Similarities and differences between the turkish and Italian architectural museum design approach.

The present research aims to analyze the architectural and cultural relationship between Italy and Turkey, specifically in the naval museum design approach. Very relevant are the node points among the Italian and Turkish culture, thanks to the Italian establishments in Istanbul since middle ages. In particular the Galata district, in Beyoglu, had been completely designed and built by Italians originally from Genova. Turkey, primarily Istanbul, has a long and deeply-rooted naval culture as the presence of the ‗Halic’, wich is the oldest shipyard in the world, and the Besiktas Naval Museum Bozcaada Husnu Pasa dated 1897 confirms. The naval museum had been masterfully re-designed and enlarged in 2013 by the Turkish firm DBArchitects. Going through a close examination, not only of the architectural approach, but even of the museographic issues and decisions, we can feel the design affinities and differences of the two cultures. This essay will discuss a thesis project of the Naval Components Museum of Karakoy held in collaboration between the Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli and the Yildiz Technic University of Istanbul. The thesis, developed with the co-operation of two turkish professors, it’s an interesting experience of comparison between two ways of conceive architecture.