Came across this rather nice article about a french guy, Jean-François Perouse, working for the Institut Francais d'Etudes Anatoliennes in Istanbul - something they call the Observatoire Urbain d'Istanbul

"The cement folly of the Esenler bus station, the Üskudar heights on the Asian side, Samatya and Edikule, are regular haunts for Perouse, who “reads” the city in the key of urban geography and social anthropology."

"Perouse is currently working an a project for Paris publishing house Kallimages based on a series of anonymous photos from the 1900s. “It is as though the photographer had just stepped off the tourist boat, with no knowledge of mosques and churches. Literally, the anti-Orientalist,” says Perouse, who has added a fictional narrative to the images."

How is that for thinking City Index! Could he be a guy to pull in for a lecture this summer? It's a suggestion.

Here's a little essay he's written: Deconstructing the Gecekondu

... and while I'm at it - I bloody found it in the google newsreel I keep on my very own blog - full of Architecture and Urbanism.