IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

“What would arise if we perceived Istanbul as a fragmented city?” This article proposes a radical reconceptualisation of Istanbul’s urban condition through the lens of fragmentation. Challenging longstanding frameworks that have cast the city as either a “global city” integrated into circuits of capital or as a “dual city” marked by polarised socio-spatial formations, this study advances fragmentation as both an empirical condition and a theoretical apparatus for interpreting Istanbul’s layered and discontinuous urban reality. Drawing from critical urban theory, speculative architecture, and transdisciplinary fieldwork, the article argues that fragmentation is not merely a symptom of urban dysfunction but a productive analytical lens for decoding the spatial, temporal, and infrastructural heterogeneity of the contemporary metropolis. Istanbul is approached as a composite of overlapping and often contradictory urban logics—gecekondu formations, uneven infrastructural development, neoliberal redevelopment, historical sedimentation, and looming seismic risk—each inscribed onto the urban fabric through divergent rhythms and intensities. Through extensive GIS mapping, archival research, cartographic layering, and site-based engagement, the study constructs a dense reading of Istanbul as a mosaic of socio-technical fragments. Rather than seek coherence or resolution, the research embraces the city’s multiplicity, reframing architectural practice as an act of decoding, interpreting, and speculating within fractured urban systems. Ultimately, this article contributes to theorisations of postmodern urbanism and design theory by positioning fragmentation not as a breakdown, but as a mode of understanding and engaging cities as complex, coded, and continually reconfigurable spatial interfaces.