45_B8LDWZP2 by konkuristanbul

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Taksim - Gezi Public Islands

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Taksim Square Taksim is a great urban void in search of a form. This void has the sheer size, the multiplicity and the perfect location to be a „place for everything and everyone”, yet in its current form it somehow dissolves into the functional systems and spaces of urbanization. On Taksim everything happens and could happen performed by possibly everyone – the gigantic multitude of Istanbul – but it struggles to become a clearly defined, legible place. The problem of Taksim is not really that of organisation or accesibility, but rather the problem of interface, the relationship between the void and the built matter of the city, the problem of the difficult whole of figure and ground, the problem of limits and frames, of scale and legibility. Our proposal aims to define a posibble process of transforming the spaces of this multifaceted void into generous, legible places, and to offer a set of architectural forms and structures as the tools of this transformation. Instead of the hopeless and superficial project of imposing some kind of preprocessed „identity” onto Taksim square and Gezi Park, our modest aim is to accentuate the already existing potentials, to clarify and slightly modify the realtionships between the constituent parts (squares, promenades, parks, mounds, slopes, monuments, infrastructures) of the void, and to give a more „readable” defintion to these elements. Our method is less about an authorial „design” of a new, ideal Taksim, than about the selection of a wide range of familiar, abstract figures and their careful placement into the existing overall structure of the whole area. These figures are concieved as „islands” in the sweeping paved and green surfaces of the area. These islands are concentrated spots of buit or green matter, which serve as small centralities and frames of orientation, activities, and different atmospheres within the void. They are in multiple scales, benches, tables, platforms, stairs, walls, roofs, pergolas, green oases, gardens, sport fields -the basic tools for the use, thus the constant re-interpretation and production of urban space. We imagine them as distinct elements, clear-cut architectural episodes that can be used and connected in multiple ways without referring back to a unified and homogenised design-narrative. Their insular form would provide the community with the possibility of transforming the area in a considered, incremental fashion, extended in time. One or a group of islands could be constructed without disrupting the life of the metropolitan field, and the lessons learnt from

the already built ones can contribute to the refinement of the next ones. These islands would serve as the missing spatial interfaces by phisically marking and delineating the limits of the void, by making space measurable and readable as an architectural project. We are convinced that such an open ended project would still need a large, initial gesture of foundation, an act that immediately communicates the ambition of the city to reinvent its public spaces, and transforms the spatial experience of Taksim square and Gezi Park into a coherent and easily identifiable new unity. This act would be the construction of a large circular form, a colonnade supporting an elevated walkway hovering above Taksim square and cutting into the green matter of Gezi Park. This large circle sits precisely at the area where all the different types of urban spaces meet and intertwine – the main square and the park, the promenade that makes them accesible and borders them from the Cumhuriyet avenue, the smaller squares and „residual”, transitional spaces that are leading and fading into the neihbouring streets. This large form makes space without phisically enclosing or blocking it; the circle defines both the central portion of Taksim square and the terrace in Gezi overlooking it as a large surface freed from any pre-defined program. These two parts are connected by a substantial extension and slight replacement of the existing marble staircase, turning the slope into a theatrical landscape of steps and platforms. The circle protects and marks the square as pure potentiality, an empty container of metropolitan events from the mundane to the political. Its shaded gallery and open walkway horizontally connects the different parts of the area along one circular trajectory, while vertically its two towers and points of conatct with the geography are providing connections between its levels and the dense system of underpasses, and newly built service stations. Its undeniable monumentality is absorbed by the irregular landscape and multiplicity of the void as it never appears in its totality, and the park reduces it from colonnade into a slightly elevated deck The circle as the central figure gives visual and organisational clarity and as a large ruler, a sense of scale and measure to the void. Its form seems arbitrary, but precisely that artificial and highly formal quality should mark in time and space the act of refoundation for the Taksim area, and also the transhistorical project of society to mark and transform places expressing the desires of the collective.

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Section 1:1000

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Aerial view 1:2000

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SPATIAL STRATEGY - TAKSIM AS SPATIAL CALEIDOSCOPE

“ISLANDS”

Our strategy was the identification of a trajectory added up by the main elemets of the design area. The promenade bordering the park, Taksim square, Gezi park itself and the in between, transitional edges of the void are treated as distinct elements, with simple, slightly differentiated surfaces. These large areas melt into each other with a gradient effect, this merger is mediated and made manifest by - and mostly inside - the circular colonnade. The latter also served as the main spatial and functional ordering object, separating and protecting the central “freespace” of the Taksim-Gezi complex.

The other main layer is the “archipelago” system of the islands, placed strategically according to grid patterns defined by the form and orientation of the different city parts meeting around the void. The islands can be assigned to certain functions (leisure spots, markets, open-air exhibition places, waterplays, oases, meeting spaces, etc.) but they should be understood more like abstract but familiar urban forms, offering themselves up for further functional defintion, or multiple uses changing in time due to the needs of the collective and changing circumstances. Observing the functional mix around the design area, we are convinced that there is no need for additional large scale indoor spaces, but a better coordination of the cultural institutions in the vicinity with a more generous system of public spaces. However the structures depicted at this point as semiopen structures (the triangular market - gathering space, the cross-formed gate structure by Cumhuriyet; certain segments of the circle, platform in Gezi) could all be partially or fully enclosed, developed as felxible objects ready to host interior programs if needed.

