The third formalism: A study on the Arter building in İstanbul

Abstract

Two major formal approaches have governed architectural discourse over the last century: formal autonomy and formal engagement. While formal autonomy disengaged architecture from its social, political, cultural, and physical context, formal engagement of current architectural new-pragmatism hardly offered a critical evaluation of these contextual features. Another approach is possible, which we will name here as third formalism alluding to Anthony Vidler’s seminal article “The Third Typology” (1998). This third formalism discusses the possibility of an architecture that realizes both the separation from and engagement with the external contextual conditions via the form. Without naming it as such, this alternative approach has been articulated by Pier Vittorio Aureli in his book The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture (2011). This paper aims at discussing this third alternative by analyzing the Arter building in İstanbul. Designed by Grimshaw Architects and opened in 2019, Arter’s new building is located in Dolapdere, Beyoğlu, which witnesses a rapid urban transformation. Arter is a good example of the third formalism since its finite and definitive form neither directly follows the external forces of its urban surrounding nor disregards its context by solely focusing on the intrinsic formal elements of architecture.