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Architecture and Interiors of the Harems in Eighteenth-Century Istanbul
(Cambridge University Press, 2026) Uğurlu, Ayşe Hilal; Türker, Deniz
This Element centers the architectural and material worlds created by Ottoman imperial women, foregrounding their decisive role in shaping Istanbul at the end of the eighteenth century. Focusing on Mihrişah Valide Sultan and the sultan's sisters and female relatives, it examines how their patronage transformed the imperial harem at Topkapı Palace and extended into a network of waterfront mansions, charitable complexes, and suburban estates. Drawing on poetic inscriptions, archival correspondence, and visual sources, the study reconstructs the collaborative processes linking these women to stewards, builders, and artisans. It argues that their domestic and architectural interventions constituted powerful expressions of authority, visibility, and political agency within the empire.
Bordering bodily experience / Experiencing border bodily
(Eastern Mediterranean University Press, 2025) Avcı, Ozan
The chapter examines the border as a spatial, temporal, bodily, and mnemonic condition rather than merely a political or physical line of separation. Focusing on the divided urban context of Nicosia/Lefkoşa, it argues that borders shape everyday experience by restricting movement, vision, contact, and memory, while also producing intensified forms of perception and awareness.Through a phenomenological perspective, the text challenges dualistic understandings of body and mind, emphasizing that the border is experienced through the whole body. Spatial congestion, folded temporalities, bodily limitation, and constrained memory are presented as key dimensions of border experience. The border is therefore interpreted not only as an instrument of division, but also as an existential and experiential condition that reorganizes how space is sensed, remembered, and inhabited.The chapter also considers artistic, performative, and architectural practices that engage with the buffer zone through movement, sound, memory, and bodily presence. These practices reveal the possibility of rethinking the border as a site of transformation. Rather than treating the border solely as a closed or static barrier, the chapter frames it as a dynamic field where alternative forms of connection, coexistence, and spatial imagination may emerge.
Letters and Gifts in the Harems of Eighteenth-Century Istanbul
(Cambridge University Press, 2026) Uğurlu, Ayşe Hilal; Türker, Deniz
This Element examines the political, architectural, and social transformations of the Ottoman Empire during the reign of Selim III (1789–1807), foregrounding the central role of imperial women in shaping reform. While Selim's military and administrative initiatives reconfigured Istanbul's urban fabric, his mother, sisters, and female relatives actively advanced these efforts through architectural patronage, diplomacy, and gift exchange. Drawing on archival sources, visual materials, and microhistorical analysis, the Element reconstructs the dynamic networks sustained by these women and their stewards. It challenges assumptions of female invisibility, demonstrating instead their strategic visibility, economic agency, and integral participation in imperial governance and cross-cultural exchange.
Üç Ayaklı Kedi Şehri Gezerken: Kırılganlık Metaforu ve Neoliberal Kent Gerçekliği
(Mimarlık Dergisi - Mimarlar Odası, 2025) Avcı, Ozan
İstanbul Bienali’nin üç yıla yayılan 18. edisyonunun ilk ayağı, “The Three - Legged Cat” - “Üç Ayaklı Kedi” başlığıyla 20 Eylül – 23 Kasım 2025 tarihleri arasında gerçekleşti. Bienal, küratör Christine Tohmé’nin kedi metaforu üzerinden “hayatta kalma”, “yeniden oluşturma” ve “dönüşüm” temaları çerçevesinde şekillendi. Bienal’den izlenimlerini aktaran yazar, sergi mekânlarının Karaköy merkezli seçimine dikkat çekerek, yazısını Bienal’in İstanbul ile kurduğu kavramsal ve programatik bağ üzerinden kurguluyor; sergi mekânları ile kentin güncel dönüşüm süreçleri arasındaki ilişkiyi eleştirel bir zeminde tartışıyor.

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