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ISTANBUL PARA-DOXA / Conversations on the City and Architecture
Boğaçhan Dündaralp, Asli Kıyak İngin, Nilüfer Kozikoğlu
Editor: Pelin Derviş
Garanti Galeri 2010, İstanbul
ISBN 978-9944-731-21-8 |
This book was prepared as part of the London-Istanbul Exchange Programme conducted by The Architecture Foundation in 2009-2010 with the cooperation of Garanti Gallery and Arkitera Architecture Center, and was published with the support of the British Council.
From the editor’s introduction:
“Istanbul: A metropolis where millions of people live. Construction work in Istanbul never ends, and the horizon line is almost invisible now. Its boundaries keep growing, so much so that it is no longer a city but a region. The historical accumulation of thousands of years comes alive adorned with new faces, or dies, depending on single restorations, the attribution of new functions, demolition and rebuilding projects, as well as numerous urban interventions on varying scales. Even this limited view makes it possible to talk of the existence of a very strong architectural production potential in Istanbul… There are ten universities with architectural faculties. Most of the architectural publications (periodical and otherwise) are printed in Istanbul. What does it mean, one wonders, to exist in this architectural environment in terms of intellectual or physical production and contribution or simply as a witness? If three Istanbulian architects, all under 45, of different architectural practices and approaches started to talk, what issues would come up in this conversation where they brought in their personal experiences and discussed this metropolis and its architecture? How subjective or objective would those issues be? How would these relate to the discourses voiced in Istanbul? “istanbul para-doxa” does not aim to define a perfect architectural environment or to develop new discourses. “istanbul para-doxa” is the product of a discussion unfettered by such concerns, and its most meaningful aspect is that as such, it offers a cross-section of the present.”
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Mapping Istanbul
Edited by: Pelin Derviş, Meriç Öner
Map Designed by: Superpool
Garanti Galeri 2009, İstanbul
ISBN 978-9944-731-16-4 |
Mapping Istanbul
Garanti Gallery has shared its recent researches into the contemporary Istanbul with the publications Becoming Istanbul in 2008 and Tracing Istanbul [from the air] in September 2009. The most recent publication in the same scope, Mapping Istanbul presents Istanbul’s actual parameters through maps, comparative research and essays. The publication consists of original maps based on current data on issues including population, economic activity, education, land use, transportation, earthquakes, buildings, housing, health, social infrastructure, consumption, and energy, presented in line with essays and articles written by experts conducting research on these issues. The introduction includes a text by Charles Waldheim who coined the term “landscape urbanism” to define the re-emergence of landscape as a tool for contemporary urban structure. The urban planner and cartographer Murat Güvenç, whose work in the field of social geography has constructed the basis of Mapping Istanbul, focuses in his essays on the peculiar conditions that formed Istanbul’s built environment and the ways in which the city’s social geography can be deciphered through maps.
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Tracing Istanbul [from the air]
Photographs: Oğuz Meriç
Edited by: Meriç Öner
Garanti Galeri 2009, İstanbul
ISBN 978-9944-731-15-7 |
Tracing Istanbul [from the Air] presents a selection from thousands of aerial photographs of the city taken by Oğuz Meriç between1992 and 2009. In three separate lectures, Murat Güvenç, Deniz Aslan and Pelin Derviş also sought traces concealed within Istanbul’s built environment. By drawing attention to structures buried inside the immediately visible cityscape, each of their personal interpretations offered a critical analysis of Istanbul’s recent past and present dynamics. In this work, editor Meriç Öner merges photographs and lectures in a flowing dialogue to create a book, which invites the reader to follow Oğuz Meriç’s visual traces while it questions urban policies and implementations and attempts to decipher the social texture hidden behind the physical one.
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Becoming Istanbul
An Encyclopedia
Pelin Derviş, Bülent Tanju, Uğur Tanyeli
Garanti Galeri August 2008, İstanbul
ISBN 978-9944-731-06-5
Facts, Problematics, Metaphores |
"Becoming Istanbul" is a multi-authored bedside book which discusses the current changes that the city undergoes within 152 different items. These items focus on problematics which are discussion points in Istanbul today, many of them being subjects of anxiety. They can be summarized as standard opinions, explanation patterns and stereotype complaints, in general, discourses by those who observe the Istanbul of today and its process of becoming a metropolitan. Many of the items were chosen by the authors out of a long list prepared by the editors, and some of them were suggested by the authors themselves. Although the book has been organized alphabetically, it doesn’t have the comprehensive structure or the academic consistency of an encyclopedia, neither was it intended to do so. The only criteria given to the writers were the general points of approach mentioned above and the limitation of the text length. With the intention of expressing "becoming Istanbul" from as many angles as possible, the authors were chosen from a wide range of professions: architects, musicians, city planners, chefs, activists, sociologists, economists, film critics, authors, museum curators, geographers, journalists, anthropologists, historians...
