ABSTRACT
The Istanbul Reklam Building is an iconic example of modern Turkish architecture of the late 1960s. This chapter explores an instance where a private sector client commissioned an over-scale building with a complex and heavy program in a historic urban context, and where the architects skillfully managed to reduce the effect of that scale by introducing inspired architectural devices. It also adds that private sector clients, such as Istanbul Reklam, sought to use architecture as advertising. Most importantly, the chapter argues that the building is a unique example of crossover advertising where one of the products advertised is modern architecture. The Istanbul Reklam Building was a media building: media content (advertising) was produced in it, photographic images of it were later disseminated through media, and it was a medium through which the agency advertised itself. To start with, naming this advertising agency after the city of Istanbul was a conscious branding decision.
