Istanbul Municipality awarded a large public recreational development project to Zaha Hadid. Tourism minded project will contain office towers,housing,opera house,parks,hotels,restaurants and a large marina.Regardless of its size and importance,Istanbul has been fairly isolated from international architecture scene since days of Bruno Taut in 50's and Gordon Bunshaft's Hilton Hotel in 60's. With an architect mayor and some renewed interest in architecture it seems like things are going to get busy in this new darling of travelers and the candidate for revolving European cultural capitol.
Another large urban transformation project was awarded to Ken Yeang and his team same day. winners and previously
7 Comments
Zaha Hadid project
Ken Yeang and his team
looks like major undertaking for Zaha with many pieces.
Jury:
Süha Özkan from Aga Khan Foundation, Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Kaptan, Prof. Michael Sorkin, Dr. Sumet Jumsai, Elias Torres Tur, Prof. Dr. Necati İnceoğlu
update;
the opposition to these selections are mounting each day. turkish architects are up and arms about the awards and competition being closed to them. many articles in turkish papers and opinions are diveded 50/50 in favor of the winning projects.
kinda looks like my undergrad urban design project ...
me like it,
No comments on Zaha project (same old). Although the mayor's interest in architecture is questionable. Despite saying he wanted some spectacular landmark for the metro bridge across the halic /golden horn (a more prominent location than Kartal / Zaha). There was a competitive tender bidding process with several civil engineers/contractors with grotesquely ill-concieved schemes trying to do calatrava on the cheap. I think a utilitarian solution would have been better, not trying to outdo the other two bridges, or trying the compete with the natural beauty of the slopes.
Mayors who think they will single handedly remodel a city are bad news. I say fewer state sponsered grand projects, because they never work out as imagined, yet are impossible to ignore, unlike the ubiquitos commercial crap, which can be filtered out as insignificant.
as in all Zaha Hadid projects, u hardly realise what the main idea is. If u go into the project for a while u like it but i'm not sure it's enough to like master plan..i wonder what the reality will be as an architect living in Istanbul.
Serkan Ennac
Yeah I tend to be inherently suspicious of grand "architectural" master plans. Could be good though. Thanks for bringing this up, it will be interesting to look into it. If anyone can provide cultural/geographic background to the specific area, that would be great.
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.