This book is also available in German.
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GG 2007 - 2008
Garanti Galeri 2009, İstanbul
ISBN 978-9944-731-10-2 |
This book comprises the nine exhibitions realized by Garanti Galeri (GG) between 4 April 2007 and 16 November 2008: GG organized the retrospective exhibition Turgut Cansever: Architect and Thinker with the collaboration of the Ottoman Bank Museum and published a book with the same title... The street name and door number plaques of Istanbul, recently renewed in all aspects with an original design concept, were introduced to the public at the exhibition Deciphering Istanbul through the Plaque... Selections from the Graphic Imperative was a retrospective exhibition which reflected forty years of socio-political posters... Hackers and Haute Couture Hereticse dealt with how fashion could be altered and recycled. A six-week series of workshops was conducted at the gallery where new application methods were investigated and the system was hacked to study the ways in which it could be transformed... The Tarazi Design Studio: Per-Capita exhibition was a design installation asking the spactators / participants intriguing questions raised by the twentieth centry concerning the future...Fibrous Room; Evolving Structural Logic was one of the stages of a long-term project. As the aim of the exhibition was to display the process, the prototype build for this purpose evolved throughout the exhibition period... Fashion for Sustainability approached fashion as a positive force for change toward sustainability. The exhibition was structured around six key sustainability themes and an evolving program of gallery talks and workshops from international experts... Turbulent Topologies was and extension of the themes Marcos Novak dealt with in his article “Transmitting Architecture: The Transphysical City” (1995) and other articles and projects. After Istanbul, “Turbulent Topologies” was taken to Venice by GG where it was exhibited in Palazzetto Titto of the Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation during the Venice Biennale of Architecture... GG and the German Architecture Museum (DAM, Frankfurt-am-Main) collaborated in the organization of the exhibition Becoming Istanbul which was held at DAM. Together with the exhibition, a book was published with the participation of a large number of authors.
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Mimarlığın Aktörleri
Türkiye 1900-2000
Uğur Tanyeli
Garanti Galeri Istanbul, 2007
ISBN 978-9944-5518-4-7 |
The Actors of Architecture
Turkey 1900-2000
Although this book revolves entirely around architects and their biographies, it is not an encyclopedia of 20th century Turkish architure. It was not conceived as a work centered on the lives of architects nor does it aim to turn them into cult figures, or consecrate them into objects of worship. Consequently, the book does not claim to encompass only the leading exponents of 20th century Turkish architecture. In fact, some of the names considered may be unknown even by authorities in the field. Possibly for the first time, this publication uncovers something of interest to write about relatively unfamiliar architects. Conversely, the book fails to include certain more widely acclaimed figures. Since providing role models to new generation architects is not the goal, the author steers clear of any writing style that might result in the construction of a “pantheon of architects.” The goal here is not to classify the key players of the Turkish architectural scene. On the contrary, the book attempts to show that the world we live in is one where individuals are the primary units of society – be they architects or not. The reason for this is obvious: in a country like Turkey where personalities are traditionally subjected to the hierarchical classification of historical nomenclature, a book that addresses the individual should first challenge this tradition.
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GG 2006
Garanti Galeri 2007, İstanbul
ISBN 975-9944-5518-5-4 |
This book brings together the six exhibitions which were held at the Garanti Gallery between 21 March 2006 and 17 March 2007.
Some of these exhibitions were those of designers such as Yossi Lemel, Şulan Kolatan and Konstantin Grcic, who produce in different design disciplines. Yossi Lemel’s exhibition entitled Explosive Ideas, which was realized with the support of the Consulate General of Israel in Istanbul, comprised the artist’s political posters, including the Israel-Palestine conflict. Şulan Kolatan and William Mac Donald prepared a project for the Galata area based on new paradigms. This project -designed for GG- was exhibited under the title KOL/MAC: Project MUTEN Istanbul. Deutsches Architektur Museum (DAM) exhibited a selection of the work of photographer Julius Shulman shortly before his gigantic archive was turned over to the Getty Research Institute. This exhibition, A Lifetime for Architecture, was later shown in different countries and met with the audience in Istanbul at the GG. LocAware (Location Awareness) was an exhibition, which was realized by the architect. Alexis Şanal. Its subject was the relationship of information technologies with planning and design, and it was formed within the period of its duration. A selection of the products designed by industrial designer Konstantin Grcic in the last decade was shown at the exhibition KGID: High-Low. The exhibition entitled Le Havre: The City Rebuilt by Auguste Perret was curated by the architecture historian and critic, Joseph Abram. It was organized by the City of Le Havre and supported by UNESCO.
