“Orphanages are dense and harmonious living spaces housing hundreds of children under same roof simultaneously. Abandoned Jewish Orphanage Building in Ortaköy (OHR-tah-keuy) Istanbul (also known as El Orfelinato) has been home for thousand lives during its century old history. It holds the memory of the past in worn stairs and layers of paint.
“El Orfelinato means ‘The Orphanage’ in Spanish. The name has been used by Sephardi Jews (Jews from Spain) community in Istanbul for decades. Sephardi Jews have a 500 year history in Istanbul since they were forced to migrate with mass conversions and executions by Catholic Monarchs in Iberia in 15th century.
“oddviz sheds light upon the visual and spatial memory of El Orfelinato, documenting it as it is with photogrammetry and presenting it in doll house view.”
building
…and so it begins.
The Epic of The Second Shed – a process
May 12, 2014, 9:09am
May 12, 2014, 1:25pm
May 13, 2014, 8:31pm
May 14, 2014, 11:48am
May 15, 2014, 4:13pm
Detailed Cross-section of the Kowloon Walled City by Japanese researchers led by anthropologist Kani Hioraki
“Kowloon Walled City was a largely ungoverned, densely populated settlement in Kowloon City in Hong Kong. Originally a Chinese military fort, the Walled City became an enclave after the New Territories were leased to Britain by China in 1898. Its population increased dramatically following the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II. By 1990, the Walled City contained 50,000 residents[1][2] within its 2.6-hectare (6.4-acre) borders. From the 1950s to the 1970s, it was controlled by local triads and had high rates of prostitution, gambling and drug abuse.”
“The Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong was once the most densely populated place on earth. And without a single architect or any oversight whatsoever, the ungoverned hive of interlinking buildings became a haven for drugs, crime and prostitution. This is perhaps why the surreal, M.C. Escher-like structure, where one couldn’t even begin to imagine what life was like, captured the interest of the Japanese.”
(link fixed 2014)
Paul Greer 