Jeffrey Sipprell

November 22, 2005

Istanbul - Day 2, Part 1

Sorry for the delay in these posts, but holidays and charrettes being what they are, my free time has been cut short. Anyway, as I've mentioned before, Sinan is considered by many to be the greatest architect that ever practiced in Turkey. He was born just before 1500 and lived until 1588 building many of the significant mosques that dot the landscape of Istanbul and Turkey at large. Suleymaniye is one of two masterpiece mosque complexes that he completed (the other is a few hours west of Istanbul in Edirne).

Sitting at one of the highest points of the city (which wore out our already tired legs), Suleymaniye was Sinan's tribute to the Hagia Sophia - meaning it contained a central dome that also had a similar linear directionality through to the nave. However, there is less geometric noise and cadence to this project than there is in the predecessor we saw before - geometries are cleaner, there are no pressures between systems as everything is subservient to a buildup in mass to the dome.

Still, outside of the beauty that is undenyingly reticent in the central space, there are a number of interesting particularities to the project that occur on the sides. A thickened layer of space is developed on the each flank that contains an upper balcony, but is carved into by the central dome axis pushing through. This creates a larger dome that pushes into the upper balcony space that quite interestingly leads to the creation of a false arch that attempts to keep some level of continuity between the split spaces. I am not sure as to whether the registration of the true structural arch was intentional or not.

Issues of coloration are similar to that of H.S. as there is a strong emphasis on the treatment of edges (though in a much more Baroque form pattern here). The stalactites are quite interesting here as well as they are patterned with a differentiated line thickness which makes them read much differently as has been seen in other mosques.

As far as the exterior is concerned, this is the first mosque that we visited that is a complex, meaning that there are numerous other buildings on site that are comprised of minimal surface roofs that are detached from the mosque. This complex builds up mass as it moves up the hill towards the main central dome. Similar to the Blue Mosque, there is a play of surface between the buttresses
as the facade becomes more porous at places while still registering the weight of elements that are literally or figuratively coming down on top. One point that should be noted here as well is that the buttressing is on three sides on the exterior - sides and back, while on the interior, the buttressing is on the entrance and flanking sides - creating two interlocking 'U' shapes that create an experience whereby the entrance facade and the interior facade that faces Mecca are articulated as very thin and flat.

Overall, a great building and my favorite of Sinan's mosque work. There are a number of issues in terms of massing and coloration that I hope to borrow for my project.

Here are a few more photos:

Dome Detail
Dome Massing
Interior Shot

Posted by jsipprell at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2005

Istanbul - Day 1, Part 2

Continuing on through the first day, we left the Hagia Sophia for lunch and were introduced to Turkish meatballs - basically slabs of lamb, or perhaps mutton, that were slathered in greasy batter. It's almost mcnuggety, but goes down smooth with rice and beans. With our stomachs full, we sauntered off to the Blue Mosque which is immediately adjacent to the Hagia Sophia. However, as the Blue Mosque is a real mosque, and not a museum like the H.S., we had to detour while prayers were taking place to a turkish bath by Sinan, the architect. I'll post more on this guy later, but he's considered by ALL to be the greatest turkish architect ever (needless to say he built many a mosque in his day). Tomorrow we'll take a look at one of his masterpieces.

In the meantime, the turkish bath had been converted to a carpet emporium of sorts so we walked through snapping pictures admiring the domework in a few rooms and getting our first look at a Stalagtite.

With half an hour now killed we headed back to the Blue Mosque, took off our shoes (a must at all mosques), and headed inside. It's quite an overpowering space, though way too ornamental for my tastes (I prefer the simplicity of the Hagia Sophia and some of the mosques you'll see in the coming days). But it's the first case where we got to see a Mosque that was bilaterally symmetrical - 4 half domes coming from all 4 sides support the larger dome. Each of these half domes is then supported by 3 half dome squinches and some stalagtites to get it back to a flat wall condition.

The surfaces are treated a lot tauter than they are in the Hagia Sophia - there isn't much of the same layered depth that we saw there, but there are a few conditions along the side where you get some spatial depth. But otherwise it's a pretty homogenously ornamented central space (some quite nice ceramic work).

The outside massing is a bit richer in terms of the way it builds up to the main dome. There's a bit more depth in the facade between the buttressing that begins to give the structure a bit more spatial thickness. Definitely my least favorite of the big mosques that we saw, so expect better things from me in the coming days.

Posted by jsipprell at 1:48 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2005

Istanbul - Day 1, Part 1

Our studio trip to Istanbul, Turkey is complete and today begins the first in a series of blog posts detailing our collective exploits from the past week's research. After a 10 hour flight to London, a 4 hour layover in Heathrow and another 4 hour flight to Istanbul, we arrived quite weary to our hotel a week prior to yesterday (Tuesday). After crashing out in a pretty decent hotel we were all awoken to Islamic prayer chanting played on the loudspeakers from the minerets of all the big mosques at 5 am. They do this 5 times a day, but I don't need to tell you which one the most unwelcome is.

After a fine breakfast of cheese, tomatoes, bread and honey - we headed for a short walk over to the Hagia Sophia. 15 turkish lira to get in (or about 12 american bucks), but well worth the cost of admission. The structure is nothing short of breathtaking, though I wish they had finished the renovations on the dome. Dome Image The central space is mammoth, though it doesn't come close to the feeling of vastness of St. Peter's in London. But there is a much richer treatment of space and surface in this mosque than there is in any christian church that exists in western Europe.

The biggest distinction to this mosque, having to do with the fact that it was a christian church for its first 50 years, is that there is a clear directionality to it from entrance to nave Central Space Image. The ends are quite volumetric with large secondary and tertiary half domes carving projecting up into the main dome Volume. The sides are much tauter, more skin like in their surface treatment Tautness. This is reinforced by the way in which the skin along the side is layered as it moved from the central space to the exterior wall Layers, oscillating between tight and open spaces. This is reinforced by the way in which surfaces are treated (edge highlight v. color wash) Color Wash, the way in which they appear to push up and pull down (heights and proportions of columns) Columns, and the way in which there are dicontinuities in the cadence of the layers as they move from inside to out (they differing proportions creating offsets between layers as you look across the space) Cadence.

Issues of sidedness and hierarchy were well executed throughout the mosque creating a sensibility that alternated between lightness and heaviness as you occupied different moments of the structure. The moments that occured between the elements that were more skinlike and those that were more volumetric were particularly interesting as you could clearly see how they were pushing up against each other Dome Pressure, as if various pressure were being exerted on the system that created these localized anamolies.

Diagrams of all of these features are being developed right now, but in the meantime, enjoy a few more pics outside of the ones illustrated above.

Exterior
Central Space 1
Central Space 2
Detail 1
Side Dome 1
Side Dome 2

Posted by jsipprell at 4:13 PM | Comments (1)