Megaron (Jan 2009)
Global Flows, Istanbul and the Global Architecture in Istanbul
Abstract
Istanbul is a city clearly exposing the transformative effectsof the flows of people, commodities, money and information.Throughout this process, the urban and architectural contextof Istanbul has been changed and reproduced. Especially startingfrom 2000, since the flow of information and capital hasaccelerated globally and Istanbul is situated on the main routeof that flow, significant changes have emerged in the physical,social and economic patterns of Istanbul. In this context,there have been primarily two means of change in the physicalpattern of Istanbul. On the one hand, new functional areasthat absorb the demand of global capital have emerged, whileon the other, a new architectural language has appeared interms of material and form. This paper aims to understand thegeneral spatial characteristics of global cities under the saidcontinuous flows. It focuses on the recently changed urbanpattern and architectural language of Istanbul by providingthe viewpoints of innovative architectural offices that closelyfollow the improvements in the world regarding global architecturallanguage and computer-generated digital forms.
