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Architecture [I] *

Pelin Derviş *

Introduction [II] * One of the basic dilemmas of architecture in Turkey is the question where it fits in the global

architectural scene. This identity question concerns both the architectural styles used, and its norms

and overriding philosophy. The question of what „Turkish architecture‟ is forms the basis of a struggle

that various professionals working in the field are engaged in. There are also those, just as in the field

of design, who are skeptical of the need for a „Turkish architecture/design‟ to emerge. The

aforementioned struggle often results in limited binary discourses such as “architecture in this country

exists/doesn't exist” or “we should protect/produce our own values.” It also forms the basis of most of

the architecture publications that actually are few in terms of numbers, the reward mechanisms,

chambers and other associations, and even of professional education. In other words, these institutions

keep the aforementioned restricted binary discourses going. Although the construction industry is

powerful and omnipresent in Turkey, the quality of the built environment is often criticized (and often

quite rightly so). At the same time, the “authentic” architecture in Turkey is only looked at through the

binary oppositions of local versus global. From this perspective, no matter how positive certain

statistics seem (such as the high number of universities with faculties/departments of architecture, the

number of architects, the power of the construction industry etc.) it is important to understand and take

into account the aforementioned struggle before drawing conclusions about the state of architecture in

Turkey. It can be argued that architecture in Turkey shot itself in the foot. Discourses may be

ideologically (politically) tainted, out of context and/or extremely generalized, which results in “stuck”

readings. Perhaps new and fresh readings which dissect the existing discourses, which decipher the

links with other factors that affect architecture directly or indirectly, and which reconstruct it, will

emerge not from architecture itself but from other areas: primarily contemporary art but also literature,

sociology, economy, and others. The following paragraphs on architecture, urban planning and

landscape design take snapshots of the architectural environment in Turkey, and is also enumerating,

albeit within the limitations mentioned above, the institutions, the people and the publications that

form this environment.

*Short history of architecture [II] *

*Gökhan Karakuş*

The development of architecture in the Republic of Turkey has been tied to the shifting demands of

politics and economics. Since the foundation of the Turkish Republic in 1923, trends in architecture

have been determined either by the top-down dictates of the state as part of nation building, or by the

expansion and diversification of Turkey‟s economy which began in the 1960s.

* Early 20th century modernism [III] *

The project of Modernism in Turkey took on the larger role of building a modern system in the entire

country, and on many different levels in society. Modern architecture aligned with these goals. Turkey

is not a unique case in this regard, as similar developments can be seen in countries such as Brazil,

India or Mexico in the 20th century. Architecture in Turkey may be unique in the way that the many

concurrent themes of the modern projects are both negotiated and merge together in a very brief

period. East/west, north/south, Europe/Asia, Islam/Christianity, sedentary/nomad, industrial/agrarian,

modern/primitive, for the last 100 years Turkey‟s geography has been the site of critical convergences

of these basic issues determining ideology, culture and hence architecture. The constant shifting of

social forces has made architecture in Turkey in the 20th century largely a reactive pursuit. Architects

in Turkey have reacted to the overriding forces of the moment to produce what could be labeled as a

secondary or by-product architecture. Throughout the 20th century architecture in Turkey vacillated

back and forth between styles that were either based on the concept of Turkish nationality or

international modernism.

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* Republican Period [III] *

If we look at the early Republican Period, particularly in the work of architects from the First

Republican Architecture movement such as Kemalettin and Vedad Tek, we see an attempt at resolving

Ottoman forms with the dictates of function and an understatement of early modernist architecture in

Europe of the 1910-1920s. This architecture utilized the classical Ottoman style of architecture as a

basis for a more regular and standard idiom for large public buildings in the major cities, and was not

applied to domestic architecture. In the 1920s, as state building started to gain momentum, Turkey

imported a number of German speaking Central European architects to design governmental buildings

both in Ankara and the rest of Turkey. Abandoning historicism altogether, this period was heavily

indebted to the architecture of the Neue Sachlichkeit and of figures such as Bruno Taut, Ernst Egli,

