The Palimpsest City and the World Expo: A Framework for Representing Layered Urban Identity

Abstract

This paper examines how cities whose identities are characterised by deep historical complexity can be represented within the World Expo format, using Istanbul as the analytical subject. The Bureau International des Expositions regulatory framework structurally favours concentrated, singular national narratives, placing palimpsest cities at a representational disadvantage that existing scholarship has not addressed systematically. The paper develops the Narrative Spatial Framework, an integrated analytical apparatus combining six theoretical pillars: Ricoeur's narrative mimesis (1984), Zumthor's architectural atmosphere (2006), Tschumi's event-space (1994), Frampton's critical regionalism (1983), Said's representational politics (1978) and Lefebvre's social production of space (1991). Applied to Istanbul, the framework produces six representational principles demonstrated through two analytical scenarios. Istanbul's palimpsest complexity is not a representational liability but its most analytically honest and generative condition. The framework offers a replicable apparatus for other cities of analogous historical complexity.