Architecture

The  “Architecture  of  Transition”  is  the  graduation project  of  the  final  year  of  the Architecture  program  of  Izmir  University  of  Economics  in  Turkey  and  it  is  one  of  the three  units  given  in  the 4th  Year.  The  unit  has  an urban  focus  which  has  a  critical  and contextual  look  at  the  built  environment  where  students  are  given  themes  of  Refugee and  Immigrant  Support  Centre  and/or  Living-in transition.  The  project  site  is  one  of  the main  transportation  hubs  of  Izmir,  Basmane  Izmir  which  has  been  the  place  of  refugees  and immigrants  over  the  years. In  search  for  a  urban/contextual  approach  to  architectural education, this 15-week studio took place between February 2016 and June 2016.

This paper presents the  urban approach to architectural design studio, with given basic concepts,  themes  by  the  studio  instructors  and  the design  process,  and  some  selected examples of students’ projects. As well as exercising with a scale-sliding issue in design the  unit  aims to  increase  awareness for  the  refugee  crises  and  encourage students  think outside  classic  programmatic  approaches  to  architectural  design.  In  this  paper,  we comment  on  our  experience  of  tutoring  an  experimental  studio  with  22  students  while having studio aims such as small-scale, building in dense & historic urban environment without a previously set architectural program.

In  planning  terminology,  urban  resilience  is  described  as  the  stability  of  materials  and their resistance to external shocks, which can be either social or ecological. Allan et al. (2013) contribute to the literature with their conceptual theory of urban resilience. They reveal  the  impact  of  urban  morphology  and  early  spatial  decisions  on  enhancing  the resilience  of  cities  (Allan  et  al.,  2013).  Marcus& Colding  (2014)  approaches  theory  of resilience  in  relation  with  concepts  of  “change”,  “diversity”,  “self-organisation”  and “learning.  Today,  the  majority  of  urban  resilience studies  concentrate  on  ecological subsystems like earthquakes, floods, tsunami ...etc. This makes the concept of resilience directly  and  only  related  with  risk  management  work.  However,  in  the  contemporary world,  social  changes  might  create  resilience  situations.  Huge  amount  and  sudden migration is one of these cases. It tests an urban environment’s flexibility. We can think Basmane within this theoretical context.

The  unit,  a  site-focused  contextual  unit,  focuses  on  several  potential  sites  in  Basmane.  Students  are  given  the  choice  of  some  specific  urban  plots.  Being  closer  to  Basmane train  and  metro  station  and  city  centre,  the  site  has  accommodated  the  immigrants,  the others, marginal groups over the years and now accommodating Syrian refugees. There have been many different ethnic and social groups living in the area. The studio aims to explore  the  issue  of  transition  and  designing  for/in  the  transition,  i.e.  constant demographic,  social  and  landuse  change  in  Basmane  area.  Within  the  scope  of  this paper,  how  the  discussions  on  resilience  concept  reflected  onto  students’  design decisions  both  in  architectural  and  urban  scale,  in  particular  spatial  strategies, conceptualization  of  design  problem,  development  of  architectural  program  will  be investigated.  Furthermore  the  debate  “social  responsibility  in  architecture”,  “social responsibility of an architect” will be questioned as well analysing the students’ projects and their approach to social responsibility in architecture.

We made an invited talk in the closing panel of the conference.

We discussed the possible tools of urban design practice in the age of climate crisis. We specifically focused on open public spaces and their current design problems in Turkey (impermeable pavements that prevent stormwater to reach the earth, increasind surface temperature that results from huge concrete and paved open spaces, lack of adequate landscaping in streets that lack urban cooling effect of trees). We then mentioned about our two projects, which are both on the issue of "urban rivers".

Topography is one of the unique geographical characteristics of any city. There are signifıcant differences between a fiat and a hilly urban area regarding both morphological and ecological aspects. Valleys, hilis, ridges, shores, outskirts, water basins, water canals and other similar formations are not only morphological reflections of topography, but also they are occurrences that shape any city's climate, resistance to natural disasters, togetherness of natural life and urban development.
Valleys, specifically, provide the formation of required wind breeze corridors that function as micro-climatic circulation in an urban area. Moreover, they create natural drainage systems for water resources as well as periodical surface waters (like rain water).

Topography in Istanbul, despite being a quite rich donnee, has always been seen as an obstacle in front of urban development practices, which resulted in a sort of urbanization that has erased topography. Valleys, hills, water basins and other formations have witnessed a generic urban development with a dense and voidless urban tissue.

Isn't it now indispensable to think about topography and to reclaim valleys in order to generate meaningful voids that will function as open green systems? Don't the recent and consecutive natural disasters experienced in Istanbul (like Jethal floods and earthquakes) display the most concrete ground for such a questioning?

We should rescue and reclaim our valleys; not only for creating open public spaces but also for sustaining urban-nature reconciliation. Well the n how to develop a solution that will take topography of a city as an urban design input? W hat kin d of spatial strategies can been developed in order to carry out such an objective? How to regain a valley that has lost its natural characteristics by various structural interventions and that has witnessed a dense settling? This project that is prepared by the project team of 8arti within the scope of Urban Age conferences should be evaluated as an attempt to seek for solutions for such urban problems.

5-6 Kasım 2009 tarihleri arasında İstanbul'da düzenlenecek Urban Age Konferansı öncesinde Arkitera Mimarlık Merkezi ve London School of Economics tarafından, genç mimarlar ve şehir plancılarından oluşan ekiplerin katıldığı bir workshop düzenlendi. Workshop'a katılan 5 ekipten birisi olan Sekizartı Mimarlık ve Kentsel Tasarım'ın konusu Kağıthane Vadisi üzerinden topoğrafyanın tekrar düşünülerek kentleşmenin ele alınmasıydı.