Clemens Holzmeister, Theodor Jost, Hermann Jansen, and Martin Wagner, who came to Turkey in the

1920s and 1930s to work. The effects and influence of these foreign architects would be seen in the

work of the Turkish architects of the 1930s, such as Şevki Balmumcu, Rüknettin Güney, Seyfi Arkan

and Sedad Hakkı Eldem. These Turkish architects, who were influenced by the work of the German

architects, made the first attempts at a modernist vocabulary in an abstract and geometric architecture

with no connections to Turkish or Ottoman precedents. This architecture was successful in so far as it

was utilized for more than the architecture of the state, in the construction of public and private

housing, leisure and cultural buildings.

* National Architecture [III] *

As the tides of nationalism increased in Europe, so did it in Turkey with the appearance in the late

1930s of the second National Movement in architecture led by the major figure of 20th century

architecture in Turkey, Sedad Hakkı Eldem. His National Architecture seminars at the Academy of

Fine Arts looked in detail at the “Turkish House” and similar Turkish issues to influence a generation

of architects to produce a modern yet stylistically Turkish architecture. Eldem applied his Ottoman

and modern fusion well into the 1940s and 1950s throughout Turkey in reinforced concrete buildings

parallel to the work of other figures of the day, such as Emin Onat and Doğan Erginbaş. Like its

predecessor, this second National Architecture, which was in a style that in some instances was close

to the Fascist architecture of the Italian Giuseppe Terragni and the cold and rational Stalinist

architecture of the Soviet Union, did not survive long because it was being overwhelmed by the next

wave of global architectural currents.

* High Modernism in the „50s and „60s [III] *

Although Eldem continued to create works in the National Architecture style and was a popular

architect through the 1950s and 1960s, his architectural vision was soon to be replaced by another

group of young architects, some of whom were trained in Europe and worked there, which gave them

a taste for the then current style of modernist architecture. Figures such as Turgut Cansever,

Aburrahman Hancı and later Cengiz Bektaş and Hayati Tabanlıoğlu were practitioners of an austere

brand of modernist architecture which they had encountered in their experiences in Europe. They

erased any lingering interest in the historical past to focus on regularized and spare geometries that

echoed the work of modernist masters such as Le Corbusier. Others such as Utarit İzgi, Nevzat Erol,

Enver Tokay and Nevzat Erol in the 1950s and Doğan Tekeli, Sami Sisa, Metin Hepgüler, Behruz

Çinici, Şevki Vanlı in the 1960s were active in developing this modernist architecture in a formally

looser and programmatically (?) less disciplined way. They did this for all types of functions, from

hotels and housing to offices and shopping complexes, and in line with the expansion of the Turkish

economy in these decades. The two major figures in this period, Cansever and Bektaş, were especially

able to continue their vision in a disciplined way well up into the late 1980s – the former developing

an interest in metaphysics and Islam, and the latter a deep understanding of vernacular architecture in

Turkey.

* The „60s and „70s [III] *

Turkey of the late 1960s and 1970s suffered from a number of political and economic crises that had a

major effect on architectural practice. Military coup d‟états, political violence, the war in Cyprus, and

an endless string of ineffective coalition governments combined with inflation, unemployment and

uncontrolled urbanization all weakened the architectural production. While architects continued to

produce some important works in the modernist idiom in buildings, such as the Atatürk Kültür

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Merkezi and Atatürk Airport in Istanbul designed by Hayati Tabanlıoğlu, or the Turkish Language

Foundation designed by Cengiz Bektaş, architecture in Turkey up into the mid-1980s was designed in

a competent but undistinguished style motivated by the interests of the construction sector, or to a

lesser extent, the state.

