This thesis examines Taksim Square as a historically and contemporarily contested public space shaped through architectural interventions, state ideology, media narratives, and civic practices. Situated at the intersection of architectural history, urban sociology, and political geography, the study approaches public space not as a neutral physical setting but as a socio-spatial construct continuously produced through power relations, representation, and conflict. Focusing on Taksim Square, the research investigates how the square’s political and symbolic meanings have been formed, stabilized, and challenged over time. The thesis addresses three central questions: how Taksim Square has been shaped by architecture, urban interventions, and state ideology throughout its history; how press narratives and collective memory have contributed to the production and circulation of the square’s political meanings; and how the 2013 Gezi Park protests, and subsequent spatial transformations and protests, have rendered conflicts over public space, the right to the city, and urban democracy visible.