Wundercloud - Taksim Square

2020

The body part of the earth does not wait for exploration. The existence of space lives in its own kinesis when it is born. The body of space grows, moves, flows... It lives and refreshes itself in cycles. The communication way which it chooses depends on stimulus responses of inter-species. Living forms in all layers of the earth met on the hill of the Pera area 1500 years ago. Space turned into a place when humans pointed to the land as a graveyard which makes the hill a memorial place of Istanbul for the first time.

Spaces to encompass the collective memories of societies; such as plazas and squares should be designed merely as “topos” that aid the recollection of common memories but should also aid the public to connect to them beyond their physical mass, adding symbolic meanings to be recalled in the subconscious mind.

The monotonous nature of daily life in the modern urban environment creates a negative impact on the physical and spiritual health of the citizens. We should therefore offer a new approach to designing public spaces to break the vicious cycle of negative interaction between the people and their environment. It is already impossible to experience the spatial aspects of places in a metropolis like Istanbul; the speed of the daily grind hardly allows it. The concept of a square tends to lose its appeal by inevitably turning into a hub of mass transportation; Taksim Square is a typical example. The trick is to utilize the same space to help masses to slow down and take in the urban spirit, by breaking down repetitions and lending a new life, and making them a viable aid for the human experience. Taksim lives in a vegetative state for many years. The potential of the area is described as a “Wundercloud” that is full of potential energy to be able to create. Point cloud embraces all of the places that have already been there. It covered the ruins which were destroyed once upon a time. And the cloud points out the possibilities that could embody the Taksim.