Design
The Istanbul That Might Have Been, and Might Still Be
A book of unbuilt Ottoman-era architectural and engineering plans sheds surprising light on the current building boom in Turkey’s largest city.
Sometime in the not-so-distant future, visitors to Istanbul will be able to soar above the Bosphorus, crossing the famous strait on a intercontinental aerial tramway, the city’s mayor, Kadir Topbaş, announced last month.
With Istanbul in the throes of a building boom, it’s not the only seemingly fanciful idea that’s been floated recently by a public official. During the 2011 election season, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unveiled his self-described "crazy project" to build a second, man-made strait parallel to the Bosphorus.