Changing Paradigm of Urban Legibility: The Case of Atakule Shopping Mall

Year 2022, Volume: 1 Issue: 2, 241 - 256, 05.08.2022

Emre Seles

Abstract

The moving structure of cities offers much information to visitors and its inhabitants. The legibility of this information is an important key to understanding and perceiving an urban environment. This legibility varies depending on social, psychological, economic, and political factors that create an urban narrative. The research attempts to explain how the legibility of public places changes over time. As a method, qualitative research was employed together with a review of the literature on the issue. It was decided to use psychopolitics and non-place as theoretical frameworks to analyze and evaluate the data acquired. This research mainly focuses on how city planners and architects created a story out of the relative mobility of cities and how this narrative changed over time. Second, a social and economic perspective is used to examine how retail complexes contribute to the legibility of the city and the adjustments they have undergone to survive. Finally, these adjustments are compared using the Atakule Shopping Mall in Ankara, Turkey, as an example. Despite the renovations, it has been decided that shopping malls can't offer a real public space experience and don't really help people understand the city because they only offer a virtual and limited habitable narrative.

Keywords

Urban Legibility, Psychopolitics, Non-place, Neoliberalism, Atakule Shopping Mall

Supporting Institution

Yok

References

• Akçaoğlu, A. (2008). The mallification of urban life in Ankara: The case of Ankamall [Master’s Thesis, Middle East Technical University]. https://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12609869/index.pdf
• A Tasarım. (n.d.). Atakule once again… A Tasarım Architectural Design. https://atasarim.com.tr/en/project/atakule (16.07.2022).
• Anders, G. (2014). The obsolescence of man, Vol I, part 2: The world as phantom and as matrix: Philosophical considerations on radio and television (J. P. Pérez, Trans.). In, Die antiquiertheit des menschen I (pp. 105-208). Valencia: Pre-Textos. (Original work published 1956).
• Arnaldi, B., Guitton, P., & Moreau, G. (2017). Virtual reality and augmented reality: Myths and realities. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119341031
• Augé, M. (1995). Non-places: Introduction to an anthropology of supermodernity (J. Howe, Trans.). Verso.
• Birch, K., Macleavy, J., and Springer, S. (Eds.) (2016). An introduction to neoliberalism. The Handbook of Neoliberalism. Routledge.
• Bonenberg, A. (2018). Cityscape in the era of information and communication technologies. The Urban Book Series, Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69542-6_5
• Brown, M. and Lubelczyk, M. (n.d.) The future of shopping centers. Kearney. https://www.kearney.com/consumer-retail/article/-/insights/the-future-of-shopping-centers-article (16.07.2022).
• Bruno, G. (1997). Site-seeing: Architecture and the moving image. Wide Angle, 19(4), 8-24. Johns Hopkins University Press. https://doi.org/10.1353/wan.1997.0017
• Dedekargınoğlu, C. (2014). Atakule’nin öyküsü: Nereden çıktı bu süperler? Moblogankara. http://www.moblogankara.org/mimarlardan/2014/12/16/atakulenin-yks-nereden-kt-bu-sperler- (10.12.2018).
• Deleuze, G. (1992). Postscript on societies of control. JSTOR, 59, 3-7. https://cidadeinseguranca.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/deleuze_control.pdf
• Doğanışık, İ. (2020, May 8). Türkiye’de alışveriş merkezleri. Doğrulukpayı. https://www.dogrulukpayi.com/bulten/turkiye-de-alisveris-merkezleri (16.07.2022).
• Erkip, F. (2003). The shopping mall as an emergent public apace in Turkey. Environment and Planning. 35, 1073-1093. https://doi.org/10.1068/a35167
• Gibson, D. (2009). The wayfinding handbook: Information design for public places. Princeton Architectural Press.
• Gould, C. (2015). Interactive works for urban screens: A practice based study into building new ways of engaging communities in urban space through interactive artworks for urban screens [Doctoral dissertation]. http://usir.salford.ac.uk/35462/2/PhD_cgould_ethesiss2015.pdf
• Greene, M. R., & Oliva, A. (2009). The briefest of glances: The time course of natural scene understanding. Psychological Science, 20, 464-472.
