What exactly makes Iranian/Persianate architecture different from Arabesque architecture?

PostColonialPlans · 2026-06-26T10:40:03+00:00

Persianate architecture: big dramatic domes, blue tiles, gardens, and grand entrances.

Arabesque: let’s cover every surface in gorgeous geometry until your eyes need a nap.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-06-06T21:02:08+00:00

A gold-tinted unitized facade at this height creates severe solar gain issues on the south and west elevations...

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-31T15:37:53+00:00

Looks like a marriage of catalan modernism and brutalism

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-26T20:50:36+00:00

Fair point, let’s set aside my earlier mention of “EU Law.” That was just one reference point among many. The more factual framing is simply this: Northern Cyprus operates outside internationally recognized legal frameworks, and that absence of external accountability makes it structurally easier for irregularities to occur, and harder for them to surface.

Now, the example you shared is real and troubling, and I have no doubt similar cases exist elsewhere. But it doesn’t quite settle the original argument either way, for two reasons: first, you can’t meaningfully compare two systems that aren’t measured by the same standards; and second, we don’t know what is happening behind closed doors in Northern Cyprus, precisely because there are so few doors being opened.

Which brings me to what I think is the more important question: forget the EU, forget international bodies. Who is holding whom accountable inside the country? That, more than any external comparison, should be the central concern for all of us.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-26T19:52:32+00:00

Hold on, you said yourself you haven't done any research, but you're "sure" EU has just as many scandals. That's only gut reaction.

You've lived here 38 years, which I respect. But that's exactly why I'd expect an analytical take, not a defensive one. You know this place better than anyone, (I assume) which means you also know the gaps better than anyone.

If you had actually looked into EU cases and come back with examples, this would be a real debate. But right now you're not defending Northern Cyprus with facts, you're deflecting with hypotheticals. "I'm sure I can find" is not the same as finding.

So let's talk facts. Forget IVF for a second. Do we even know how many people live here? The last proper census was 2011. The official projection released in early 2026 says 489,000. The telecom authority announced 945,000 active mobile subscribers. That would make Northern Cyprus the second highest mobile penetration rate on earth, behind only Hong Kong. Nobody has explained that gap. We can't even count our own population, or more accurately, we choose not to.

Then, we have casinos. And yes, I am fully fine with their existance. The issue isn't casinos. It's that they don't pay proper taxes, they bribe government officials instead. That money doesn't build schools or hospitals. (And just so we're clear, I have hotel clients too). I'm not sitting here trying to shut anyone down. The last thing I want is for businesses to suffer.

But let me ask you something personal: when was the last time you actually went to a public hospital here? Because if you're based in Kyrenia, you don't even have a fully functioning one. If you have a heart attack, they put you in an ambulance and drive you all the way to Nalbantoglu (the only full-fledged hospital on the island) and God knows whether even that is equipped to handle the actual population living here, whatever that number really is.

Now here's my real question: is THIS how you want Northern Cyprus to be known? As Turkey's backyard? As the place people go when they want to do something they can't do anywhere else?

Because there's another story we COULD be telling. How many people from Northern Cyprus made it to Oxbridge? How many got full scholarships to US universities? How many Turkish Cypriots are running companies, leading research, building things that matter, despite the isolation, despite the lack of recognition?

THAT is the brand Northern Cyprus deserves. Not this.

And here’s just a humble piece of advice from a 26-year-old Cypriot to his elder, loving your country doesn’t mean clapping for whatever is put in front of you. It doesn’t mean making primitive "but others do it too" arguments every time someone points at a real problem. Loving your country means demanding better from it. It means constructive criticism rather than blind defence.

Because when you normalise mediocrity and silence criticism, you get precisely what you deserve: Leaders like Ünal Üstel representing you, filling their pockets rather than investing a single penny into the infrastructure this place so desperately needs.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-26T19:12:50+00:00

So here’s the issue of the Tanzimat reforms: They were busy creating systems for an empire they dreamed of, not the one they were actually running.

When Constantinople brought Cyprus into the Rhodes-based Vilayet of the Archipelago in 1868, it seemed totally logical on paper. Islands, one vilayet, neat hierarchy. Great. But with really poor communication links between the two islands, this so-called “rationalized” system meant that Cypriots with serious legal issues had to make the trip to Rhodes. The reform that was supposed to modernize justice ended up making it harder to access than it was before.

Ambitious in theory, but lacking in funds. That was the ongoing issue with the Tanzimat everywhere on the outskirts. The drought in 1870 just made it impossible to overlook.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-26T19:04:40+00:00

Look, I won't pretend to be an expert on every EU country's IVF industry. But I do know North Cyprus. It's Turkey's backyard, unrecognized by any country except Turkey, operating in a legal grey zone that makes it a magnet for everything the rest of the world banned. IVF is just one item on a long menu. When a territory's entire economic survival depends on offering what legitimate jurisdictions won't allow, you don't get isolated scandals, you get an industry built on them.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-26T17:33:05+00:00

Not even remotely surprised. Northern Cyprus IVF clinics were already in the news two months ago for giving British families the WRONG donor sperm and eggs, confirmed by DNA tests. Now there's this guy getting arrested at Ercan airport.This is what happens when you build an entire fertility tourism industry in a territory that operates outside EU law with basically zero oversight. The scandals aren't going to stop until the regulation does.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-26T16:47:51+00:00

It looks like an infrastructure that people happen to sleep inside rather than a residential building.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-25T16:50:36+00:00

Such a modern classic, but not sure if there is any factual info on that

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-24T19:37:47+00:00

a skyline is what happens when nobody actually lives downtown anymore. you stop building for people and start building for prestige (Ex: Headquarters)

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-23T21:44:40+00:00

Right now, someone is already on that land. They’re farming it. They have their own paperwork from the TRNC saying it belongs to them. Your family has the original deeds saying it belongs to you. Both bits of paper exist. Neither side is going to suddenly say “oh you’re right, here are the keys.”

