This is were we started–at the edge of Taksim Square, the de facto center of modern Istanbul, and a stone’s throw from Gezi Park, for many a symbol of a less-oppressive life in the city. Taksim Square is where people want to be to celebrate or to demonstrate. On one end, there is the Ataturk Cultural Center (AKM), a monument of secular Turkey with Western values (albeit with a deeply nationalistic core.) On the opposite end sits confidently a newly constructed Ottoman-style mosque as if it has always been there. In this highly contested and heavily loaded space, we set out to create an escape to a different world, to provide some respite from all the weight of concrete around us, along with some hope that we can build a greener, kinder, more livable city together. 

Our first iteration was an amazing learning experience. Through a collaboration between artists, permaculture designers, architects, engineers, chefs, farmers, sociologists, social entrepreneurs, and more, we created a “corridor” from the street facing side of our space to our back yard that filtered out the pressures of insatiable consumption, and offered people a little time with living, growing things. Inside the space where we ran a soup & salad restaurant, we custom-designed hydroponic systems on both walls of that corridor so that customers as well as our kitchen staff could witness the process of growing the food we were serving. We thought that was the best way of reducing food waste. In our small back yard, we had raised beds where we implemented companion planting, another highly productive hydroponic system which wasn’t behind closed doors so that people could touch the leaves of the many different plants we were trying to grow, a quail coop because we loved their singing (and the eggs), as well as a fairly large aquaponic system where the mind-blowing symbiosis between the different species was the inspiration for the project to start with. Pretty much everything in the garden was built using recycled material, mostly old EURO palettes. Nothing was done as a decoration, everything had a purpose. We had no interest in creating the illusion of a farm in the middle of the city; our goal was (and still is) to design the real urban farms that we want (/need) to see everywhere around us in all big cities.

We experimented, and learned many lessons during our first 5+ years in Taksim until we closed the space because of Covid. After a two-year pause, we reopened the restaurant at the beginning of 2023 with the same concept and enthusiasm of serving local, organic, sustainably produced food; but we used this opportunity to update the design. Now we have installed the newest version of our flagship aquaponic system, (yü)ZEN Bostan, along with its hidroponic double, DİK(ey) Bostan, in the interior space. The rest of the furniture is also our own design and production. We wanted to emphasize the idea of the local, so we tried to fit our entire beloved city of Istanbul into our space: On the ceiling in the front section, we recreated a 3D topography of Istanbul with Bosporus in the middle, running from the Marmara Sea towards the Black Sea. On the chairs, we are using felt cushions in the shape of the district of Beyoğlu where we are located. These cushions were hand produced by a women’s cooperative in the village of Boğatepe (which is actually quite far from Istanbul, but we feel still relevant in the discussion of local production.) In the middle section of our space, we see the depths of Bosporus, but upside down; and finally in the back, we reach the Black Sea at sundown. Beyond that, we have our back yard, which should finally get us to a green place… We are currently in the process of transforming that area. We loved everything we had before, but wanted to try a solution that addresses the heat sinks in urban centers. So we have applied green roof technology to put soil on the entire back yard which used to be concrete. Now we are working on various urban farming elements which will allow us to grow our food the way it is good for all participants in the ecosystem. Follow our progress on Instagram, or better yet, come and give us a hand!