My essence of Istanbul...

 

The essence I have of Istanbul is that it takes all over you. It is the ultimate city, combining everything, history, religion, arts, and financial districts. It is where east meets west, the center of the cultural world. I think it is really challenging to focus on one aspect of this city since it is a blend of all different elements but while trying to figure out my place of interest for Istanbul, I was quite taken by patterns. The ones used in the famous Turkish carpet. I found very interesting the fact that those carpets are symbols of wealth, religion, social status and they also make a statement about the environment they are placed into. They are all based in Arabic patterns and each piece is unique, you could never have the same result even though same elements could be used. So I thought, this looks like cities, complex, maybe based on specific types but each combination is different. Those patterns could be used to represent the existing city and also maybe to propose a new one.