Behind this design, there actually is a “destruction of nature” story.
I always lived as a big city girl. I was born in Istanbul which is a beautiful but quite crowded and tiring city. I have witnessed many bad things in Istanbul in recent years. But the worst of them was the destruction of trees and plants. They called it “urban transformation”. The aim of the project is to build high rise buildings after the demolition of old and low rise buildings.
I was living in Kadıkoy district which has old buildings and almost all of them has private gardens like a little forest. In my neighbourhood, there were lots of wide variety of plants on both sides of the streets. It makes you feel peaceful even when living in a big city. But one day they start to destroy everything that belongs to my childhood. When they demolish a building they also ripped off all the trees in the garden at the same time. In the third year of this project, you could see only concrete all around the city. Less green, less blue more greyness. I was watching the huge trees which were ripped off, with tears from my window. It was an unbearable situation for me.
Because of this ruthless system, I left my city when I was 34 and moved to London. Every time I go back to Istanbul, I see it keeps changing and gets ugly. The urban transformation is still proceeding and Istanbul is destroying itself.
I have created this pattern by remembering the old green image of my neighbourhood. And here are some of the beautiful plants which stuck in my mind. I think there is a longing of nature on all my designs.
