The Future Perfect
The globalization of a country can be assessed by the transformation of its cities. After years of documenting its effects on the urban and human fabric of cities in the Anatolian part of Turkey, I finally resolved in April 2014 to tackle the ravages of globalization in Istanbul. Nowhere else in Turkey is the phenomenon more hyperbolic that in the world city along the Bosphorus.
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![Buyukdere Caddesi, Maslak (Istanbul), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned using my picture of a view down the heavily-travelled Buyukdere Caddesi (2014) and a B&W picture (courtesy Ataturk Library) from the 1960s showing Buyukdere as just a two-lane road cutting through fields and country in Maslak. Before the Istanbul conurbation swallowed it, Maslak was a small town where the main activities were, on one hand agriculture and on the other, car repair garages and a hosiery manufacture. The garages still exist, but the fields and the factory have disappeared and been replaced by modern office towers, more in tune with Maslak’s ambition of becoming the financial and business heart of Istanbul’s European side.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-1-VT-Maslak-Buyukdere-Cad.jpg)
![Kartal Meydani, Kartal (Istanbul), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned using my picture of Kartal Square (2014) and a B&W picture of the same square in the 1960s (courtesy the Kartal Mayor’s Office). The older picture shows a ceremony on the same square commemorating the founding of the Turkish Republic. In the ‘60s, the square was much smaller and right on the Sea of Marmara. There was a tiny beach at the foot of one-story buildings perched on a slight hill. In recent years, important urban development projects have pushed the Marmara Sea back in order to create a concrete esplanade. In the process, the beach disappeared, the hillside was levelled and modern buildings materialized, including a new City Hall. Kartal is located on Istanbul’s Asian side.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-2-VT-Kartal-Meydani-copy-1.jpg)
![Maslak (Istanbul), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned from my image of one of the buildings in the ‘42 Maslak’ real-estate program (2014) and a B&W photo from the mid-1970s(courtesy SALT, Harika and Kemali Soylemezoglu collection) showing a Maslak still predominantly fields and pastures. Life begins in Maslak’ proclaims Bay Insaat, the program’s developer. Often-ostentatious residential and office towers are relentlessly replacing fields, as well as the smaller, more human-sized buildings from the ‘70s and ‘80s.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-3-42-Maslak-copy-1.jpg)
![Kartal (Istanbul), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned from my image of the new City Hall annex and its neighborhood (2014). The older B&W picture from the 1960s (courtesy the Kartal Mayor’s Office) shows a funeral procession through this same neighborhood. This area is at that time undeveloped, but a few one-story homes are beginning to appear at the top of the hill. The neighborhood, now congested with buildings and cars, illustrates one sign of a modernizing city: automobiles exercise hegemony over pedestrians.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-4-Kartal-près-Cumhurriyet-Meydani-copy-1.jpg)
![The Mashattan project, Maslak (Istanbl), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned from my picture of the Mashattan towers and the highway into Maslak (2011), created in response to the modernization of Maslak. The B&W picture from the 1960s (courtesy Mr. Irfan Dagdelen) shows men and equipment working to create a new road through the fields of Maslak. The name of this project underscores Maslak’s dream: to become Mashattan, the Manhattan of Istanbul.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-5-Maslak-copy-1.jpg)
![Kartal (Istanbul), Turquie. Palimpseste façonné à partir de mon image du quartier de Cavusoglu (2014) et d’une photo N&B du même quartier dans les années 1960 (archives de la Mairie de Kartal). La ville a rattrapé ce quartier que la densification urbaine a transformé de fond en comble. Les quelques maisons individuelles et chemins en terre existant dans les années ’60 ont cédé la place à des immeubles et des rues goudronnées. La mosquée humble en pierre, devenue trop petite pour le quartier, a été rasée et une nouvelle mosquée, plus grande et plus lisse, a pris sa place.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-6-VT-Kartal-Cavusoglu-copy-1.jpg)
![Palimpsest fashioned from my image of the wooden palisade encompassing a construction site (2014). The B&W picture from the 1960s (courtesy Kartal Mayor’s Office) shows the Yunus ciment factory and its railroad station. The Emlak Konut Company is developing a real-estate project on the land occupied formerly by the factory, now closed and demolished, along with the railroad station.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-7-VT-Kartal-Yunus-Cimento-7-copy-1.jpg)
![Kartal (Istanbul), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned from my image of buildings along the Caddebostan thoroughfare. Urban development and enlargement of Caddebostan into a sort of beltway occurred on space created by the Kartal municipality when it pushed the Marmara Sea further out, filling and extending the land between the edge of the town and the sea. The B&W picture from the 1970s (courtesy the Kartal Mayor’s Office) shows men doing earthwork along one of the roads beside the Marmara near Caddebostan.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-8-Kartal-le-long-de-Caddebostan-Pendik-Sahilyolu-copy-1.jpg)
