The historical richness of Istanbul, which is maintained by students from different departments of the Faculty of Fine Arts, in many different areas such as the unique cultural, artistic, and architectural heritage of the city of Istanbul a new research series titled “Buildings Distorting the Silhouette of Istanbul” was created within the scope of the İstanbul For Us Project, which aims to research, learn, and interpret and transfer it correctly by young people.
Project Coordinator and Department of Interior Architecture asst. Prof. Dr.Pelin Aykut's "Istanbul For Us" project, is defined as "the project of explaining, making sense and keeping alive Istanbul, which has different meanings for each of us as the city where we were born/live/study", continues its research.
Seray Nisa Yavuz, a 3rd-year student at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Interior Architecture, who is on the project team and responsible for the social media of the project, stated that many students from different departments of the Faculty of Fine Arts, even graduates, take part in the project team and they continue their research as a team:
“In our opinion, as the Istanbul team, we consist of 10 people, including our teacher Pelin Aykut. Erkut Özer (Interior Architecture), Ceylan Tekin (Graphic Design), and İrem Keskin (Radio, Television, and Cinema) are our graduates.”
Other names in the team are as follows:
Ahmet Taha Demirci, Interior Architecture, 3rd year
Rümeysa Hilal Tonbul, Interior Architecture, and Environmental Design, 3rd year
Melike Söalp, Communication Design, 2nd year
Icon Irmak Arbaç, Communication, and Design, 2nd Class
Berk Öncü, Graphic Design, 4th grade
Seray Nisa Yavuz, Interior Architecture, 3rd Class
Before starting the “Buildings Distorting the Silhouette of Istanbul Series”, we asked the project team what “İstanbul For Us” means. Wordcloud, which consists of the answers, is as follows!
“Even though we tend towards series on different subjects according to our fields of expertise, we all produce together”
Within the framework of the theme of "Istanbul For Us", the products of research titled "Buildings Distorting the Silhouette of Istanbul" were published in the project's social media accounts in the past weeks, in the project, which produced various series under different titles based on the accumulation of Istanbul in the historical development process.
“Buildings Distorting the Silhouette of Istanbul” is just one of the series that the project team continues to work on. Students from different departments of the Faculty of Fine Arts work together in different series of research carried out within the framework of Istanbul's architectural, cultural, and artistic heritage. Team member Seray Nisa Yavuz, who said that they determined to consider Istanbul in every field as their main goal, stated that the team consisted of students from every department of the Faculty of Fine Arts:
“There is a distinction in our team based on the topics, the department we study, and our areas of expertise. The interior architecture team looks at Istanbul more in terms of architecture, art, and history. We have many painters and architects series and we continue production. Our friend in the Cinema and Television department produces content for us in the field of gastronomy, food, and beverage, as well as video editing. In short, in our team, the creator of the content is interested in its content, and other friends can support it depending on the subject.”
Communication Design 2nd-year student Simge Irmak Arbaç also touches on the diversity in the team and the issue of co-production:
“Something distributions are divided according to desire and information, so nobody has to make a series they don't want. While producing the series, everyone chooses their idea. The idea is discussed, discussed, and adapted. The exchange of information on this issue is very important for all of us.”
We see that all the buildings we examined in the “Series of Buildings Distorting the Silhouette of Istanbul” are Multi-Storey Buildings and are Incompatible with their Surroundings”
We learned that Berk Öncü, a 4th-year student of the Graphic Design Department, played an active role in the "Buildings Distorting the Silhouette of Istanbul" series, which spanned a long period. Berk lists the structures examined within the scope of the series as follows:
1-) ZEYTINBURNU 16/9 TOWERS BEHIND SULTANAHMET MOSQUE
2) SMALL ÇAMLICA TELEVISION TOWER
3-) VERTICAL ARCHITECTURAL BUILDINGS BEHIND THE MASTER'S TOWER
4-) SISLI SUZER PLAZA
5-) GOZTEPE FOUR WINDS TOWERS
6-) KADIKOY MUHÜRDAR CORNER HOTEL
7-) SARIYER DIAMOND OF ISTANBUL
8-) SAPPHIRE SHOPPING CENTER
9-) AKASYA SHOPPING CENTER
This series was created from the photographs of the buildings that were found to distort the silhouette of Istanbul and by our student Berk Öncü's digital editing by deleting the buildings that distorted the silhouette in the photographs in question. In this series, which carries great effort with both the building detection process and the editing of the photographs, we can see how Istanbul has expanded in the urban sense in the historical process.
In the study, our student Berk Öncü expressed that he is very happy to have revealed how Istanbul would look if it were a city that expands horizontally, even with photographs:
“During my work on this series, I got to know the historical buildings and districts in Istanbul with its rapid expansion. In light of this knowledge and experience, we prepared the "Buildings Distorting the Silhouette of Istanbul" series.
The common features of all the buildings we examined in the Series of Buildings Distorting the Silhouette of Istanbul are that they are multi-story buildings that are incompatible with their surroundings. At the stage of preparing the series, I am very happy and proud to have kept the horizontal architectural style of the historical buildings and districts that make Istanbul Istanbul alive.”
Project Coordinator Department of Interior Architecture Dr. Instructor Member Pelin Aykut once again drew attention to the importance of the research carried out by the Bizce Istanbul Team for the people of Istanbul and how meaningful it is for such projects to be carried out by young people who know the value of Istanbul and show it the respect it deserves:
“Istanbul is a unique world city that has hosted many civilizations, a cultural heritage capital. I think that the existence of this heritage should be remembered in every touch made to this city.
This city needs those who give it the value and respect it deserves, like the young people who make up the Istanbul team. All the content they have produced for Istanbul in this project, their sensitivity to this city, art, culture, and architecture is promising for the future. I am proud of them.”
It is planned to continue the series with new research and analysis of structures. In our opinion, you can follow the Istanbul Project Team's other research and results from the project's Youtube channel and Instagram page.
