Quick Facts
Biography
Bülent Güngör is a modern Turkish architect, known for the restoration of the Çırağan Palace, the Yıldız Palace, and the Sümela Monastery.
Golden Horn Bridge project
In 1502, Leonardo da Vinci designed a single span 720-foot (240 m) bridge over the Golden Horn, the inlet that divides Istanbul. This was part of a civil engineering project for Sultan Bayezid II. Five centuries later, Bülent Güngör is to build it.
On 17 May 2006, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Kadir Topbaş, mayor of Istanbul, announced a decision to build Leonardo’s bridge. This followed urban planning and feasibility studies, started in 1999. Güngör was chosen as lead architect.
The bridge will be the first of Leonardo’s projects built at its original scale and planned location. It will be as shown on his sketches.
The bridge will be an exact copy of his design, with a single, 720 ft (240m) long span, 26 ft (8m) wide and 78 ft (24m) above the waters of the Golden Horn.
The idea also re-appeared 2001, using Leonardo’s design to build a small footbridge, near Aas in Norway.