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According to Duvar English, the Syrian government has announced that it will build a replica of Instanbul's Hagia Sophia after the Turkish government recently converted it into a mosque. Moscow will provide funding for the project "to show the importance of 'peaceful dialogue' between... View full entry
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. — The New York Times
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... View full entry
A recently inaugurated 1 million-square-meter hospital complex designed by Arup, Perkins and Will, and Yazgan Design Architecture for Rönesans Holding and Sojitz Corporation in Istanbul, Turkey is a feat of engineering and design coordination. The building contains many interior... View full entry
IND [Inter.National.Design] in collaboration with Powerhouse Company have commenced construction on its Çanakkale Antenna Tower based in Çanakkale, Turkey. The structure will function as a broadcast network post as well as a public observation center. Formulated as a cultural... View full entry
The Odunpazarı Modern Museum, designed with a synthesis of traditional Ottoman and Japanese architecture, opened on Sept. 7. [...]
The museum, founded by construction firm Polimeks chairman and collector Erol Tabanca, was designed by the famous Japanese architectural firm Kengo Kuma and Associates.
— Hürriyet Daily News
First mentioned on Archinect in March, the new private art museum by Turkish construction magnate and collector Erol Tabanca has now officially opened inside a delicate stacked-timber ensemble designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates. Photo: NAARO "The architectural design of the building also draws... View full entry
The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) has named architect Mariana Pestana as the curator of the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial. The biennial is slated to take place between September 26 and November 8, 2020. Pestana, who is based in Porto and London, is a founder... View full entry
This post is brought to you by Flexform Rising in the high-end neighborhood of Istinye, one of the most fascinating and historic areas of this major Turkish metropolis, the Nidapark Istinye residential complex occupies a prime location, with magnificent views of the sea. This ultra-luxurious... View full entry
The Odunpazari Modern Museum (OMM), a major new institution designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates, will open in the vibrant but ancient university city of Eskişehir in Turkey in June, The Art Newspaper has learned. With stylistic echoes of Kuma’s V&A Dundee, the museum’s stacked timber design reflects surrounding wooden houses from the Ottoman era, and is named after its historic “wood market” district—Odunpazari. — The Art Newspaper
Image courtesy of Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM)."The museum will house and show Turkish and international Modern and contemporary works from the 1,000 piece collection of Erol Tabanca, the architect and partner in Polimeks Holding, a leading Turkish construction firm," writes The Art Newspaper. View full entry
Turkish based architecture studio Melike Altinisik Architects (MAA) wins the first ever international design competition hosted by The Seoul Metropolitan Government. The first competition of its kind, applicants were asked to submit a design idea to pioneer the world's first robot science museum... View full entry
Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage -- hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle. Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairytale for their investors. — Daily Mail
A city of castles has sprung up in Northwestern Turkey. Burj Al Babas, the 732-home and shopping center development built by the Sarot Group, cost a whopping $205 million and may not be inhabited in the foreseeable future. In recent years, the country's high inflation and currency crisis have... View full entry
Set to kick off on September 22nd, the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial will bring the city’s multi-layered cultural heritage and dynamic ecosystem of creativity to life. Named a ‘Design City’ by UNESCO last year, the Second Rome provides the perfect backdrop to host the biennial, which has... View full entry
At around 12,000 years old, Göbekli Tepe in south-east Turkey has been billed as the world’s oldest temple. It is many millennia older than Stonehenge or Egypt’s great pyramids, built in the pre-pottery Neolithic period before writing or the wheel. But should Göbekli Tepe, which became a Unesco World Heritage Site in July, also be regarded as the world’s oldest piece of architecture? — The Art Newspaper
T-shaped limestone pillars. Image: Wikipedia.Archaeological research of the ancient Göbekli Tepe ruin site in present-day Turkey suggests that the impressive monolithic structures, believed to date back to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic era (10th–8th millennium BCE), might in fact be the first... View full entry
This post is brought to you by AA Istanbul Visiting School. AA ISTANBUL VISITING SCHOOL – ROBOTIC MEDIATIONS Monday June 25 – Friday 6 July 6, 2018 AA Istanbul Visiting School, in collaboration with Istanbul Bilgi University, is a unique learning and making experience. The program continues... View full entry
This post is brought to you by AA Istanbul Visiting School. AA ISTANBUL VISITING SCHOOL – ROBOTIC MEDIATIONS Monday June 25 – Friday 6 July 6, 2018 AA Istanbul Visiting School, in collaboration with Istanbul Bilgi University, is a unique learning and making experience. The program continues... View full entry
Much of the magnificent 3,000-year-old temple of Ain Dara, with its mysterious and massive footprints and a structure that provides clues for understanding the biblical temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, has been destroyed in a Turkish airstrike. [...]
Photos and video from the Syrian Observatory and Hawar News confirm that more than half of the temple is gone, including many of the sculptures that ringed the site.
— National Geographic
"The temple, one of the largest and most extensively ancient excavated structures in Syria," National Geographic reports, "is famous for its intricate stone sculptures of lions and sphinxes, and for its similarities to Solomon’s Temple—the first Jewish temple in Jerusalem, said to have held... View full entry