Growing up visiting my grandparents apartment and having now set shop in their space in Taksim Square for the past two years, I can first and foremost vouch that Istanbul’s central hub, public square, and its only major park is chaotic, dysfunctional, and simply confusing. It is not uncommon to find tourists and even residents of the city coming out of the subway or being dropped off by the busses to find themselves stranded on a landlocked “Taksim Square,” dumb founded by this incomprehensible space. In order to understand the Square’s space, we must first look at the buildings and spaces that frames the negative space that is Taksim Square. To its west is the entrance to Istiklal street which is marked by the circular Republic Monument built prior to the square in 1928 to commemorate the newly founded Turkish Republic. To its north is Gezi Park built on top of the old army Barracks in the 1940s by urban designer Henry Prost, which is perched above the square blocking visual connection towards the actual park space and the city beyond it. To its east the AKM Ataturk Cultural Center stands firmly as a central modernist building representing a contemporary Turkey from the 1960’s, currently unoccupied and under renovation for the past 5years. To its south stands the 32 story Marmara Hotel built in the 1970’s that occupies the entire block and is suspiciously Taksim Square’s one and only high rise building marking its skyline. Finally, a road that funnels copious numbers of busses to the metro and funicular lines underneath, encircles the empty square that in turn acts as the central transportation hub to the entire city.