Perceiving Istanbul from the bosphorus bridge

Throughout the history, Istanbul has always been a significant coastal city grasping an outstanding urban silhouette. Dividing the historical city into two pieces and constituting the border between two continents, Bosphorus Strait plays an important role in the generation of this silhouette. Natural, cultural and spatial diversity of the megacity enables Bosphorus Strait to capture prominent vantage points to Istanbul. By focusing on the visible areas from the Bosphorus Bridge, this study scrutinizes the spatial and visual alterations in the historic coastal areas of Istanbul in order to gain an understanding of these landscapes. Regarding the interaction between coastal silhouette and urban identity in Istanbul, this study utilizes GIS technology to identify the visual boundary perceived from the Bosphorus Bridge and examine the interplay between the major components of the pertinent silhouette. Further information on the progress of cityscape's transformation is compiled from the existing scholarly and government literatures, historical photographs and field studies. These analyses indicate that the visual boundary perceived from the Bosphorus Bridge expands beyond the legally defined and protected Bosphorus area, thus capturing even UNESCO World Heritage site of Istanbul and the skyscraper clusters of the last decades. There is a qualitative and quantitative decline in the proportion of historical artefacts and green spaces within the silhouette. Rapid process of urban transformation brings about spatial and perceptional alterations within the silhouette. However coastal silhouette and urban identity of Istanbul have been tightly knitted.