MIM313 Historic Environmental Conservation and Restoration - Site Visit

Within the scope of the Historical Environmental Conservation and Restoration course, a non-compulsory technical trip was organized on Thursday, 10.10.2024, which coincided with the students' free day. Volunteer students participated in the trip. The lecturer of the course, Associate Professor İlke Ciritci explained the importance of architecture in the historical environment to the students through the example of Beyoğlu. Starting from Taksim Square, the excursion started with a re-functionalized building, which is now the Republic Museum of IBB. The excursion on Istiklal Street was realized by examining the period structures, especially through the passages, which are period structures.
The modernization and innovation movements observed in Beyoğlu/Pera created a social tendency among the people of the region to lead a lifestyle similar to European cities. The streets of Beyoğlu are widened, cleaned and illuminated. Restaurants, coffee houses and stores selling products brought from Europe began to open along Beyoğlu Street. Hotels and arcades, where foreigners coming to Beyoğlu/Pera stayed, are also common building types for the new patrons of Beyoğlu/Pera from the mid-19th century onwards. Especially after the second half of the 19th century, arcades and passageways became indispensable elements of Pera in both architectural and commercial terms.
The structures that constitute an important part of Pera and reveal its identity are the arcades lined up on and around the main artery, the Grand Rue de Pera, and the goods sold in them. The small and large arcades made the area a center of attraction for women and young people. Most of the arcades have shops selling goods mostly for the upper class on the lower floors, while the upper floors are occupied by residences or shops. Beyoğlu, which was frequently damaged by fires in previous periods (1811, 1831, 1857), suffered a great fire in 1870, which resulted in the burning of the British Embassy Building and around three thousand houses and shops. After the 1870 Pera fire, these arcades, most of which were built in masonry, attract attention with their flamboyant facades and large-scale and bright galleries. The arcades serve as a transitional element between the entertainment and commercial spaces that connect the Grand Rue de Pera to the complex and narrow side streets and the residential fabric. Positioned perpendicular or parallel to the main axis, the passages define a different public space. They are places where capitalist modes of production and consumption are made visible outside the Ottoman traditional system.
The tour ended at the Botter apartment building. The building is the work of the important architect D'Aronco. Built for the Sultan's tailor, the Dutchman Jean Botter, the apartment building, located on the very central Rue de Pera (now Istiklal Street), has workshops and shops on the ground floor and rooms on the upper floor.
The ornamental fragments on the balustrades, including the wrought iron of the door and window frames, are clearly Art Nouveau, making this building the first and most important example of the new style in Istanbul. Today, the ground floor serves a public cultural function as an exhibition space and the upper floors as a library and offices. After examining the details of the building with the students, the trip ended with a walk to Galata.