The “Occupy” Turn in the Global City Paradigm: The Architecture of AK Party’s Istanbul and the Gezi Movement

The global city paradigm refers to the decreasing role of state in national economy, and of city municipality in global city, and the replacement of these powers with multinational corporate businesses in the context of neoliberalism. This article identifies an “occupy” turn in this paradigm, by pointing out what is actually happening on the ground in some of these global cities. Istanbul, for one, disrupts a few established notions of this paradigm, because neither has the city government been a weak actor, nor have informal settlements been attributes of globality, and nor do the habitants share the excitement any longer as confirmed most visibly in the Gezi protests of Summer 2013. The article then analyzes the AK Party government’s architectural projects in Istanbul that perpetuated a construction industry as a major revenue under two groups: the urban fabric (the new housing and urban renewal developments) and the mega-projects meant to have a symbolic monumental effect. After underlining four points that characterize both groups of projects, the article discusses the AK Party government’s Taksim-Gezi project in relation to these four attributes: crony capitalism or neoliberalism directed by and for the sake of the governmental elite, top-down planning, lack of commitment to public space and Ottoman revivalist architectural symbolism.