Turkey's 'Dystopian Disneyland'

Burj Al Babas Summer View - constructional update - villas in Turkey

Arch Daily wrote about the Burj Al Babas project, launched in 2014 in the Turkish town of Mudurnu. The area was filled with Disneyesque castles for rich people but the fairytale soon descended into a Márquezian nightmare filled with abandonment:

In 2018, as the global real estate market and economy deteriorated, and the Turkish lira depreciated, Sarot Group found itself burdened with debt and declared bankruptcy. They abandoned 587 units that were under construction. In the subsequent years, the company repeatedly expressed hopes of resuming the project, even mentioning prospects of selling another 100 castles to help settle debts, but this never materialized.

Six years later, the nearly 600 abandoned castles create a surreal scene, as if Disney had imagined a princess tale in a dystopian future. Beyond the ghost town ambiance, the mini-castles provoke reflections on kitsch architecture, parodying an ideal of luxury and romance until it loses meaning. Amidst blue-turreted towers and small ogival windows, Burj Al Babas’ castles materialize a strange intersection of mass culture elements and a desire for ostentatious grandeur, embodying a pop realism that promotes artificiality, reinforces stereotypes, and leans towards pastiche—a decontextualized imitation of elements. The sales success of these castles also reflects a contemporary consumer profile favoring imported aesthetics over authentic expressions.

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