Edifícios

2008 — New English Paperback. Large 8vo. (22 x 20 cm). In English, German, and Turkish. 339 p., color and b/w ills. Wooden Istanbul: Examples from housing architecture.= Istanbuls Holzhauser: Beispiele seiner historischen Wohnarchitektur.= Ahsap Istanbul: Konut mimarisinden örnekler. ''Istanbul's real interior view,'' writes Tanpinar in describing the wooden houses of Istanbul ''was created by a colorful civil architecture ornate with oriels, bow windows and projections, eaves and awnings, velvety soft lines and decorations.'' To his observations on the perished wooden seaside palaces of the Bosphorus he adds, ''Perhaps the history of the Bosphorus fascinates us more than others, for we no longer find in place what we are looking for. .What intrigues us, in fact is none other than the void these buildings leave behind.'' Today, although it is rarely encountered in the landscape of Istanbul, wooden housing architecture continues to preserve its place in the city's image as it is enshrined in collective memory. While many have us may not have spent a portion of our lives in such houses, the memories of family members and friends and the impressions from the literature of a recent past sustain our connection to these houses. Whether we are aware or not, this heritage enthralls us with the mystique of a lost world while offering certain clues on the creation of an inescapably reconstructed Istanbul identity, which is shaped not only through architecture but also an entire way of living.