Urban Architecture Communication Design

Urban Architecture Communication Design

During the first week we saw many different faces of Istanbul, we went for instance to a district Fatih which is islamic charaterised. Our turkish colleges Esra, Mustafa and Alper were also for the first time there althrough it is not far away from the most famous building (the sultanamet mosque, the varens aqueduct). Nearby, walking some minutes in direction of the bosporus we walked trough a kind of village area which was full of destroyed houses. After visting some other places/scenarios like the fishmarket in karaköy, the famous istiklal caddesi which is like the main atery of the modern istanbul, taksim and the most modern global part levent whith a high rate of offices and shopping malls, we had three subjects to work on further:

The visuel communication on buildings

The use of (public) space

The contrast in general



Supergraphics

„F**k advertising, the supergraphics are the rubbish of the city“
Sitki Kösemen (Architekt and Photograph)





Very often whole fassades are used for advertisement. The more you get in the north in districts like levent which is mostly influenced by western criterion the more you get confronted with huge pictures, supergraphics covering one side of buildings located at prominent public spaces and streets. They determine the look of this part of the city.
Tabanloglu talks about las vegas which is openminded for art projections on buildings and especially about changing fassades in general.




„I think at this time or in the future these buildings should be more flexible and the graphicdesign and photographie is coming together.[...]
There are also some street rules. So you can not make everything, you have to be careful that is not too much. You have to work with good graphic people.“
Tabanlioglu (Architect)

„You cannot have a second las vegas. Las vegas is unique.“
Arolat(Architect)







In the more local areas buildings/shops are planked with different typografic elements, in some cases most of the fassade is full of more than 20 different messages, lettertypes on top of each other. In this areas there is much more use of only basic coloured typographie than pictures.

The use of pictures was long time forbidden in turkey/istanbul due to the islamic culture. So in turkey and other islamic countries originate from this restraint the big culture of pattern design and typographie. The writings/patterns on mosques are in contrast with the supergraphics.


The use of public space

"So the people occupy a public space and it became a private space"
Tabanlioglu


In istanbul there is not much designed pubic space. But people make use of every little piece of public space no matter if it is designed or not. Especially the sidewalk are used by shop owners to sit together outside drinking tea and having a conversation. Also by people who are selling stuff whether passing with their carts to sell some food or sitting behind some towel with bad imitated trade mark clothes on it.
Most of their time the people stay outside. Many turkish people told us it is their culture to stay outside.

„What happened in the last year in turkey the people starting to come more inside [...] it is more privacy. This is important for them.“
Tabanlioglu (Architect)




Tabanlioglu talks in this context about a housing project. It is a concept a high rise building where each appartment has his own balcony It is build in levent. Levent has less local inhabitants who live in the new houses build there.

„[...]it is very different how architecture works here.
There are two things:
The periods for projects are really short and there are less people working on it. The people are very young. So you have to produce very quickly. Especially at the big housing projects, there are only 2 people designing it in two months. Here the architect has to work like this."
Architect at Hakan



Beside, there is due to the high traffic rate a kind of competition between cars and people.

„They(public spaces) mainly designed by architects of the gouvernment.[...]
They rather look from the traffic side. Where you can park the car... It is more seen from the automotive side and not from the people(on foot) who are using it.
The number of cars is so big and the area for traffic and to park so small. So everybody makes his own rule. There is no control.“
Arolat (Architect)



„One of the biggest forces of the city is the geographie. Because of the bosporus and the location..that is why people came here.[...] There is a very thin line between private and public. I think it is great. All the furniture is out. It is an amazing sort of energy.“




„There is a sort of organisation and structure. There is much of organic nature which is not quiet obvious how it works, but there is.“
GAD (Architect)


Contrast


Istanbul is full of contrasts. We saw it in the architecture and in the people. The difference between rich and poor/ old and new is very big and facing each other everywhere.




„There is no belong to build something for the low class because you not earn money.“
Hakan(Architect)

„It is not possible to stay in your borders these days. In these days of communication, in these days of internet, in these days of transport the material from one point to another.
So how can you stay in your borders? It is not possible.“

„The building itself is not a jewel. It is the part of the other buildings. You have to care about the context."

„If you look at all the buildings in istanbul maybe as far as i know 60% are non architects products."
Arolat