Workshop to focus on Beyoğlu’s fabric

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

The workshop will discuss strategies to improve Beyoğlu’s social and physical fabric. AA photo

The non-profit cultural institution SALT will be holding a workshop focusing on strategies that can be developed to improve and sustain Beyoğlu’s social and physical fabric.

In the context of its current boundaries, the Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district has been an area full of varied historical and cultural dynamics since ancient times. The site of remnants of Latin colonial settlements in Galata; of the Tersane-i Amire in Haliç, the Ottoman Empire’s first shipyards in Istanbul; of the European structures in Pera built by the Levantines in the 19th century; and of the first symbolic Monument of the Republic in Taksim harbors the physical evidence of Istanbul’s urban formation.

Beyoğlu was declared a conservation site in 1993 as a means to protect the district from the pressures of development. Seventeen years later, in 2010, an extensive set of conservation plans was completed and approved by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. These plans, the final determinant of all physical and functional aspects relating to construction work in Beyoğlu, were publicly announced at the beginning of 2011 by the municipality. According to the plan, the goals are “to eliminate existing negativities; to establish sustainability between the past and the future, taking into consideration the unique identity of the historical peninsula and of Istanbul and the region with regard to history, culture, science, art, commerce and tourism; to highlight the district’s distinct characteristics while preserving their differences; to maintain Beyoğlu’s historical, cultural and architectural assets on a regional scale; and to be one with its historic cultural values.”

The scope of the plan for Beyoğlu includes the reintroduction of lost monumental artifacts and civil architectural structures, the clearing of visual pollution from above-ground transportation posts by transferring them underground and increased accessibility to public squares through the pedestrianization of existing routes, as well as the establishment of multi-story car parks. It is hoped that the realization of the proposal will eliminate anything “incongruent” with Beyoğlu’s original character while cultivating cultural tourism through urban projects, conferences, congresses and the creation of arts and cultural centers and exhibition spaces.

The workshop will be held Dec. 24 at 2 p.m.