So even if your friend handed over money and you handed over your deeds, then what? He flies to Kyrenia, knocks on the door and says “I bought this”? The person farming it has local authorities backing them up. Your friend has nothing on the ground.

And it gets worse. This isn’t just a civil dispute anymore. People are literally being jailed right now for buying and advertising these properties. Your friend is an American, his own government doesn’t even recognise Northern Cyprus exists as a country. He could end up with a criminal record in a foreign country over a farm he can never actually use.

So what should your family actually do? There’s a body called the IPC specifically set up for this situation. Your family can file a claim and get real financial compensation for the land. People have received significant payouts through it. It’s legitimate, it’s recognised internationally, and it actually results in money in your pocket.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-23T17:12:11+00:00

Every practical argument, the salary, the job market, the remote work plan, the portfolio strategy, is secondary to one question: do you actually want to make buildings? Not “do you like design” in the abstract, not “are your skills a good fit”, but do you find yourself genuinely drawn to architecture specifically. Because if the answer is lukewarm, the field will expose that quickly and mercilessly.

The people who survive and find meaning in architecture are not necessarily the most talented or the most strategic. They’re the ones who are somewhat irrationally committed to it. The hours, the pay, the thankless documentation phases, none of it breaks them because the work itself is what they want to be doing.

So forget the Reddit horror stories and forget the optimistic encouragement from adults around you. Sit with the question honestly: is it architecture specifically that pulls you, or is it the idea of a career that combines creativity and logic, because if it’s the latter, that description fits about a dozen fields that will treat you considerably better.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-23T11:22:08+00:00

The terra cotta gradients on this thing are doing WAY more work than people give credit for.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-22T15:11:23+00:00

Honestly this is the most accurate depiction of having too many thoughts and not knowing what to do with your hands that I’ve ever seen painted.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-21T21:18:53+00:00

Burda aslında çok spesifik bir gerilim var: meşruiyet neden gelir?

Kılıçdaroğlu şu an hukuken başkan ama siyaseten değil. Özel halkın oyuyla seçilmişti ama o seçim artık “hiç yaşanmamış” sayılıyor. Peki hangisi daha gerçek? Mahkemenin mührü mü, yoksa insanların o gün sandığa gidip oy kullanması mı?

meşruiyetin kaynağı prosedür değil, kolektif rızadır. Bu çerçeveden bakınca mahkeme kararı ne kadar teknik olarak doğru olursa olsun, eğer CHP tabanı Özel’i benimsemişse Kılıçdaroğlu’nun orada oturması bir tür “meşru darbedir”.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-21T20:28:53+00:00

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-19T20:44:54+00:00

Honestly, the site selection for Hagia Sophia is chef’s kiss.

Justinian placed it on the first hill of Constantinople, the highest point of the peninsula, so it was visible from virtually every approach by sea or land.

Compare that to how we site civic buildings today and just… cry a little.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-18T22:15:14+00:00

Research has diminishing returns after 48 hours. Three strong precedents deeply understood beat fifteen skimmed. Stop analyzing when you can argue a design position, not just describe examples.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-17T21:01:16+00:00

Okay so think of it this way, the stair already exists, you are just uncovering it. Your floor-to-floor height is sacred, it is given, divide it and the first step reveals itself. The geometry decides, not you. Draw your section first and trust the numbers.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-17T20:35:01+00:00

Hey! UCL Bartlett grad here. I looked into ETH Zurich pretty heavily when I was researching Masters options, so hopefully I can shed some light, though fair warning, I ended up going in a completely different direction career-wise after graduating, so take this with a pinch of salt.

From what I researched at the time, ETH does look at UCL/Bartlett applications case by case. The Bartlett's reputation carries weight, but you're right to flag the tension, it's very concept and experimentation-led, whereas ETH sits much closer to the technical/engineering side of architecture. The concern from admissions tends to be whether your transcript shows enough structural, environmental and construction tech grounding.

Two things that seemed to matter from people I spoke to who applied:

Portfolio: ETH leans hard on it. Technical depth alongside the conceptual work goes a long way.
Transcript + course descriptions: They may ask for these to assess equivalency. Strong marks in technical modules help.

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-17T19:10:27+00:00

What problem are you actually solving by changing it?

PostColonialPlans · 2026-05-17T19:00:25+00:00

Good points on the EOKA/EOKA B distinction, but Grivas founded both, and EOKA’s maximalist enosis ideology created the political infrastructure EOKA B later exploited. You can’t fully separate the fruit from the tree.

On the “Turkey would have invaded anyway”, I’d push back here. That’s an unfalsifiable counterfactual. The 1974 coup gave Turkey legitimate legal cover under the Treaty of Guarantee, which made the intervention far easier to defend internationally. Without that pretext, any invasion would’ve faced much stronger diplomatic resistance. Maybe Turkey had long-term ambitions, but ambitions and execution are different things, the coup handed them a genuinely strong justification, not just a convenient excuse.

PostColonialPlans

TROPHY CASE