Atatürk Cultural Center

The Ataturk Cultural Center closes the eastern side of Taksim Square, and it is the second building of that name to do so. The first was drawn by the architects Feridun Kip and Ruknettin Guney, its foundation laid on 29 May 1946, and it was completed to a redesign by Hayati Tabanlioglu and opened on 12 April 1969. It burned on 27 November 1970, during a performance of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and was gutted without loss of life. Tabanlioglu repaired it and it reopened on 6 October 1978. Yes. Level entrances, lifts, accessible seating, toilets and hearing-support arrangements provide accessible routes throughout public spaces. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes by event and auditorium. Yes. Taksim on M2 and F1. The public foyer, library and cultural spaces generally open daily 10:00-22:00; auditorium access follows each performance's doors and ticket time. Entry to public foyer areas and the library is free. Performances, cinema and selected exhibitions use event-specific tickets. Level entrances, lifts, accessible seating, toilets and hearing-support arrangements provide accessible routes throughout public spaces. M2 Taksim and F1 funicular emerge directly in Taksim Square beside AKM; buses stop around the square. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes by event and auditorium. Yes. Taksim on M2 and F1. The public foyer, library and cultural spaces generally open daily 10:00-22:00; auditorium access follows each performance's doors and ticket time. Entry to public foyer areas and the library is free. Performances, cinema and selected exhibitions use event-specific tickets. Level entrances, lifts, accessible seating, toilets and hearing-support arrangements provide accessible routes throughout public spaces. M2 Taksim and F1 funicular emerge directly in Taksim Square beside AKM; buses stop around the square. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes by event and auditorium. Yes. Taksim on M2 and F1. The public foyer, library and cultural spaces generally open daily 10:00-22:00; auditorium access follows each

The object everyone comes to see is the opera hall, a 2,040-seat auditorium whose exterior shell is clad in fifteen thousand specially manufactured ceramic pieces, deep red, and set behind a glazed facade so that the sphere is visible from the square as a mass floating inside the building. Seen from the foyer it is the single most striking interior in modern Istanbul, and it can be looked at without a ticket to anything. Yes. M2 Taksim and F1 funicular emerge directly in Taksim Square beside AKM; buses stop around the square.

Forty-five minutes for the walk-through, and it is worth being precise about what that covers. Ten to fifteen minutes goes to the foyer and the red sphere, which needs looking at from the ground, from the upper level and from outside through the glass, because it reads differently from each. Ten minutes covers the arcade and the internal corridor with its cafes and bookshop. The rest depends on whether an exhibition is up. Yes.

The public foyer, library and cultural spaces generally open daily 10:00-22:00; auditorium access follows each performance's doors and ticket time. M2 Taksim and F1 funicular emerge directly in Taksim Square beside AKM; buses stop around the square. Level entrances, lifts, accessible seating, toilets and hearing-support arrangements provide accessible routes throughout public spaces.

Entry to public foyer areas and the library is free. Performances, cinema and selected exhibitions use event-specific tickets. The public foyer, library and cultural spaces generally open daily 10:00-22:00; auditorium access follows each performance's doors and ticket time. Level entrances, lifts, accessible seating, toilets and hearing-support arrangements provide accessible routes throughout public spaces.

M2 Taksim and F1 funicular emerge directly in Taksim Square beside AKM; buses stop around the square. Level entrances, lifts, accessible seating, toilets and hearing-support arrangements provide accessible routes throughout public spaces. The public foyer, library and cultural spaces generally open daily 10:00-22:00; auditorium access follows each performance's doors and ticket time.

Level entrances, lifts, accessible seating, toilets and hearing-support arrangements provide accessible routes throughout public spaces. Yes. Yes. Yes. Historic surfaces, crowds and security remain relevant. The public foyer, library and cultural spaces generally open daily 10:00-22:00; auditorium access follows each performance's doors and ticket time.

One subject dominates: the red sphere seen through the glazed facade. The photograph works best from outside at dusk, when the interior lighting turns the glass transparent and the ceramic mass glows against a darkening square. In daylight the same view fails, because the glass turns into a mirror of the sky and the sphere disappears behind it; midday is the worst hour to attempt this shot. From inside, the sphere is too large to fit the frame from close range. Entry to public foyer areas and the library is free. Performances, cinema and selected exhibitions use event-specific tickets.