* The „80s and „90s [III] *

While the liberalization of the economy in the 1980s did spur some new ideas, particularly copies of

the post-modern architecture of the U.S. and Europe, the architecture culture had not developed in any

meaningful way since the flowering of the modernism of the early 1960s. Architects active in this

period such as Sami Sisa, Doğan Tekeli, Doğan Hasol, Şaziment Arolat, Neşet Arolat, Sevinç Hadi,

Şandor Hadi, Mehmet Konuralp, Atilla Yücel, and Filiz Erkal produced capable work of a generally

neutral character that liberally used modernist, post-modernist and historicist styles, but with no

significant architectonic rationale or formal innovation. These architects would be joined in the later

1980s and early 1990s by the likes of Turgut Alton, Tuncay Çavdar, Turhan Kaşo, Yaşar Marulyalı,

Levent Aksüt, Erkut Şahinbaş, and Doruk Pamir in producing what could be termed corporate

architecture for the now strengthened private sector in Turkey. A small group of architects taking

advantage of increased opportunities to building in the 1980s and 1990s were figures such as Atilla

Yücel, Merih Karaaslan and Kaya Arıkoğlu. They pursued more refined modernist typologies based

on the awareness of regional contexts, especially outside Istanbul. Noteworthy was the continuing

investigation into the connections between typology and architectonics in the work of Atilla Yücel,

who for example in his „7 Houses project‟ in Sapanca skillfully fused type and structure in a formally

robust way. Later he was able to apply this in Albania and Montenegro as one of the very few Turkish

architects to work there.

* Architecture & urban development in the „70s and „80s [III] *

The hodge-podge of architectural styles of the 1970s and 1980s, mirroring the ups and downs of

Turkish economics and politics, is perhaps less important than the larger urban dynamics of the major

cities of Turkey. Istanbul, İzmir and Ankara were hit by waves of migrants from the country side

producing what is perhaps the most important architecture of the period, the squatter houses known as

„gecekondu‟, the most enduring legacy of later 20th century upon the built environment of Turkey.

* Contemporary architecture in the „90s [III] *

It is only in the 1990s that contemporary architecture started to gain its own identity, deriving and

driving an agenda based on architectural concerns distinct from socio-economic trends. Modern

architecture as a basis for an economy of practice in developing countries such as Turkey presents the

challenge to build efficiently using materials and techniques at hand. But beyond this focus on praxis

there always lies the important question of the basis of architecture and building itself, the raison

d‟être of building, or better, the systems of knowledge guiding architectural thought. To assemble a

rationale for building architecture in countries outside of the western traditions presents the

fundamental question of resolving the old with the new.

* Rethinking modernism & local building [III] *

Starting from the early 1990s, a group of architects based in Istanbul, Nevzat Sayın, Emre Arolat, Han

Tümertekin and Şevki Pekin, were able to articulate a distinct style and way of working unique in the

country‟s history. It was a negotiation between modernism and a bottom up understanding of the

nature of local building in architectonic and pragmatic terms. Coming at a time of economic expansion

and internationalization, after many years of stagnation in architectural practice this group was able to

build in a way that met longstanding aesthetic and ethical concerns. This historical moment started in

the early 1990s and was successful in as much as the confluence of economic, political and most

importantly, methodological issues produced a number of buildings of architectural distinction that

had relevance to global practice and to everyday society.

Understanding the potentialities of local knowledge, this group was able to articulate a new type of

modernism that integrated local building practices with vernacular architecture. They mixed this

indigenous archaism with a forward looking new organization of space and form. The work of these

architects was at once home with the informal every day building practices that produced most of the

building of the day in Turkey - an architecture that is able to use these ancient strains of thought as a

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basis for an approach - but yet provide a modern architecture that is symbolic, neutral, pragmatic,

rational, and creates the open space and transparency required of modern society. Work such as

Nevzat Sayın‟s experimental and on-going group of stone and concrete buildings in the rural Aegean

village of Dikili, or his earlier concrete and steel Gön Leather Factory in Istanbul, Emre Arolat‟s

exposed concrete office building in Kozyatağı, Istanbul or the crystal concrete geometry of his

Minicity theme park in Antalya, Han Tümertekin‟s basic stone and concrete synthesis in the B2 House

in Ayvacık, Şevki Pekin‟s amalgam of elemental forms in stone in his Bodrum House. These buildings

represented a new formation that was methodologically, aesthetically and most importantly

architectonically in line with the mass culture of Turkey. This was architecture that worked from the

realities of everyday life. These buildings, despite not being known outside Turkey, were important

examples of a mature and resolved modern architecture appearing in an important emerging second

world nation coming into its own.

