Meydan Shopping Square

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London’s Foreign Office Architects is redefining the shopping center’s usual function in its new Istanbul building. Rejecting the routine conception of a bubble world of consumption isolated from its surroundings, FOA has searched for possible correctives to Istanbul’s shortage of social space, where public squares and green areas are few and far between. The resulting Meydan mall blends into Istanbul’s cityscape in a remarkable way, forming a public square (after the European model) in a new part of the city and so proposing a place of social encounter amid the business of commerce. This publication documents Meydan’s development, from its beginnings in the international competition against firms such as BRT Architects, Chapman + Taylor and J.S.K. Architects to its actual construction, and describes the challenges of concept and design in reports and interviews.