Birliği Yeniden Terkip Etmek. Turgut Cansever İstanbul’da

Architect and urban planner, but also a distinguished intellectual, Turgut Cansever was the most prominent student of Sedad Hakkı Eldem. This book is the result of a research experience carried out at the Doctoral School of the IUAV University of Venice (curriculum in Architectural Composition), between Venice, Istanbul and Florence. After establishing some much-needed context, the architect’s work is first investigated in continuity with the teaching of Sedad Eldem, and subsequently analysed according to the main theories concerning the development of the Turkish-Ottoman city and architecture, in particular, Istanbul. The leitmotif of this journey is the urban value of architectural design, which over time has resolved the dichotomies between the pre-existing and the contemporary. Although they were built in different periods, the architectures of Mimar Sinan, Sedad Eldem and Turgut Cansever are expressions of a form of modernity, which stemmed and developed from the reinterpretation of the existing city’s stratigraphic structure. Finally, using the still-unresolved case of Beyazıt Square as an example, this book takes a position in what is currently a crucial debate both in Turkey and Europe: the design of public space.