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Taksim Square Beyoğlu to the Bosphorus Beyoğlu’ndan Boğaz’a

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The Market Plaza Walk

VISION

The Great Taksim Gezi Park - a park for the new generation, is to be a place of gathering for all, old, young, new age and future generations we do not yet know. It is a place of celebration and contemplation, a place of small intimate romances and grand gatherings of family and friends. It is a place of remembrance and creating new memories.

It is a ‘working’ public realm where each and every place is special and purposeful. It is a place of movement – through and within. A place where connections and transfers are made bringing all of Istanbul together.

The Great Taksim Park breathes new life into the heart of a bustling metropolis, and connects a mosaic of characteristic smaller quarters that make up Beyoglu to the Bosphorus. Our plan for Taksim square and the park, connects the historic Republic Monument/statue of Atatürk to a new overlook over the Bosphorus as a gesture to the continued optimism that the future holds for all Turks.

APPROACH We are an IDEAS

driven team. That said, our ideas are informed and tested by a thorough grounding in the specific place, the aspirations of the community a methodical analysis of the site and its opportunities and constraints, and the socio-cultural symbolism it evokes. We are process-driven in achieving consensus at every stage in the evolution of the design, affirming the goals & objectives and clearly establishing a set of design principles which will guide the ranking of design alternatives.

Foundational to our approach is to create a resilient (sustainable) design that has longterm legacy value for the community.

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Green Heart of the City

THE BIGGER PICTURE

The opportunity we have identified for Beyoglu and Taksim Square is much greater than just a redesign of the public realm and the immediate surroundings, but rather to herald a new era for the City as a whole. Our proposal is to compliment the new park with a beacon on the hill, a symbol of hope for all future generations. The beacon is to be visible from afar, and afford views of the surrounding geography, the Bosphorus, old and new city and to anchor a renewed commitment to learning and the historic Atatürk Library.

IDEATION We have conceived of

the Taksim Square and the Park as a great urban forest with many special “rooms”, that first and foremost serves many adjacent local neighborhood needs, and by extension the city and nation at-large. It completes/heals the edges of a raged urban fabric that has suffered generations of piecemeal change and often heavy-handed transit interventions.

Our initial IDEATION for the site establishes many ‘special places’ to be vetted as the process begins

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People’s Plaza

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Park Connection

01 Peoples Plaza_

this is Istanbul and the Nation’s iconic great out-door room for formal staged performances, large gatherings and small, and impromptu moments of delight.

Within the Plaza are the following elements;

Republic Monument & Trolley Circle_ to be celebrated with new landscape and placed center-stage, with the historic trolley reconnected and integrated into the larger transit system by visually connecting it and providing a direct path to the new Transit Hub.

02

Dancing Fountains and Reflecting Pools_ inspired by the turquoise Pamukkale thermal pools the new animated fountains and reflecting pools can be easily drained to increase the gathering space of the plaza or create a unique setting for an Urban Performance Stage.

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The many networks of Instanbul — those below ground and above; physical, social and otherwise ephemeral — all come together at Taksim Square.

04

Transit Hall_ the new Transit Hall is a centralized point of access to what is today a disjunct and often confusing belowgrade intermodal experience, linking the historic trolley, the funicular, and the subway and transit tunnel(buses) as a seamless experience. The proposed iconic multilevel rotunda brings light and air into the bustling hub of activity, and provides a direct pedestrian connection to the upper-level park.

03

Opera Café_ A grand new café and restaurant space is tucked beneath an overhang that expands the park toward the People’s Plaza, and provides needed “eyes on the street” and every day celebratory activity to the plaza.

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05

Market Hall & West Market Plaza_ The great linear Market Hall, inspired by the carved hills of Cappadocia, opens to the west and is sky-lit by iconic vetrines and chandeliers. It expands the upper park and completes the urban edge of the adjacent neighborhood. New grand stair entries to the elevated park from the new West Market Plaza provide visual beacons at the end of neighborhood streets.

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Activated Edge by The Markets

Gezi Park_ elevated

slightly from the Opera Plaza, the expression of the forest intensifies with following rooms carved beneath its canopy.

06

Amphitheater Terraces_ the plaza and upper-park are connected by gracious terraces that serve as amphitheater seating for a great performance in the plaza, or as shaded picnic terraces every day.

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The Great Lawn

Lush Canopies Define a Multitude of Urban Spaces

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Great Lawn_ Surrounded by a forested edge the Great Lawn is a sublime respite from the hustle and bustle around you. Ringed by blossoming tulips and Judas and Cherry trees in the spring, and a forest of existing mature trees highlighted with Yellow Ginko trees in the Autumn, it is a seasonal spectacle.

Forest Amphitheater_ Nested into the restored and expanded ‘forest’ of mature trees in the park is a new performance amphitheater that provides a very different offering for theatrical and musical performances.

08

Historic Fountain _ the historic fountain at the heart of the park is to be given new life in a more pastoral setting.

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Part of a Vast Green Network

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Library Terraces_ The historic AtatĂźrk Library is fully integrated into the new park system with expanded reading rooms, research facilities and a mini-conference center that can be shared with the Istanbul Technical University and community at-large.

10

Overlook_ By expanding and connecting the park to the AtatĂźrk Library with an elevated promenade we have afforded a new one-of-a-kind opportunity to view the Bosphorus and the Asian continent beyond from an Overlook that protrudes from the hilltop.

12

Tower Beacon _ Rising from the Library Terraces and Overlook is a new national monument, a light beacon that will be visible from afar and provide delight for visitors who take the ride to the top to see Taksim Square from above, the city beyond, and observe the shipping activity in the Bosphorus that is the lifeblood of the region.

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RESILIENCY (Sustainability) The foundation of a truly Resilient (Sustainable) design for Taksim should include the following;

• Design a ‘people-first’ public realm that is universally accessible.

• Establish a baseline to fauna & flora habitat creation that is locally informed.

• Maximize the reduction of the urban “heat island” effect.

• Make transit ‘well-behaved’ and establish efficient intermodal connections.

• Be fiscally sound and provide ‘addedvalue’ by weighing the cost-benefit of the design alternatives.

• Preserve and renew the social & cultural vitality of the community.

• Utilize locally sourced materials and artisans to create lasting legacy value.

The new design for Taksim Square and Gezi Park should herald a new era that addresses our global concerns about environmental degradation and unsustainable urban policies.

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The View from the Beacon Tower

Client İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi Lead Design Firm Architecture and Urban Design (International)

Social / Cultural Anthropologist (Local)

Cost Estimating (Local)

Landscape (Local Firm) Signage / Graphics (Local Firm)

Lighting (Local Firm)

Transit / Mobility (Local Firm) Structural Engineering (Local Firm)

Stage 2 Team_ this organization chart

represents the team that will be put together by the Lead Design firm upon initation of Stage 2. It features the necessary consultants for the second stage of the competition, and shows our commitment to working closely with local firms.