Turgut Cansever e la Scuola di Sedad Eldem. Unità e tettonica nel progetto per Istanbul

The dissertation aims to verify the transmissibility of design principles in the Turkish School of architecture, from Sedad Eldem (1908-1988) to Turgut Cansever (1921-2009), searching for an urban and cultural identity of modern Istanbul, which considers the historical, typological and environmental values of pre-existence. The compositional approach of Cansever extended to the urban design and planning has been analysed, with the goal of identifying still valuable operational tools for the sustainable development of Istanbul and the new settlements in Turkey. The research has tried to verify the role of the anthropic, environmental and topographical pre-existence as principles of design in Cansever’s work, considering different case studies that move forward from the architectural to the urban scale and vice versa. Starting from the rehabilitation project for Beyazıt Meydanı, one of the most important "squares" of Istanbul, and going on with the projects for new settlements (like those for new satellite towns of Istanbul and for holiday villages), the thesis has analysed the scattered settlement, built in relation to the urban or natural landscape, as a method to solve the infrastructural problems of the contemporary Turkish city. Cansever joins the debate on the planning of the contemporary Turkish city, criticizing the static urbanization. His experimentation is turned to institute dynamic urban planning, that grows up simultaneously with the housing architecture. Each building represents a choice in itself, redefining the layout of all the other elements of the urban system. As the house builds up from the internal space, in relation to the exterior, the city develops starting from the garden architecture, in connection with the surrounding landscape. These case studies involve a very topical subject, about cities with a low environmental impact, in which sustainability does not constitute a concept to be applied ex-post, but is inherent in the design.