Atatürk Cultural Center
Tabanlıoğlu Architects / Murat Tabanlıoğlu · Istanbul, Turkey · 2021
The rebuilt Atatürk Cultural Center re-establishes a major performance institution on Taksim Square while deliberately recalling the proportions and public role of the earlier 1969 building designed by Hayati Tabanlıoğlu. The new complex places a large red spherical opera auditorium behind a transparent façade and extends cultural, gallery, library and public programs along a secondary axis. Completed in 2021 by Tabanlıoğlu Architects, the project is both reconstruction and reinterpretation: it restores AKM’s symbolic position in the square while creating a much larger contemporary arts campus.