Brazil/Turkey, Turkey/Brazil

I don’t think it is solely because I have spent so much time studying Brazil that I keep seeing similarities between Brazil and Turkey. I think there is a deeper level of structural similarity that comes from parallel passages to the creation of a modern nation-state and similar positions in the global economy. 

Atatürk/Getúlio Vargas, gecekondu/favela, Kapalı Carşı/Saara, the parallels are everywhere. Walking the side streets around Taksim Square, I was struck by how similar they are to those around Largo da Carioca in Rio, or Anhangabaú in São Paulo. They have the same mixture of pedestrian, motorcycle and automobile traffic (that sense that you are on a pedestrian-only street until a car suddenly comes through), of formal and informal commerce, of once-grand buildings of the late-nineteenth century now fallen into gritty, multi-use repurposing. 

I loved this building on İstiklale, the main drag. From bottom to top, it contains a clothing store, café, billiard hall, fitness center, travel agency, English school and probably a residence on top of that. 

This is the kind of density and diversity of use that gives these emergent global cities their vitality.