The Unfinished Bostanci Shopping Center
The first ideas to build a Shopping Center in the Upper Bostanci area started in 1995, 25 years ago. A few years later the construction process started but, after the main rough works were done, it came to a halt.
Located just next to the E5 (D100) highway, one of the most transited freeways in Istanbul, crossing the city from West to East, this midsize commercial project was going to provide the area with the first Mall type building in the neighborhood – the Içerenköy Carrefour hypermarket and gallery, just a few hundred meters away, was the closest to that to be found in the whole region.
According to the local press, a cooperative of investors established a contract with a construction company – Beta İnş. Taahhüt Mühendislik ve Tic. A.ş – to build the project. After a few years the company went bankrupt, leaving the associates empty handed and putting the construction on hold. The death of the owner of the construction company only worsened the process. It seems that some attempts were made to come to a deal with the land owner in order to keep the works going but without success, ending up in a major legal fight which hasn’t brought any solution to the construction site until today (2020).
As one passes by this high transit area, we can observe a scavenged structure, going through a slow decaying process. It seems that through the years, the building has been subject to stealling of some parts of its components, like bricks, façade ceramic cladding or steel rods from the reinforced concrete structure. Ironically, it has also been used as a deposit for the informal waste recyclers of Istanbul who collect plastic, cardboard, metal parts and other garbage.
The area has also been used as a shelter for homeless people, drug addicts, animals and a garbage deposit, contributing to a dangerous public health condition for the community living in the surroundings.
The building is comprised by two separated volumes, with a large open space bewteen them that suggests the initial idea of providing a public area for customers and passerbys. As in most Istanbul neighborhoods, here there are no public squares. If the Shopping Center project attempted to supress this need, today it only represents the failure of its intentions. And the only ones who loose are the istanbulites.
We could find several complaints in Social Media about the passive behaviour of the authorities regarding this long lasting wound in the urban tissue. Most of them claim for a green space to replace what is left of the unfinished shopping venue.
The set of articles under the name “Abandoned Buildings of Istanbul – Data Gathering” being prepared and shared by ARKollective, aim to raise awareness over a very common phenomenon happening in Istanbul and in many major cities around the world. To read more about large abandoned buildings in Istanbul and ideas that might change their condition, please check our previous posts:
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