16.05.2025
New from Blue Crow Media: Modern Istanbul Map
Blue Crow Media has released its latest 20th century architecture guide map, Modern Istanbul Map / Modern İstanbul Haritası.
The map publication by writer and architectural historian Özlem Balcı Öztürk and photographer Hacer Bozkurt is a two-sided, bilingual guide including a map of Istanbul, an introduction, original photography and details of 50 selected examples of 20th and 21st century architecture. The map is presented in English and Turkish.
Modern Istanbul Map / Modern İstanbul Haritası covers an incredible selection of buildings between 1930 and 2010. Istanbul, a culturally and historically layered city, defined by its intercontinental location between Europe and Asia, is host to numerous 20th century architectural styles - including a uniquely regional strain of brutalism.
The buildings featured on the map tell the story of a country modernising at great speed: from the Bauhaus - influenced early modernism in the 1930s including the Ragıp Devres Villa and the Atatürk-commissioned Florya Sea Pavilion; through the large-scale buildings of the 1940s and 50s such as the Istanbul University Faculty of Science and Literature and the Hilton Hotel. From the 1960s to 90s, further political democratisation in Turkey encouraged a unique blend of rationalism, brutalism and regionalism: as seen at Manifaturacılar, the layered shopping and office complex featuring decoration by prominent Turkish artists. Finally, after the 1980s, postmodernism was embraced by an increasingly active private sector; notably in the E House of 1994.
As readers will discover, each building on this map, covering multiple generations and genres of architecture, is its own chapter in the fascinating social, economic and cultural history of modern Istanbul.
The map is available at select independent bookstores worldwide or from bluecrowmedia.com
Webpage: https://bluecrowmedia.com/products/modern-istanbul-map
Building images and product shots available here: bit.ly/bluecrow
