B12_#131 // Rehearsing Realities // Elif Ongut

CONTEXT: Old Imperial Ottoman Bank Vault

MICRO-TYPOLOGY: Cinema

Imperial Ottoman Bank Headquarters building designed by French architect Alexandre Vallaury was completed in 1892.

In 2009, located at the heart of Old Town Istanbul, this building re-opened its doors to the public, renovated and rebranded as an art & research institute named SALT. I came across this institution in 2010, while writing my IB extended essay. From the street, the grandiose entrance with heavy doors didn’t seem too inviting but I took the leap, as I walked up the stairs the building began to reveal itself with all its grandeur, I felt like I discovered an oasis in the middle of Istanbul and made my way into the library…

It has been ten years since my first visit to SALT. I have graduated and moved back to my hometown, Istanbul and I spend couple of days a week in this building, working in the basement library, which consists of a door leading into the old Imperial Ottoman Bank’s vault.

This brief reminded me of my reality, my daily life and made me think of where I am right now. Then I got this uncanny feeling, stopped for a second, turned around only to realise that I am sitting right beside the Ottoman Imperial Bank’s vault. Then I couldn’t help but wonder, in spaces/architectures that we spend so much of our daily lives in, do we sometimes take them for granted? Over the years, these spaces/ architectures shape the person we are today. So my entry for ‘Rehersing Realities’ is actually a reality check, a time machine to remind me of the history and architectural significance of this building. It forms an unlikely association between a bank vault and a theatre, creating a time-machine in the form of motion pictures, screening the last half-century of a declining Empire.

Elif Öngüt is an Architecture Graduate from The University of Edinburgh (ESALA)