"Foster & Partners' bid for global domination in architecture has gathered pace with the opening of a new office in Turkey." Building Design.
The Istanbul office, which will be led by associate partner Peter Ridley, becomes the practice's local base for existing and future projects in eastern Europe and Eurasia.

The development follows the practice's successful completion of the Palace of Peace & Reconciliation in Kazakhstan; a scheme it worked on with Istanbul-based architect Tabanlioglu and Turkish contractor Sembol.

Foster's, which now has a network of 16 project offices around the globe as well as its London design base, is also working on concept designs for a 94,000sq m entertainment complex in the Kazakh capital Astana on behalf of the presidency.

The Istanbul office, which is located in Besiktas, the commercial district of the new city, will initially employ five staff.

Foster & Partners has allied itself with Tabanlioglu, Istanbul's dominant practice which recently designed a dramatic new shopping centre for the city and its first modern art gallery.

But the opening of the practice's own office could mark the beginning of a major move into Turkey by British firms.

Llewelyn Davies Yeang is working on detailed designs for a 1,000-unit residential development in Istanbul and a 2km-long "ecological corridor" at the European gateway to Istanbul (News April 14), and director Ken Cooke believes there are huge opportunities for British architects.

"The population growth in Istanbul has been staggering," he said. "It's a very upwardly mobile population and there is a shortage of good quality new homes in the city. The Turkish economy is able to sustain a high level of growth and we’ve been impressed with the speed at which decisions are taken."

Tabanlioglu's research and development director, Sena Altundag, said: "It's a very new thing for foreign architects to work here. However, we had the UIA conference in Istanbul last year and since then Ken Yeang and Zaha Hadid, who were the keynote speakers, have won work."

This summer Hadid won a masterplanning contract for a new waterfront zone on the Asian side of the city, while Atkins secured outline planning permission for a 54,000sq m, five-star hotel in the heart of the city.