Enclosed Paradise: Istanbul’s Microcities as Megaprojects

2016-06-06T17:41:00-04:00

The Turkish word for Gated Community is site, from the French cité, and they generally resemble the French highrises of the same name, rather than American tract housing. Towers and slabs stand shoulder to shoulder, dancing in a circle around the gardens they surround.

How to Make an Enclosed Paradise:

Raze a blighted industrial site or neighborhood close to the city center, preferably along a new highway or metro line.
Build an access road around the perimeter. Like a castle moat, this isolates your project from context and gives distance for height setbacks.
Fill the offset parcel with a base. This plinth elevates the garden while providing parking underneath.
Arrange towers and blocks along the borders of the site, maximizing the area of the captured central garden.
Stand out from your neighbors with shiny materials.
Market the project with a name that sounds like a car, i.e. ‘Innovia’, or ‘Quasar’.

SINAN: Starchitect of Anatolia

2012-06-10T18:25:34-04:00

Sinan was “the Euclid of his day,” said Dogan Kuban, author of more than 70 books on Islamic architecture. “At St. Peter’s in Rome, your eye is drawn to the dome itself,” he said in a recent conversation. “Sinan’s shallow domes, however, with their abstract painted decoration, seem to magically float overhead. Instead of the structure, you contemplate the space.”

Andrew Ferren of NYT pens a delightful overview on one of Anatolia's greatest architects, Sinan whose 300 plus structures span across Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Not a bad tract record for someone who started to build in his forties.

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Enclosed Paradise: Istanbul’s Microcities as Megaprojects

SINAN: Starchitect of Anatolia