Ispartakule | Katarzyna Krol

The brief of the project called for a masterplan, followed by a further area development. The concept was born from the reading of the city of Istanbul itself. Realizing the existence of the city’s most evident characteristic: the contrast, it has led to the rereading of the Ispartakule site. The great contrast between the already existing Gecekondu settlements (informal settlements) and new Toki development (the new alternative for the informal settlements – low quality high-rises) was striking. The concept derived from inversing the positive with negative, playing with existing footprints and grids. The area development was focused around one multifunctional building, which consisted of a number of wings hosting different activities like offices, a shopping mall, a cinema, a bookshop and a strictly residential part with services on the ground floor. The design of the building was to portray its great complexity of forms, diversity of functions and users. The shape of the complex allowed an unobstructed flow of people on the ground level creating a vivid, stimulating and ever changing development.