Deciphering Urban Breccia: A Research on Hidden and Visible Layers of Mecidiyeköy Liquor Factory Psychoanalysis of Urban Space

From a phenomenological perspective, the urban space that is physically destroyed, rebuilt or transformed, and simultaneously lived, felt and perceived, exhibits the quality of ‘breccia’ by forming complex and multi-layered relational systems, in which visible and hidden layers can be described as the psychoanalysis of urban space. The aim of the study is to analyse this breccia structure with its visible and hidden layers through both semantic and syntactic approaches. The contribution of space syntax in making the information about the hidden layers of space visible will be investigated. The meanings produced by the space will be deciphered by simultaneous readings of syntactic analysis, inferences from phenomenological studies and cognitive maps. In the study, the hidden and visible layers and the relational systems created by them will be tried to be uncovered by researching on the Mecidiyeköy Liquor Factory Campus, which is one of the earliest examples of modern industrial architecture in Istanbul and also a vivid urban space that offers a meeting and a memory place for the citizens. It is thought that such a study will contribute to works that avoid examining the urban space only in terms of form or only in terms of meaning and aim to address the city as a whole from structural, social and psychological aspects.