• Habermas, J. (1987). The theory of communicative action: Lifeworld and system: Critique of functional reason. Polity Press.
• Han, B. (2017). Psychopolitics: Neoliberalism and new technologies of power (E. Butler, Trans.) Verso Books. (Original work published 2014)
• Ho Chun Wan, S. (2011). Shopping mall as privately owned public space: A new approach for designing public space. The 5th International Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism (IFoU) 2011 National University of Singapore, Department of Architecture Global Visions: Risks and Opportunities for the Urban Planet Conference Report. http://globalvisions2011.ifou.org/Index/Posters/FOUA00029-00042P2.pdf
• Hürriyet Daily News. (December 06, 2018). Ankara’s Atakule tower to light up in orange for women. Hürriyet Daily News. http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/ankaras-atakule-tower-to-light-up-in-orange-for-women-139509 (12.12.2018).
• Kocadoru Özgör, F. (2022). 21. Yüzyıl sanatında yok-yerler imgesi. Bodrum Journal of Art and Design, 1(1), 43-50. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/bodrum/issue/68335/1064213
• Koolhaas, R. (2013). The generic city from s,m,l,xl. In, M. Larice, and E. Macdonald (Eds.). The urban design reader (2nd ed., pp. 215-226). Routledge.
• Korpela, K. M. (2012). Place attachment. In Clayton, S. D. (Ed.). The Oxford handbook of environmental and conservation psychology, (pp. 148-163). Oxford University Press.
• Lang, J. (1994). Urban design: The American experience. John Wiley & Sons.
• Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space. Blackwell.
• Lynch, K. (1960). The image of the city. MIT Press.
• Madanipour, A. (2003). Public and private spaces of the city. Routledge.
• Madanipour, A. (1996). Design of urban space: An inquiry into a socio-spatial process. Wiley& Sons.
• Nail, T. (2018). The ontology of motion. Qui Parle, 27(1), 47-76. https://doi.org/10.1215/10418385-4382983
• O’Herlihy, L. (1994). Architecture and film. Architecture and film: Architectural design profile, band 112, 64(11/12), 90-91.
• Rossi, A. (1982). The architecture of the city. The MIT Press.
• Salingaros, N. and Mehaffy, M. (2017). A vision for architecture as more than the sum of its parts. Biourbanism. http://www.biourbanism.org/vision-architecture-sum-parts/ (06.11.2018).
• Shaw, J. (1989). The legible city: An interactive art installation. Jeffrey Shaw Compendium. https://www.jeffreyshawcompendium.com/portfolio/legible-city/
• Sklair, L. (2006). Iconic architecture and capitalist globalization. City, 10(1), 21-47. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604810600594613
• Şumnu, U. (2020). From Sümerbank to Gima: The spatial transformation of merchandising in Ankara. Ankara Araştırmaları Dergisi. 8(2), 361-380. https://jag.journalagent.com/jas/pdfs/JAS_8_2_361_380.pdf
• Toy, M. (1994). Editorial. Architecture and film: Architectural design profile, band 112, 64(11/12), 6-7. The Angry Architect (n.d.). Retail revival: MVRDV continues the reinvention of the shopping mall typology in Paris. Architizer. https://architizer.com/blog/inspiration/stories/mvrdv-shopping-mall-in-paris/ (16.07.2022).
• Treske, A. (2017). Shiny things so bright. Video Vortex XI India Conference Report. http://networkcultures.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Catalouge-compiled-final-28-03.pdf
• Vander Ark, T. (November 4, 2020). Turning dead malls into community assets. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomvanderark/2020/11/04/turning-dead-malls-into-community-assets/?sh=329941f6693a (16.07.2022).
• Virilio, P. (1991). The lost dimension (D. Moshenberg, Trans.). Semiotext(e). (Original work published 1984)
• Waterman, T. (2018). Making meaning: Utopian method for minds, bodies, and media in architectural design. Open Library of Humanities, 4(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.109
• Weiner, H. (2010). Media architecture as social catalyst in urban public spaces. In. F. Geelhaar, B. Eckardt, S. Rudolf, and M. Zierold (Eds.), MediaCity Conference 2010 Proceedings, (pp. 95- 139). Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
• Zumthor, P. (2006). Atmospheres: Architectural environments – surrounding objects. Birkhäuser.