![Maslak (Istanbul), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned from my image of the ’42 Maslak’ construction site in an early stage (2011). This luxury program, combining residential, office, hotel and commercial space, is built on the site of a hosiery factory. The older picture from the late 1990s (courtesy ICS Group) shows an aerial view of the factory and its surroundings. The blue tower in my picture is also on the older picture, where it is the only existing tower. Maslak’s ambition of becoming the financial and business heart of Istanbul’s European side is replacing fields and the older urban fabric with over-the-top real estate projects.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-9-42-Maslak-copy-1.jpg)
![Atasehir (Istanbul), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned from my image of residential towers under construction (2011). These towers are the first two of many in an upper-end program depicted in the billboard in the lower right. In 2014, the finished program had the right number of towers but much less green space than in the idealized rendition. The older picture from the early 2000s (courtesy Mr. Zeki Kar) shows a residential district of single family homes. In modernizing cities, verticality replaces the horizontality of tradition urban tissue.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-10-Atasehir-copy-1.jpg)
![Atasehir (Istanbul), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned using my picture of one of the towers of the ‘Meridian’ real-estate project (2014), part of an entirely new up-scale residential and business district emerging over the last 10-12 years on the hilly land to the west of Atasehir’s core. This district, Bati Atasehir (or, Atasehir West), is covering the hills with towers. The older B&W picture from around 2000 (courtesy Mr. Zeki Kar) shows residents of Atasehir hiking through the still-empty hills. ‘The Meridian is changing the world”, proclaims VARYAP, its developer.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-11-Bati-Atasehir-copy-1.jpg)
![Atasehir (Istanbul), Turquie. Palimpseste façonné avec mon image de la partie du quartier Atasehir Ouest dans le voisinage de la nouvelle Mairie (2014). L’image en N&B, prise au début des années 2000 (archives personnelles de Monsieur Zeki Kar) montre l’autoroute Istanbul-Ankara, la ville d’Atasehir à l’arrière-plan et les terrains vides qui les entourent. Atasehir Ouest surgit sur ces terrains. Lorsque l’autoroute reliant Istanbul et Ankara a été terminée dans les années 1990, l’étalement urbain d’Atasehir s’est intensifié en même temps que la spéculation immobilière.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-12-Bati-Atasehir-copy-1.jpg)
![Maslak (Istanbul), Turquie. Palimpseste façonné avec mon image du début du chantier du ’42 Maslak’ (2011). Ce programme luxueux, combinant appartements haut de gamme, bureaux, hôtel cinq étoiles et boutiques, est construit sur l’assise foncière d’une ancienne bonneterie. L’image en N&B de la fin des années 1990 est une vue aérienne de la bonneterie et ses alentours (archives de ICS Group). Très peu densifiée encore dans les années 1990 - c’est-à-dire, hier - cette même zone est maintenant couverte de tours modernes. Eloignée du cœur bruyant, congestionné et pollué d’Istanbul, Maslak attire individus et familles au fort pouvoir d’achat.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-13-42-Maslak-copy-1.jpg)
![Maslak (Istanbul), Turquie. Palimpseste façonné à partir de mon image de l’ensemble immobilier ‘Mashattan’ (contraction de ‘Maslak’ et ‘Manhattan’) (2014) et d’une photo N&B des années 1960 d’une route bordée d’arbres à Maslak, à cette époque encore entourée de campagne (archives personnelles de Monsieur Irfan Dagdelen). Très peu densifiée jusque dans les années 1990 - c’est-à-dire, hier - Maslak est de plus en plus couverte de tours modernes combinant bureaux connectés et appartements haut de gamme. Eloignée du cœur bruyant, congestionné et pollué d’Istanbul, Maslak attire individus et familles au fort pouvoir d’achat. La ville veut se doter d’un visage en adéquation avec son ambition de devenir le pôle financier et d’affaires de la rive européenne d’Istanbul.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-14-Maslak-copy-1.jpg)
![Construction site, Atasehir (Istanbul), Turkey. Palimpsest fashioned from my image of the construction site of a grandiose real-estate development project by the Agaoglu Company in Atasehir West (2014). The B&W image (courtesy Mr. Zeki Kar) dates from 2013-2014 and shows the beginning of land-clearing work for this same project. The woods visible in this picture were entirely destroyed. When the Ankara-Istanbul Highway was completed in the 1990s, Atasehir’s urban development intensified as real-estate speculation skyrocketed. Now, the former small town has ambitions of becoming the financial and business hub on Istanbul’s Asian side.](http://frances-dal-chele.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Image-palimpseste-15-Atasehir-copy-1.jpg)
© Copyright 2016, Frances Dal Chele Photographie