Discover the inventory of multicultural buildings in Istanbul, walk through the memory tours, listen the stories of people who have lived in various Istanbul districts.
KarDes is a mobile application designed as a personal tour guide in Turkish and English languages for users who wish to discover the multicultural legacy and multilayered fabric of Istanbul.
With this application, KarDes users can discover a cultural inventory consisting of close to one thousand sites such as mosques, synagogues, schools, and cemeteries. As they walk along routes that make this multicultural legacy visible, they can hear Istanbul’s hidden stories, told by well-known Turkish artists.
Istanbul is a crossroads for many different cultures, with a history going back many centuries. Although the sites we use, the buildings we pass by, and the streets we walk down every day are all parts of rich stories, these stories usually lose that richness, forced into the shadow of standardized official narratives.
KarDes brings Istanbul's cultural heritage structures together with users to reveal the invisible richness of Istanbul. The “Discover” feature on the application helps users access the location, construction dates, and in some cases, brief information about cultural sites that they may encounter every day unaware, along with a comprehensive inventory of Istanbul’s cultural legacy.
Working to make unknown sites in well-known neighborhoods visible and
allowing their stories to be told, KarDes’ more than fifteen memory tours, each of which lasts an average of two hours, reveals the multicultural pasts of the various areas. Prepared through detailed research and consisting of nine to fifteen stops within walking distance of each other, the texts of the memory tours have narrated voluntarily by artists Esin Alpogan, Berge Arabian, Philip Arditti, Berkay Ateş, Hayko Cepkin, Ece Dizdar, Yetkin Dikinciler, Ceylan Ertem, Mahir Günşıray, Banu Güven, Nejat İşler, Simon Johns, Ercan Kesal, Nazan Kesal, Yekta Kopan, Lale Mansur, Eric Nazarian, Songül Öden, Tülin Özen, Tilbe Saran, Tuğrul Tülek, Serra Yılmaz, Shakeh Major Tchilingirian and Ayla Jean Yackley.
Presenting a powerful narrative through more than fifty oral history interviews, and continually updated with new tours, you can discover places like Yorgo’s Rose Garden, the Büyükdere Ice Cream Parlor, Apoyevmatini Newspaper, and hear the stories of Eftalya the Mermaid, Abdi Çelebi Mosque, Knar Sıvacıyan, the Narmanlı Han, the Galata Mevlevi Lodge, the Büyükada Clock Tower, and the Anatolia Club.
