istanbul 5 trellis maximus

Istanbul 5 - Trellis Maximus

HIPPODROME: SITE

Piece by piece the hippodrome, formerly one of the most monumental

buildings in the city at 500 meters long and 120 meters wide, has been

broken down into the fragments of park and road that are found today

in what is called At Meydani (Square of Horses). This massive palace

of spectacle is relegated to sidebar anecdotes in tour guides. The

30,000 killed in the Nika revolt sounds huge, but the physical

presence of the building that brought them together is nowhere to be

seen. This massive piece of the city is gone, traced by the shortened

roadway and crumbling but still muscular sphendome. Constantine has

been emasculated.

Almost everyone in the area is a visitor or serving the visitors. The

hippodrome site is pretty close to ground zero for tourism. It is

within walking distance to the four most visited places: the Blue

Mosque, the Hagia Sophia, the Covered Market, and Topkapi Palace. And

yet, the park is curiously vacant. With the July and August sun

bearing down during prime tourist season, the few people that are in

the At Meydani are either quickly getting their fill of the monuments,

or are clustered in the shade of one of the small trees. It doesn't

have the shade of the courtyard of the Blue Mosque, the fountain of

the central garden, or the refreshments of nearby tea gardens. Neither

does it have the monumentality of the nearby sites; as such, it is

reduced to a curious footnote between bigger and better things.

HIPPODROME: SHAPING THE SUN

In a climate with an abundance of hot sun and cooling breezes it is

natural that a tradition of screens and trellises would develop.

Pervasive carved window screens did triple duty of keeping prying eyes

and the sun out, and allowing air circulation in. They are mostly

simple masonry affairs, sturdy and meant to convey security, though

often in the palaces they achieve a high degree of fragility that

belies their stone origins. This mediation between dark and light is

found everywhere from Byzantine churches to the Ottoman baths; these

buildings prized shade and darkness as much as light. The threshold

between dark and light, inside and outside, was an opportunity to

shape the light into the formal mode of that era.

A more quotidian and prevalent form of sun control are the many

overhead trellises around the city. Many streets have this form of

public covering, negotiating between several different buildings. It

usually covers a caf�, where it is normal to rest at length while

playing backgammon and drinking tea. This is one of the most common

scenes in Istanbul, whether in Sultanahmet or Zeytinburnu (though in

Levent it is more likely you will find umbrellas and a Starbucks). The

trellises usually host thick vines, allowing only dappled light to hit

the seats below, which die off in the winter time when it is more

appropriate to have direct sunlight.

HIPPODROME: TRELLIS MAXIMUS

My proposal is to add a monumental trellis to the former space of the

hippodrome, roughly the height and size of the original structure.

This would float above the space that is presently broken up by

surrounding buildings, paths, trees and street furniture, and allow a

vision of the scale of the original structure. Additionally, it would

provide much needed shade to the park. Since so much of the ground of

the former hippodrome is occupied, a trellis floating about 30 meters

above would pass over the impediments below, and approximate the

height of the former building. It would unify the area and become an

attraction and point of discussion in its own right, a new entry in

the tourist itinerary.

The site would be cleared of as many obstacles (trees, fences, light

poles, etc.) as possible, allowing once again a view along the length

of the spina. Necessary vehicle traffic would still follow the path of

the old track, though calmed for the additional visitors using the

park and viewing sphendome. Ideally the school on the sphendome would

eventually be torn down (and added to the recycled park wall, of

course), freeing up the privileged axial view of the Sea of Marmara

from the city center.

The trellis would use an Ottoman motif (why not vine leaves?) for the

screen, conflating multiple cultural histories in the new structure.

The sun screen would employ ceramic technology, an industry that

reached its high point in the Iznik tiles covering the Blue Mosque

interior, and used today for everything from tourist plates to

covering the space shuttle. At night, the ceramic screen could be lit

from below, eliminating the need for the numerous pole fixtures, and