At the end of June this year myself and team of architects gathered in Woodbury University's WUHO space and worked on a competition project for ten continuous days producing the work for Istanbul Community Market Ideas Competition hosted by Ctrl+Space. We are pleased to share with Archinect readers what we have set out to do and accomplished at the end. 

The City Above 

The Ground Below:

Failures  and  success  stories  have  never been so disproportionate  and close to one another at any other time in Istanbul’s long past. Urban transformation projects have been negotiating the city violently and un- advantageously   from   the   perspective   of social equity and urban design issues.

The city above is hardly connected to urban history below. Below are the suffocated stories   needing   to   breathe,   to   connect and to be appreciated. Above is the abandonment   and   eventual   removal   by heavy machinery which demolishes, scoops and flattens everything in sight. Truckloads of Istanbul’s urban history are then forever disappeared—liquefied before any chance of being recounted. Whether they are everyday objects  or  insignificant  burials  is  not  the issue here. We, therefore, select soil itself as our building material. A Dirt Doppelganger builds the future metropolis with the literal material of its history. Through a process of excavation  and  reuse, the  proposal  offers a new way forward without excising the existing fabric of the city.

Can a solid volume with no apparent program be a space? If so, what does that tells us about the void? Can solid matter be urban space? What lies behind the walls, under the ground? Can the city above inform the city below? Can the ground above inform the city below? The future influencing the past? This is a course of architecture in Istanbul worth pursuing.

HONORABLE MENTION
"The City Below, The Ground Above" 
Team led by Orhan Ayyuce, Mitchell De Jarnett  and Joshua G. Stein from Los Angeles - CA, USA
Project Team: Erin Day, Hana Lemseffer, Kirill Volchinskiy, and Eda Yetim

FROM THE JURY:
"This project was commended by the Jury as providing an interesting and meaningful solution in light of the recent sociopolitical context of Istanbul. By the series of questions posed, the scope of the project has been extended and serious considerations – about the Site, the inherent archeological value, political and urban perspectives, the city’s past and future – have been made. The value in this proposal resides in the alternative outlook over the public space as well as integrating the historical aspect of the site in an innovative way."

Competition and winning projects: Ctrl+Space