* The 2000s [III] *

At the turn of the millennium, the architectural culture in Turkey started to have its own form

alongside the building boom of the period that lasted well into the 2000s. Architects active since the

1960s were able to participate in the boom utilizing a number of styles and approaches, some outdated

and retrograde and some genuinely forward thinking. The Istanbul group of Sayın, Tümertekin, Arolat

and Pekin continued to build projects with a similar methodology but now on a bigger scale. Behruz

Çinici was joined by his son Can Çinici in an Istanbul practice with an interest in extending modernist

morphologies into a more innovative localized architectural language. Hayati Tabanlıoğlu‟s firm was

passed onto his son and his wife, Murat and Melkan Tabanlıoğlu, who sustained the firm‟s interest in

later Modernism with a corporate oriented practice that became one of Turkey‟s largest ones. Younger

architects such as Bünyamin Derman, Tülin Hadi & Cem İlhan, Boran Ekinci, Emir Uras, Gökhan

Avcıoğlu, Mehmet Kütükçüoğlu, Arif Suyabatmaz, Celal Abdi Güzer, Boran Ekinci, Adnan

Kazmaoğlu - Mutlu Çilingiroğlu, Serhat Akbay, TRafo, Kerem Erginoğlu - Hasan Çalışlar and Alişan

Çırakoğlu took advantage of the local boom and regional opportunities in Central Asia and Arabia to

produce architecture in line with global trends. Each produced a sophisticated reworking of these

global developments in architecture with a certain degree of influence from the history of architecture

in Turkey. Proficient, contextual, and pragmatic, these architects met the needs of the government, but

primarily corporate clients, especially the robust real estate development sector which grew

significantly during the 2000s. In terms of contextual awareness it would be prudent to mention the

efforts of regional architects such as the Viennese trained Ahmet İğdirligil, who focused on traditional

stone building in the Aegean or the Mediterranean modern of the U.S.-trained Kaya Arıkoğlu in

Adana. While these architects represented the top of the profession, thousands of architects throughout

Turkey continued to produce work of an uneven nature in the continuing urbanization of the country

that, despite the efforts of many architects, suffers from a built environment of a generally

undistinguished and banal character. The blandness of this type of architecture results mostly from the

sheer number of buildings built. Turkey‟s urbanscape and built environment is, to put it plainly, dull

and unseemly no matter how many decent buildings are built.

* The 2010s [III] *

Today, a new generation of young architects has started to raise the level of architecture through an

interest in discourse and information. The likes of Nilüfer Kozikoğlu, Alexis and Murat Şanal,

Superpool, and Boğaçhan Dündaralp represent a generation that understands that architecture has to be

produced with a distinct technical, ideological or architectonic rationale that is explicit and

documented. Each of these groups has come to produce architecture based on their studied

methodologies and is likely to extend their building practice and knowledge base in pursuing an

intelligence and discursive driven architecture. Their vision is firmly locked in the optimization of the

possibilities of the information age. It is interesting to note that they are joined in the increasing

specialization of architecture in Turkey by architects emerging from interior design, specifically

Autoban and Tanju Özelgin, who bring sophisticated understanding of craft, local building techniques

and computer assisted visualization to produce advanced design. This group, along with continuing

efforts of advanced architects such as Sayın, Arolat, Tümertekin, Pekin, and Çinici, promise that

Turkey‟s contemporary architecture will start to develop based on its own dynamics, yet with a

widened eye attuned to universal progress. As Turkey asserts its position in the center of the newly

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forming geopolitics of Europe and Asia, the regional leadership provided by these architects will be

important in setting standards for how architecture can balance the needs of the modern world and the

pragmatic approach required at the local level.

