+ecdochica

Abstract

René Char's aphorism 'They installed us heirs without a will' as a cause for reflection locates the inability of the man of the 21st century to perceive what the past of the place has left behind. In general, it demonstrates the failure of our instant culture to understand the meaning of urban heritage and the dismissal of a consciousness of the past. This consciousness and its identification within the space of ruins is a prevalent theme in architecture ever since renaissance, and today it’s becoming even more pressing especially in the light of cultural provision along the New Silk Road. In the case of Istanbul, and more specifically the port of Haydarpaşa, this space is under scrutiny since the system of values that governs it is shifting drastically. Among ancient ruins and neglected industrial heritage, the city fluctuates through a process of change, in a constant state of in-between, struggling to tolerate the unresolved borders of different social, cultural, and historical layers, all of which are interwoven within the same urban narrative. How can we use architecture as a medium to bridge the gaps between the different layers of cultural and historical importance that contrast and intersect within the urban fabric? How to enable a ruin space pivotal to Istanbul’s modern and ancient history in order to become part of the landscape of a new coastal development that has been closed off to the city for decades? The design proposal aims to the prospective revisiting of the ruin space as a field of interpretation, revision and reconstruction that is reflective instead of restorative towards the potential future. It suggests a place existing so above as below the current site that reflects the contradictory forces of its very creation, the underground archeology of antiquity and the overground industrial heritage. The design phase includes the activation of the programmatic potentials informed by the intermediate (in-between) spaces identified within the site and reflects the meeting of different eras that happens on the ground level, the ‘in between’ space of the investigation.