REPRESENTATION OF THE LOFT IN İSTANBUL

With the onslaught of the Industrial Revolution, purpose-built industrial buildings were constructed that were large enough to accommodate the machinery and to compensate for the steam generated. Loft is an architectural concept, which was created with the conversion of these industrial buildings in city centers from mid-20th century onwards. It emerged as a social dynamic in industrialized Western countries. Today it has become a globally demanded type of housing. Since late industrialized regions of the world lack industrial building stock suitable for loft conversion, lofts are built from scratch in these regions as simulacra of their originals in the West. In İstanbul, industrial buildings were not accumulated during the historical development of the city due to various reasons. Therefore, loft buildings have been constructed from scratch in recent years. These are marketed as lofts, although they do not reflect loft characteristics. İstanbul imports loft architecture as detached from its historical development, and fails to generate lofts by conversion due to the lack of suitable building stock, but uses loft architecture as an aesthetic element in the new constructions. In İstanbul, the loft concept is used purely as a marketing tool, and the concept is hollowed out of its substance.