* Short history of urbanization; urban and regional planning [II] *

* Evren Uzer *

Turkey, like many developing countries, faced rapid urbanization following World War II. Later

mechanization of agriculture resulted in a flow of much the rural population towards cities. These

unskilled rural migrants boosted the economy of the rapidly industrializing country. During this period

existing housing and infrastructure systems were inadequate for the newcomers. As a result, increased

land speculation and an illegal housing market appeared. Cities started to expand in an unforeseen and

uncontrollable manner. New „gecekondu‟ areas were constructed for the low income population and

cooperative housing structures were constructed for the middle income population. Gecekondu

structures, while high in quality compared to favelas and other illegal areas, are low density rural

housing units attached to the cities in the 1950s. To give an impression of this development, the

percentage in partially or totally illegal housing (including Gecekondus) in Istanbul is as follows: 1955

= 4,7%, 1970 = 23,7%, 1984 = 50 %, 1995 = 60,9% and nowadays the percentage is estimated around

70%. [note to Evren, I took these figures and the ones below about the urbanization from her own

powerpoint]

* Mass housing act [III] *

Government, aware of the housing and infrastructure problem, didn‟t come up with a solid housing

provision model until the 1980s (with mass housing acts and models). The central and local

government became actors in housing provision almost 30 years later than the beginning of the actual

need, while the gecekondu areas that were built in the meantime, had been legalized through amnesty

laws and had basic infrastructure already. Beginning from the 1970s, the ownership ratio in

gecekondus started to decrease and in the 1990s, within a new economic era that prioritized the private

sector, newcomers to the city encountered a different picture compared to the first flow of urban

migrants. They couldn‟t find formally arranged employment (unlike the previous migrants who found

work in industry), housing or available land located nearby the city to build their own houses (the land

was already occupied). Government implemented a series of amnesty laws which legitimized some of

the illegal settlements. Rapid growth in the urban population and inadequate policies and strategies to

cope with this growth resulted in today‟s large cities in Turkey with inadequate physical, social and

cultural infrastructure, green areas, losing part of their identity within the rapid development, and

having severe traffic and accessibility problems (Tekeli, 2010).

* Urban-rural migration and effects [III] *

In Turkey, the urban-rural population balance has changed with increasing speed starting from the

„50s. To give an idea of urban-rural migration in Turkey: in 1950 21 million people lived in the

countryside, which was 78 % of the population. In 1994 60,5 million lived in cities, which is 64,9 % of

the population. Also the population shifted from the Eastern to Western part of the country, which was

more favored. Today the Marmara region (including Istanbul) is producing around 30% of the overall

GDP (2006 figures of TUIK), and most of the industrial activity is located in this region, which still

makes the area a magnet for the population in search for formal employment and better living

conditions. Accumulation of production and GDP in the Marmara region is not only problematic in the

sense of regional imbalances, but it is also a highly earthquake prone area. The Marmara region is

open to great losses in case of a major earthquake, which is expected to occur in the coming decade.

* Urban transformation [III] *

The planning system in Turkey anticipates a hierarchy in plans, starting from national development

plans, regional plans, city plans, development plans, application plans, conservation plans, squatter

prevention plans, urban design projects, and urban transformation projects (as defined in Renewal

Law, Legal act 5366). As a part of intervening in rapidly growing major cities, urban transformation

plans and projects have been used in the last ten years. These urban transformation projects, being

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above and therefore becoming the strongest planning tool to any other plan in progress for an area,

brings large jurisdiction to Greater City Municipalities like cities such as Istanbul and Ankara. Recent

applications of these plans have been ongoing in areas such as Sulukule and Tarlabaşı in Istanbul, and

the northern exit of Ankara city, resulting in displacement of low-income communities and

gentrification. Government lead housing provision for the low income population disregarded the

inhabitants‟ social structure in the areas from which they were evicted, and the dependency of the

inhabitants to their former livelihoods by relocating them to distant locations (see Ünsal and Kuyucu,

2010 for a recent example). Currently most of these urban regeneration projects are realized by the

Mass-Housing Authority (MHA, TOKI in Turkish). MHA, which by the government subventions and

legitimized authority is the largest construction actor and government supported monopoly (Geray,

2009) in Turkey. As defined by their website MHA‟s operation areas are: social housing fund raising

projects, land provision and production in cities; disaster housing; urban transformation projects

(squatter transformation projects); Housing production on MHA‟s lands for low and middle income

groups.

