From Archive to Sustainable Urban Memory: Evidence-Based Digital Interpretation of the Lost Fazlı Pasha Palace in Istanbul

This study investigates the vanished Fazlı Pasha Palace in Istanbul as a case of lost architectural heritage, addressing the challenges of heritage interpretation, presentation, and integration into contemporary urban contexts. Drawing on contemporary conservation frameworks, the research situates the palace within a broader discourse on cultural and urban sustainability, emphasising the interdependence of tangible and intangible heritage values. As a methodology, this study employs a multi-layered, interdisciplinary framework that synthesises archival empirical data, architectural historiography, and GIS-based geospatial analytics. Unlike traditional descriptive methods, this research introduces an integrated digital heritage interpretation model grounded in an evidence-grading system. This system categorises architectural data into three distinct epistemic levels: documented (empirical), inferred (analogous), and hypothetical (conjectural). By implementing this tripartite structure, the design ensures a structured communication of uncertainty, effectively bridging the gap between historical fragmentation and spatial data and stratification while strictly adhering to contemporary conservation approaches that critically limit speculative reconstruction in the cases of lost urban layers. The findings, supported by GIS spatial mapping, demonstrate how the palace’s administrative footprint influenced 18th-century Ottoman Istanbul’s urban fabric, of which there is very limited spatial knowledge. Moreover, proposals for effectively reintegrating lost architectural heritage into contemporary urban memory without compromising authenticity or the integrity of existing urban fabric are developed. In doing so, the study contributes to urban sustainability by offering a non-intrusive, reversible, and critically evidence-based approach to heritage interpretation. Beyond the specific case of the Fazlı Pasha Palace, the proposed model provides a transferable methodological framework for the interpretation of lost heritage in complex historic cities, supporting the continuity of cultural memory, identity, and place-based narratives. The research thus advances current debates on digital in-situ presentation of lost heritage, authenticity, and sustainable urban conservation by demonstrating how the memory of vanished buildings can be meaningfully presented and communicated within contemporary urban environments.