Istanbul – The Galata Bridge and the Golden Horn
Istanbul and Turkey are emerging as Western, Islamic, and secular societies. Strategically located at the intersection of Europe and Asia, and at the center of world trade routes over land and sea, Istanbul expresses historic and present-day cultural influences in its layering and form and embraces the diversity of its people, cultures, and civilizations.
The Golden Horn is Istanbul’s natural central harbor connecting with the Bosphorus River and the Sea of Marmara – where Europe and Asia intersect. It is a harbor of commerce, transportation, and urban life, surrounded by the soaring mosques, palaces, and Orthodox churches. At the water’s edge, along with the bazaars, commerce, mosques, and ferries, are the communities where ethnic groups and recent immigrants have settled.
The urban center of the Golden Horn is the Galata Bridge, which marks the entry to the Golden Horn and is the connecting link between the east and west peninsulas of the city. The Galata Bridge and its surrounding streets and squares are the focus of urban life for Istanbul’s inhabitants – within the expressive presence of the adjacent Hagia Sophia, Suleymaniye Mosque, New Mosque, and the Galata Tower.
The studio addresses the role of cultural influences and architecture in the evolution of the city and its form and urban design, and its central focus of the Galata Bridge that connects the city across the Golden Horn. The Galata Bridge is a place of urban life, a place of entertainment, fishing, bazaars, pedestrian passage, as well as a transportation link for trams, vehicles, and ferries. The studio will focus on the Golden Horn and the Galata Bridge as the symbolic architectural threshold for the city. Design of facilities for dwelling, culture, commerce, transportation, and recreation, and the environmental restoration of the harbor as Istanbul’s symbolic center are included in the focus of the studio.
The project phases include research and documentation of urban design with focus on the methodology of analysis for cities, urban design proposals of “urban modification” and related architectural design projects for the new formation of the city at the Galata Bridge. This studio will contribute to the understanding of a significant “world city” in an important geopolitical region, and of urban design in cities globally.
(Text above by Professor Weldon Pries. Introduction to class)