TRANSPORT

“GREEN MATTER”

The proposal restrict car traffic around the edges of Taksim square to destination and emergency traffic where possible to create a more accesible and pedestrian friendly approach to the void. All the bus stops and taxi stations are also clustered by these edges. The historical tram line would be extended and diverted, served by a main new tram station protected by the southern extremity of the circular colonnade. The whole system of public spaces would be made more easily navigable by new ramps and elevators connecting all levels. New circulation cores with elevators reaching the elevated pathway and the underpass system would be concentrated in the “towers” of the circle. A new major entrance to the underground would be developed at the contact point of the circle and the landscape of the Gezi mound. At these contact points new public washrooms would be made available for the general public too.

The proposal makes it possible to keep all the existing vegetation intact, and to substantially enlarge the bulk of green matter in the area. It would be achieved by the system of dense green islands around the egdes of taksim square, and the intensification and diversitication of the horticulture in Gezi park. The latter includes the construction of a community garden for urban agriculture and experimentation in the northern corner of the park. Its main aim is to represent the general odea of introducing elements of active, collective care. balancing the “passive” aspects of professionally landscaped public parks.

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Organisation chart and planned team composition fot Stage 2

I.ARCHITECTURE TEAM

III. LANDSCAPE DESIGN TEAM

1. Chief Architect: legal „author„ of the project, responsible for the organisation and supervision of all design work, including architectural design and contributions from other professions 2. Project Architect I : responsible for the execution of the general architectural and urbanistic concepts of the project, supervising the work of other group architects developing the contutuent parts of the general concept and further details 3. Project Architect II: responsible for coordination with the contributing professions, synchronizing the general concept with the urban, landscape, sustainability, accesibility and technical concepts Note: one of the project architects should be a practitioner from or with good knowledge of the local general and professional context as a collaborator 4. Junior Architects: responsible for design development of constituent parts of the general concept, design and general documentation Note: the exact number of junior architects should be decided at the beggining of developement for stage two considering the exact requirements and overview of resources needed for the entire project 5. Visualisation and model making specialist: responsible for developing a representational strategy (visual and physical) that makes the project legible for the general public

1. Landscape Designer: responsible for the „green matter” of the general concept, developing systems for ecological sustainability and participatory maintenance of green spaces 2. Garden Engineer: responsible for all vegetation schemes in the design area and sustainable systems of horticulture

II. URBAN PLANNING TEAM

IV.CIVIL ENGINEERING TEAM

1. Chief Urban Designer: responsible for the overall urban strategy of the project, supervision of urban planning developement and coordination with social, legal and economic aspects of the general concept 2. Traffic Engineer: responsible for all aspects of pedestrian, public, alternative and motorised circulation in the impact area of the concept 3. Expert for participatory urban planning: responsible for social sustainability and coordinating the general concept with the needs of the multiple – civil, institutional, entreprenurial – stakeholders in the design area 4. Curator responsible for cultural programming schemes and negotiation for public art strategy

1. Chief Civil Engineer: responsible for the general revision of all technical systems and artefacts and the coordination of a sustainable technical and infrastructural system with the general concept 2. Lighting planner: responsible for general lighting patterns and a flexible electric system supporting all kinds of metropolitan events 3. Sustainability expert: responsible for the general ecological system of the area from urban agriculture to waste management 4. Security expert: responsible for multiple security aspects from crime to health issues – with an emphasis on soft and participatory strategies instead of excessive surveillance and policing.

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Circle

SPATIAL MEMORY The idea of spatial legibility and architecture as a collection of abstract devices and stage sets for an ever-changing public realm of representation is a central concern of our project. Taksim has dense layers of artefacts representing this history, but it lacks a generous framework that would make it easier to understand and connect these layers, and what would distill it into a memorable and central place in the vast, sprawling meteopolitan field of Istanbul. In the framework we propose most of the existing artefacts would remain in place, but the propsed architectural forms would reframe them to create well defined spaces from their now rather form- and scaleless contexts. We would propose to free up the Monument of the Republic from its beaux-arts roundabout, not out of historical disregard or hubris, but simply because historical photo-documentation shows how amazingly open it was as a point of signification, floating in the void without any distancing apparatus, ready for interaction with the events unfolding around it.

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Plan 1:1000

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Section 1:1000

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Islands

Archipelago of Public Islands in Instambul Istanbul Ortaköy Square - Taksim square - Kabataş - Şişhane Square - Üsküdar Square - Eminönü Mısır Çarşısı Beyazit Square - Sultanahmet Square - Marmaray Yenikapı İstasyonu - Kadikoy Square

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Islands, 1:1000

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Islands, axonometry

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1:1000 Model

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Masterplan 1:1000 1/ Circle Islands: 2/ Oasis 3/ Maksem 4/ Fountins 5/ Republic Monument 6/ Roof 7/ Water 8/ Surface 9/ Playgrounds 10/ Framework 11/ Community Gardens 12/ Platform 13/ Viewpoint 14/ Green islands 15/ Urban room

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