Archinect - News

Turkey issues arrest warrants for building designers in the wake of deadly earthquake

2023-02-13T16:42:00-05:00

Arrest warrants have been issued in Turkey in response to the devastating earthquake that killed more than 34,000 people across the shared border with Syria last Monday.

The BBC writes that a total of 113 warrants were issued to individuals within the country, reportedly including architects, engineers, and building contractors, over their supposed role in constructing the more than 25,000 buildings which failed or were damaged during the magnitude 7.8 tremor and subsequent aftershocks.

The country’s Vice President, Fuat Oktay, also announced the establishment of ten special investigative units spread throughout Turkey’s most impacted provinces. The punitive process comes after years of so-called amnesties for contractors that were granted, in some cases, to provide for housing construction in waves and most recently before the 2018 general election.

Previously on Archinect: Devastating 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria

In an essay for the Sunday Times, journalis...

More damage reported at Hagia Sophia as conversion impacts grow

2022-06-30T16:55:00-04:00

A number of marble tiles on the floor of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, which was turned back into a mosque in 2020 after serving as a historical museum for decades, have reportedly been cracked by heavy machinery used to clean the building last week.

“It’s like a fairground now,” one tour guide reportedly told the Turkish opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet in reference to the change in status that occurred in 2020, when the site was reconverted into a mosque and conferred back into the auspices of the Department of Religious Affairs following an edict from President Recep Erdoğan.

The conversion of one of its original World Heritage Sites has drawn the ire of UNESCO, who says it is “gravely concerned.” In the past, Erdoğan, who is facing a potential unseating in the elections next year, has called the project “a symbol of the re-rising of the sun of our civilization.”

The world's longest suspension bridge officially opens in Turkey

2022-03-21T15:11:00-04:00

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge over the Dardanelles Strait on Friday (18 March). It has a central span of 2,023m, which means it usurps the title of world’s longest suspension bridge from the Akashi Kaikyo crossing in Kobe, Japan.

As reported by Global Construction Review, the new bridge cost €2.5 billion ($2.76 billion) to construct and is expected to generate €5.3 billion ($5.84 billion) in economic output, creating 118,000 jobs and €2.4 billion ($2.65 billion) in revenue. Named after an Ottoman naval victory during WWI, it is the first fixed crossing over the Dardanelles Strait and the sixth one across the Turkish Straits. The bridge is the centerpiece of a planned 321-kilometer-long (200-mile-long), $2.8 billion project to connect motorways in Thrace and Anatolia.

The bridge was designed by Denmark-based Cowi and Pyunghwa Engineering Consultants of South Korea. Arup and Aas-Jakobsen worked on the project as Independent Design Verifier (IDV), with Turkey’s Tekfen and T-ingénierie of Switzerland serving as administrative consultants. The construction was carried out via a public-private partnership, formed in 2017, between a group of Turkish and South Korean companies, led by Daelim, SK, Limak, and Yapi Me...

Turkey's spat with UNESCO over the Hagia Sophia just grew a little deeper

2021-07-27T17:29:00-04:00

UNESCO has once again officially expressed its “deepest regrets” and is now asking for an updated report on the conservation of the Hagia Sophia site in Istanbul, Turkey, adding another chapter to the embattled country’s ongoing feud with the UN’s cultural apparatus.

The body held its annual meeting Friday to discuss the status of and possible threats to an artificially long list of World Heritage Sites that has backlogged thanks to COVID-related delays of UNESCO’s 44th conference.

The group has sparred with Turkey over the temple-turned-museum that was recently converted into a mosque despite significant backlash on the part of UNESCO and other international organizations.

UNESCO said it has “grave concern” over changes to the character of the Hagia Sophia and another site called the Chora Monastery, and is now formally requesting a report from the Turkish government due no later than February 1st.

Previously on Archinect: Hagia Sophia: mosque conversion confirmed by presidential ...

Hagia Sophia: mosque conversion confirmed by presidential decree

2020-07-10T18:15:00-04:00

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree Friday ordering Hagia Sophia to be opened for Muslim prayers, an action likely to provoke international furor around a World Heritage Site cherished by Christians and Muslims alike for its religious significance, stunning structure and as a symbol of conquest.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan followed through on his plan today to convert Istanbul's famed Hagia Sophia, a Unesco world heritage site, into a mosque. The presidential decree was issued within minutes after Turkey’s administrative court revoked the museum status that the sixth-century structure had been assigned by Turkey's first President, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in 1934 — itself a conversion from its previous designation as a mosque since the 15th century.