Since its establishment, GG has hosted 22 exhibitions, and parallel to these exhibitions, 12 conferences, 2 panels, 3 exhibition interpretations / presentations, 1 discussion, 2 workshops and 1 concert. The number of people who visited the GG was 166,800.
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Turgut Cansever
Düşünce Adamı ve Mimar
Ugur Tanyeli, Atilla Yücel
Ottoman Bank Archives and Research Centre and Garanti Galeri Istanbul, 2007
ISBN 978-9944-5518-3-0 |
Turgut Cansever
Thinker and Architect
Turgut Cansever has a rightful claim to being one of the most original and critical voices of Republican Era Turkey. He not only worked actively as an architect since the 1940s, but also produced ideas on how to shape the physical environment; most importantly, he built himself a career of cultural criticism based on architecture. He strove to read the constructed space, from the urban scale to the single building, in the context of the realities of Turkey's cultural makeover. From the processes of modernization and urbanization to Westernization, from public housing needs to technology, there is hardly a single topic he has not dwelt upon. Of critical importance is his attempt to understand transformation, modernization, and architecture by employing one of the cultural building blocs of Turkish society, i.e., Islamic sources of belief and thought. His approach is an invitation extended to contemporary Turkey, to think about architecture, and in general all cultural production, based not on a radical and traumatic "forgetting" but rather on a calm, cool-headed, and equanimous "remembering". The book, published on the occasition of the exhibition, consists of the considerations of Atilla Yücel and Ugur Tanyeli on Turgut Cansever, of interviews realized with Turgut Cansever at his home in Istanbul from October 1st, 2005 to December 30th, 2006 and of the biography and projects of the architect.
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GG 2005
Garanti Galeri 2006, İstanbul
ISBN 975-98125-7-6 |
Garanti Gallery (GG) continues to be the one and only design gallery in Turkey. The first nine exhibitions put on since its opening on 5 August 2003 have already been collected in book form. This second volume presents the seven exhibitions put on between 11 February 2005 and 11 March 2006.
These exhibitions showcased artists from different disciplines of design, such as Murat Germen, Arik Levy and Hüseyin Çağlayan. Made in Germany: Architecture and Ecology was an exibition brought to Istanbul with the cooperation of Goethe Institut Istanbul, and by depicting contemporary examples from Germany, it presented various interventions in life-spaces via ecological planning and construction. In The Actors of Architecture: Turkey 1900-2000, curated by Uğur Tanyeli, the hitherto unseen visual material from Tanyeli’s archives brought us the actors of the architectural scene, most of whose names have already been forgotten. Uğur Tanyeli’s book on the subject will be published in 2006. One of the most noteworthy and original exhibitions was Soundspace: Spatial Works in Contemporary Music, curated by Aykut Köksal, which dealt with the spatial music production in the post – 1950 era. The soundspace concert, one of the parallel activities, of the exhibition, was the first of its kind in Turkey. A DVD of the exhibition and the concert was also issued. In the last exhibition of 2005, made possible by the generosity of the German Architectural Museum, we had the opportunity to see the original drawings of Archigram, which constitutes one of the most important focal points of 20th century architectural action.
Since its opening, GG has organized 16 exhibitions, 8 conferences, 2 exhibition readings, 1 talk, 2 workshops and 1 concert. 118,000 people have visited GG.
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GG 2003 - 2004
Garanti Galeri 2005, İstanbul
ISBN 978-975-93692-9-3 |
Garanti Gallery (GG), the first ever design gallery in Turkey, was founded by Garanti Bank. On Agust 5, 2003, the first exhibition was opened at GG, which aims at building a bridge between the world and Turkey with a particular focus on architecture, urban design, graphics, industrial design, fashion and web design.
To date, GG has hosted the exhibitions of internationally acclaimed designers and architects such as Steven Holl, Bülent Erkmen, Hella Jongerius and Zaha Hadid, as well as the projects that argue design conceptually in various contexts. Since its opening, GG has hosted 9 exhibitions, 2 exhibition readings and 1 workshop and attracted 80,00 visitors.
GG, which cooperated with Architekturzentrum, Wien, Austria; Museum Für Gestaltung, Zurich, Switzerland; New York Pratt Institute, USA, represented Turkey in various international platforms on design. GG is the first and only member of the Conferance of the European Design Museums from Turkey.
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