Bringing together the layered history of the city with contemporary design, the Global Design Forum Istanbul transformed the city for three days into more than an event venue. It became a living laboratory of ideas. From Hagia Eirene to installations spread across different corners of the city, the forum reopened the discussion on design’s relationship not only with objects, but also with memory, space and time.
The Istanbul edition of the Global Design Forum (GDF Istanbul), which began yesterday and will continue for three days, is far more than an international design gathering. It stands as a multilayered cultural event that reinterprets Istanbul’s historical texture through contemporary thought. Bringing together leading global figures from the world of design, the forum removes the city from the sterile atmosphere of conventional conference halls and places it directly within its own historical memory.
At the heart of the event stands Hagia Eirene (Aya Irini), one of Istanbul’s most striking monuments, carrying within its walls layers of history stretching from the Byzantine to the Ottoman era. The forum’s central theme, “Praise to Transience,” gains a particularly powerful meaning within this historic structure. Permanence and impermanence, stone and light, history and contemporary intervention all encounter one another within the same atmosphere.
The artworks and architectural interventions created for the event are designed not merely to be exhibited, but to invite visitors into a new relationship with the spirit of the space itself. Installations spread across various parts of the city make visible the relationship between design, public space and everyday life.
Serving as the architectural advisor of the forum, Celaleddin Çelik describes the project not simply as bringing an international design platform to Istanbul, but as connecting global design intellect with the city’s multilayered memory. According to Çelik, the aim was to unify every detail of the Istanbul edition under a holistic architectural language speaking directly to the city’s temporal depth.
For this reason, the organizers deliberately rejected the idea of hosting the forum inside a generic convention center. Instead, they chose a 4th-century monument standing at the heart of the city. The selection of Hagia Eirene reveals that the forum establishes not only an intellectual framework, but also a deeply spatial one.
Among the prominent figures participating in the forum is interdisciplinary artist and designer Melek Zeynep Bulut, internationally recognized for her works exploring perception, space and memory. Bulut’s practice resonates strongly with the intellectual atmosphere of GDF Istanbul, where design is approached not only as a functional discipline, but also as an emotional, philosophical and cultural experience.
Without question, one of the forum’s most striking works is “Red Room.” Developed by Çelik in collaboration with People Places Ideas (PPI), the installation consists of a semi-transparent crimson tulle structure placed within the sky-open atrium of Hagia Eirene.
One of the installation’s most powerful elements is its use of color. The monochromatic crimson tone draws inspiration from the red ochre frequently found in Istanbul’s traditional civil architecture. In doing so, it creates a contemporary dialogue between the monumental Byzantine stone texture and the city’s Ottoman timber-house memory.
As daylight filters through the crimson tulle, it spreads across the floor, furniture and even the bodies of visitors, transforming the space into not only a visual but also a sensory experience.
One of the most remarkable aspects of GDF Istanbul is its refusal to define design solely through industrial production or aesthetic objects. Throughout the forum, discussions revolve around themes such as the spirit of place, public experience, sustainability and cultural memory.
This approach is particularly evident in the work of Melek Zeynep Bulut, whose practice explores the psychological relationship between space, light and the human body.
One of GDF Istanbul’s strongest qualities is that it refuses to confine itself within a single building. Artworks and design interventions spread throughout the city transform Istanbul itself into a living exhibition space.
In recent years, Istanbul has strengthened its position on the international cultural map through biennials, contemporary art exhibitions and cultural forums. With the Global Design Forum, the city now appears to be establishing a new threshold in the field of design as well.
Yet the forum’s true significance lies not simply in gathering global design circles in Istanbul, but in making the city’s historical memory newly readable through contemporary thought.