Photo: Filip Filipović

"Entry to the monument would be free of charge, foregoing the ticket price from several million visitors a year, and the first prayers inside Hagia Sophia will take place on July 24," reports The New York Times.

Erdoğan's intention had drawn international criticism in recent months and is likely to prompt reactions from Western heads of state.

Turkey's plan to convert Hagia Sophia museum into mosque draws international criticism

2020-07-07T15:01:00-04:00

The Greek government says that Turkey will violate Unesco’s conservation rules if President Recep Tayyip Erdogan moves ahead with plans to turn the historic Hagia Sophia site in Istanbul—currently a museum—into a mosque.

After plans by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to turn Istanbul's most iconic historic site from a museum into a mosque caused international condemnation last year, Unesco has now been invited by the Greek government to weigh in on the proposed conversion, reports The Art Newspaper.

Interior of the Hagia Sophia in 2009. Photo: Wikimedia Commons user Tranxen.

Built in the sixth century as a Christian cathedral, the Hagia Sophia was once converted into a mosque when the Ottomans conquered Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul) in the 15th century but declared a museum by the first President of the then new secular Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, in 1935. The site gained Unesco world heritage status in 1985.

Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman mosques

2017-07-09T20:02:00-04:00

Erdogan is ordering the construction of mosques much as Suleiman the Magnificent once gave orders to Mimar Sinan. But as Bozdogan points out, there were many styles of mosques throughout the Ottoman Empire; in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries...Erdogan, however, sees such 18th- and 19th-century mosques as a contamination, not purely Turkish like the mosques of the 16th century.

Suzy H. Hansen visits Turkey, where Erdogan’s AK Party and TOKI (the national housing commission) have overseen a boom in construction and urban re/development. Including of houses of worship designed to reference a "golden age" of Turkish identity, while also furthering the Islamicization of the country and providing an ongoing economic engine.

Turkey to build a museum dedicated to the "martyrs and warriors" of the failed 2016 coup

2017-04-21T17:10:00-04:00

Back in July 2016, a coup was attempted against the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey. It was violently quashed, and the effects are still being felt. Since then, the country has been under a constnat state of emergency. Nearly 100,000 have been detained, around 50,000 arrested, and more than 130,000 state employees—workers, academics, and teachers—have been fired. In particular, Kurdish groups have been targeted in the purge.

Now, the Turkish government plans to commemorate the failed coup with a museum—the Museum of the 15 July: Martyrs and Democracy. It will be built on a site about 40 minutes north of Ankara and is planned to be completed by late 2018. Roughly 36,600 square feet, the museum will cost 10 million Turkish lira (about $2.71M) to build. According to the government, temporary and permanent exhibitions will commemorate the “martyrs and warriors” of the failed uprising.

h/t Hyperallergic

As conflict wages in Syria, Turkey's Erdogan eyes future real-estate prospects

2016-10-13T12:39:00-04:00

Turkey’s president looks at northern Syria and sees what others don’t: a massive real estate project. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose army is attempting to clear 5,000 square kilometers in northern Syria of Islamic State, talks about building entire cities when his soldiers’ work is done. In regular addresses, he describes a future in which refugees return home to Turkish-built apartment blocks supplemented by Turkish-built schools and social facilities.

That may be the only way to get some of the nearly 3 million Syrians in Turkey to return home and begin reconstructing their country, he says.

For more on the Syrian conflict, check out past coverage:

Envisioned as tallest tower in Turkey, Ankara's partially-built Republic Tower is now heading for demolition

2015-04-16T13:23:00-04:00

Started in 2003 by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and intended to be Turkey’s tallest tower, the partially-constructed Republic Tower in Ankara’s Keçiören district will now be demolished after the Ankara Municipal Assembly rejected its zoning plan. [...] First started in 2003 and stalled since 2008, the 144-meter tall tower which has already cost TRY 27 million (USD 10 million) will now be demolished.

Erdogan's Palace - Turkey's new presidential palace

2014-11-03T17:56:00-05:00

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unveiled a new presidential palace on the outskirts of Ankara. The immense project has been built at a reported cost of $350m. The building has been denounced by ecologists as an environmental blight and by the opposition as evidence of Erdogan’s autocratic tendencies. Supporters say the palace is a symbol of what the president touts as his drive towards a ‘new Turkey’

The question is that Turkey having few (1, 2, 3) historically significant presidential residences, why would anybody tore down forest areas and historically significant farm to build this make do palace? Showcase of power? Well maybe they can put up visiting American diplomats within reach.