* Urban planning education [III] *

Urban and regional planning education has been institutionalized since the beginning of the „60s.

Today in Turkey there are 13 universities that have Urban and Regional Planning education on an

undergraduate level. Chamber of Urban Planners (www.spo.org.tr) have been active since 1969 and as

of 2009 there are more than 5000 registered urban planners.

Short history of landscape architecture in Turkey [II] *

* Deniz Aslan * Landscape architecture in Turkey today, is bearing the load of a complicated perception of gardens

that originates from the past. This complicated perception of gardens has „changed‟ over time but not

in a profound way. Until the Reorganization (Tanzimat in Turkish), which initiated the Westernization

movement in Turkey in the second half of the 19th century (1839-1876), designed public-urban areas

didn‟t exist in Ottoman cities. Instead, Ottomans were looking for the natural potential of a place and

put this to good use. For instance, the square is a place for socializing on a neighborhood or village

scale. A fountain would not be built or a plane tree would not be planted in the middle of the square in

order to create public space, but instead the Ottomans looked for a spot where the conditions would be

right for a square to „emerge‟. Because where a plane tree is, is a square; a plane tree is a sign for a

spring so there would already be a fountain. This approach also includes the similar perception of

landscape for resorts and parks, as well as graveyards. The houses of the Istanbul aristocracy,

especially the gardens of yali (wooden mansions lining the Bosphorus) are located on an emphasized

topography. Again, these terraced gardens exist and naturally occurring terraces transformed into a

rational geometry. In other words, these gardens are natural, but rethought and reshaped by human

intelligence. The summer palaces (or the hunting seats) in the Ottoman Empire were naturalistic long

before English gardens became popular. This perception of gardens was lost in the late Baroque era. In

the Baroque period, an axial perception of gardens with an ornamental approach started to be applied,

especially at palaces, and later the aristocracy followed. Gardeners, who mainly came from Italy and

France, played an important role in the creation of a new landscape perception in Turkey. Presumably,

the relation between the Netherlands and the Ottoman Empire based on tulip-trade was also

established in these years. In this period, sub-tropical plants entered the gardens in Turkey and many

of these survive until today, showing a great microclimatic adaptation (European fan palm, magnolia,

bamboo, pine, cypress etc.). They became symbolic plants and their depiction on cultural artifacts may

carry specific cultural meanings.

* The Republican period [III] *

In the Republican period, in the years following WWII, Turkey hosted important designers and

planners from all over the world, and it was in this period that modern concepts of planning and

landscape architecture entered Turkey. Italian gardeners who were invited to the country by Ataturk

led the establishment of a gardeners‟ force mainly consisting of Albanian gardeners. The Istanbul

University specialized in forestry, and the Ankara University in agriculture thanks to German

academicians. Ankara University‟s Faculty of Agriculture pioneered in the field of landscape

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architecture. Sadri Aran from Ankara University represents the first generation of landscape architects.

Aran is the representative of the modern landscape planning and gardening concepts which come from

the German speaking world. His assistants Günel Akdoğan and Yüksel Öztan then followed in his

footsteps and became masters of landscape architecture. They contributed greatly to the discipline

academically, as well as practically. In Istanbul, Besaret Pamay showed a special effort to establish a

landscape perception with a more naive loyalty than his colleagues; he even helped when Günel

Akdoğan came to Istanbul. Thus, the Istanbul style evolved around Günel Akdoğan and the Ankara

style around Yüksel Öztan. The academicians and landscape architects educated by these pioneers are

today working at numerous universities in Turkey. The author of this webtext, Deniz Aslan, had the

opportunity to work with him for a long time, and would like to emphasize Günel Akdoğan‟s special

importance. Influenced by Burle Marx, Akdoğan traveled every inch of Europe as well as Turkey and

developed vital thoughts. He was among the very first landscape architects who said aloud that

landscape architecture education should be included within faculties of architecture. For years, he

influenced the architects he worked with and made great efforts to create the awareness that landscape

architecture was far beyond planting.

