISTANBUL-004 becomıng ıstanbul An Encyclopedia SALT015-BECOMING ISTANBUL-005 BECOMING ISTANBUL A D H ADVERTISEMENT DEMOCRACY HAMAM AKBİL DEMOLITION OR THE WARPED CITY HAN ALIENATION DISTRICT VILLAS HEADPHONES ANARCHY DOLMUŞ HOLIDAYS ARABESQUE DRESS HOTEL ASCENT HOUSEHOLD ATM E HYBRID-ISING/ISATION EARTHQUAKE B ELECTRICITY I BAĞDAT CADDESİ EMERGENCY ACTION PLAN IDENTITY BAKKAL EROTICISM IRANIAN IMMIGRANTS BAKKAL SANDWICH ETHNICITY IRAQI IMMIGRANTS BARGE EXPROPRIATION IRREGULAR URBANIsATION BATHING/SWIMMING ISLE BEACH F ISTANBULITE BEAUTIFICATION FATİH SULTAN MEHMET BECOMING ISTANBUL FILLED GROUND İ BICYCLE FIRE İSTİKLAL CADDESİ OR “BEYOĞLU” BIENNIAL FISH BYZANTIUM FISH SANDWICH j FLAG JUNK ECONOMY C FLANUERIE CAKE SHOP FOREIGNER K CAR FERRY KANYON CARETAKER G KAPAN – WEIGHING OFFICE CEMETERY GAS WORKS CENTRE GATED HOUSING ESTATE L CINEMA GECEKONDU LANGUAGE CLEANSING GENTRIFICATION LEVANTINES AND NEO-LEVANTINES CONTRACTOR GESTALT COLLAPSE LITERATURE CRIMEAN CHURCH GLOBALISATION GOLDEN HORN GOLDEN HORN DOCKYARDS SALT015-BECOMING ISTANBUL-006 BECOMING ISTANBUL M PORNOGRAPHY Ş MAIN STREET POST-GECEKONDU ŞİRKET-İ HAYRİYE – CITY MARITIME LINES MCDONALD’S POST-SOVIET UNION MIGRATION MIGRATION PRESERVATION BOARD T MINIBUS PUBLIC SPACE TAKSİM SQUARE MINORITY TIME MOAT/PIT R TİNERCİ MOSQUE RESERVOIR WATER LEVELS TOPONYMS MUSEUM RESTORATION TOURISM MUSIC PIRACY TRAM MY IDEAL HOME S TWO-FACEDNESS SCAFFOLDING 2010 N SCREEN NEIGHBOURHOOD SECURITY u NORTHERN ISTANBULITE SEWAGE URBAN FOLKLORE NOSTALGIA SEWER URBAN TRANSFORMATION SHOESHINER O SHOPPING CENTRE V ORIENTALISM SHORE ROAD VAROŞ OTHER SIDE, THE SILHOUETTE VIADUCT OTTOMAN NEIGHBOURHOOD SİMİT VIEW SİMİT SARAYI P SKYSCRAPER w PALIMPSEST SLOPE WATER PANORAMA SPARROW WEDDING TOPOGRAPHIES PAPERMEN STADIUM WOUND PARK HOTEL STRAY DOGS PARKING LOT STREET ANIMALS y PARKS AND GARDENS STREET FOOD VENDOR YALI PAVEMENT STREET MARKET YEŞİLÇAM PEDESTRIANISATION SUBURB PERFORMATIVE TRAFFIC SUMMER RESORT Z PEYOTE STAGE SURVEILLANCE ZEPPELIN POLITICAL SPACE SYNAGOGUE SALT015-BECOMING ISTANBUL-007 BECOMING ISTANBUL ADVERTISEMENT ity that counts, but the possibility of it. Thus, the reality of an advertisement is the promise woven THE RITUAL OF A MATERIALIST RELIGION STANDING with symbols and images presented by the com- FOR THE PROMISE OF EDEN. modity emphasizing the possibility of attaining the unattainable. The spectator perceiving just the distance between the image stuck to the commodity and her/himself wants to reach and take hold of it. Advertising is a As life lived increases in value inasmuch as it fiction that takes the viewer on a virtual journey is viewable, concerning the city advertising sur- along this distance s/he can’t overcome. It doesn’t rounds it with symbols. The reality of the city is produce dreams; all it does is continuously rep- perceived as the image it reflects. The city is how roduce the distance between the viewer and the it is presented now, rather than what it actually states s/he wants to achieve. Thus, advertising is. Each building, each project reflects the ideolo- can find living space for itself in the gap between gies behind them. Thus, in the context of created a state of desire and reality. images and ideologies, the appearance of the city constantly renews itself. Advertising stimulates the fragmentary areas of the id and attaches artificial organs to them. It Advertising’s promise of paradise material- achieves its persuasiveness at the points where ized with Istanbul in the 1960s. Istanbul, “city of it overlaps with the dreams of the viewer. At the stony ground of gold,” became advertisement, points of intersection with dreams, it is not real- shop-window and promised paradise itself. Istan- SALT015-BECOMING ISTANBUL-008 BECOMING ISTANBUL bul attracted to itself millions with the promise anything is possible. Those who profit from this of a paradise enriched with manufactured im- commodity are all the more happy as it continues ages and began to produce the illusion that all the to reproduce its meaning to the extent that it is not wealth it owned and the appearance it reflected taken seriously. Because they want their product were possible for all. Behind this egalitarian prom- to keep selling, they want their product to wear out ise of paradise lay poverty, inequality, exclusion, or be used up. At this point advertising functions violence and profiteering. as a catalyst accelerating the process of renewal. This is what happened in the case of Istanbul. In When in the 80s advertising began manipu- the process in which Istanbul evolved from being lating reality with images, splitting the percep- a “paradise of stony ground of gold” into the “new tion of reality, concepts, values, language, word virgin” of global capital, Istanbul and everything and culture all became tools in the marketing of that belonged to it either lost its meaning or was a product. This was the inevitable consequence rearranged to fit the language of capital. of the transformation into a consumer society… Istanbul received its share of this and began to be The presence of the market enables the mar- commodified and presented as a site of spectacle. keting of the concept of innovation independently The city became a show, both for its residents and of quality, meaning and values. Istanbul has be- for those watching from outside. come a favourite of the owners of capital, who do not want great, real, long lasting and enduring Concepts are ready for redefinition when, as things, and it is replaced in the shop window every part of a natural or artificial process, they lose day, voided of meanings and values through the their historical and cultural meanings. For the constant repetition of the discourse of renewal redefinition to take, the concept first needs to and regeneration. be depleted and emptied of meaning and then reshaped with new images. Once the said concept In becoming the subject of advertising, Is- has been transformed into an image with no social tanbul is constantly being multiplied as image. significance, in the aftermath of this redefinition The media, one of the most influential factors in

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