Istanbul
Istanbul, the city, which has been one of the pearls of the world for centuries and which many rulers in its time made great efforts to capture… I always think that it is the people’s experiences that give cities their spiritual value. Memories from times you don’t know, experiences, and maybe sadness or joy are everywhere in Istanbul, if you look carefully. I always feel very lucky when I walk the streets of this city, which smells of history and is full of experiences. Walking the streets of Karaköy, drinking tea as if chatting with century-old buildings, walking among the buildings that have hosted hundreds of memories, and feeling this gives me peace of mind. If you listen carefully, all the buildings have so many stories to tell.
While I love Istanbul so much and feel that it is a historical city, I have something to say about this. When we think of pollution, the first thing that comes to mind is environmental pollution, and then maybe noise pollution. But what about signage pollution? There are so many signs around in thousands of different colors, with different fonts and lights, unrelated to each other… Fast food chains’ signs, signs in phosphorescent colors, huge signs with gold leaf, different workplace signs, and all of them in different sizes. For someone looking from a distance, it’s just visual pollution. I would have liked the image of a city that is so valuable in material and spiritual terms to be much simpler. Especially reflecting simplicity and being more minimal would be very good for the atmosphere of the city. I hope that in the future, business owners will choose more minimal and less colorful designs, which will greatly reduce visual pollution. I think it would make the city look much more beautiful to have simpler colors rather than red, phosphorescent green and orange signs.
On a trip to Belgium, I was surprised to see how a very well-known hamburger fast food chain adapted to a very old and historical building. It must be a really difficult task to integrate and operate in that building without destroying its historical structure and story. In another scenario, it would have been possible to make the exterior of that old and historical building “contemporary” with colored iron, to use huge and colorful signboards, to use plastic everywhere, and to make the interior colorful and artificial, but here aesthetics comes into play. The inside of the building reflected the history as much as the outside, and it was magnificent. I felt like I was entering a very old restaurant, but it was just a fast food chain. I learned that decisions can be made by not separating buildings from their stories and by showing the necessary sensitivity to their spirit, and this is much more valuable in the eyes of the people.
In order to preserve a heritage like Istanbul, we need to evaluate the environment with a more aesthetic eye and make decisions by considering the spirit of the city itself, because this is one of the important areas where we can show our respect for Istanbul. Naturally, everyone’s colors and tastes are different from each other, but if all the visuals and design are in accordance with the aesthetics of Istanbul, I am sure that Istanbul will have a design that is appropriate for the era even in a hundred years.