* Landscape architecture today [III] *

After these masters, the landscape architecture in Turkey is focused on mere pattern, without any

notion of design and theory. This resulted in a stereotype landscape architecture in Turkey. Today, the

Dutch experience seems to be a qualified resource for the young landscape architects as Ata Turak,

Arzu Nuhoğlu, and Oktan Nalbantoğlu, who are shaking this settled structure and creating agendas

with both their academic and practical products, serving to regenerate the landscape architecture.

Landscape architecture is a field which is able to give extremely practical results in the context of

collaboration. Collaboration with the Netherlands will help to come to important conclusions for the

new generation of landscape architects in Turkey.

* Main trends/topics [II] * Different authors were asked to give their ideas on which topics they would like to discuss with regard

to 2012. Although these are personal ideas, together they give an idea about what type of topics

professionals in Turkey would like to talk about with Dutch colleagues. Some, such as Yüksel Demir

have experience with TR+NL collaboration and give their views on chances and pitfalls with regards

to interpretation of the situation in either country by professionals of both countries. Authors can be

contacted by interested Dutch parties to collaborate on the proposed topics.

* Architecture-nature-culture [III] *

*Yüksel Demir * Nature could be defined as the environment that is not altered by humans. Culture is defined as the

values produced by the human being using the potential provided by nature. Architecture can be

regarded as the most influential tool in the creation of the culture, in other words it transforms nature

into culture. The Netherlands as a whole is the proof of this with its lands acquired from the sea. Its

ingeniously organized land and settlements are the living and proud examples of Dutch culture. I need

to start with some thoughts on architecture that serve as a fundament for any theoretical or practical

work I am involved in. Afterwards I will note down some individual experiences that might help to

widen or deepen the discussion about the possible collaboration opportunities between Turkey and the

Netherlands in our field.

Whole & Dimensions Architectural activity has an important share in the formation of environmental quality. By its nature,

architecture is a multi-dimensional subject. Wholeness is an important point of consideration for the

designer architect. These two aspects have to be taken into consideration at once. Although the

architect is free to rank these dimensions according to the level of priorities defined by the conditions,

aims, criteria, limits, and possibilities of the case, he/she does not have the right to omit or

underestimate any of the related dimensions. The research has shown that it is difficult and needles to

separate architectural knowledge from the knowledge in general. The architect has to use all required

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knowledge regarding the design problem. Thus, the scope of any architectural study cannot be limited

to the so-called field of “architecture”, which has no clear borders. (Demir, 2000)

Architecture & X Design & Engineering The territorial tensions among the professions that originated from architecture, such as planning,

design (urban, landscape, interior, product, etc), and engineering is another issue. Today the term

“architecture” does not refer to the term “architecture” used by Vitruvius. He describes all these fields

as branches of architecture in his Ten Books on Architecture (V. Pollo, Morgan, 1960). From Vitruvius

until today, as a consequence of specialization, all fields of engineering, planning, and most design

fields (product, interior, landscape) were gradually extracted from the field of architecture. Today,

architecture is narrowed down to building design. I‟m afraid this continuing process will narrow this

definition even further within the building design field. These developments created a biased look and

tendency bending the term of architecture to create a distinction between architecture and those fields

that are liberated (!) from it. For me it is almost impossible to discuss any of these fields regardless of

the others; though this might be defined as a romantic Leonardo Syndrome…

Art & Science The field of architecture, its relation with arts and sciences is a history old dilemma. Hegel describes

architecture as follows: “The first of the particular arts, the one with which we have to begin in

accordance with this fundamental characterization of them, is architecture as fine art.” (Hegel, Knox,

1998)

According to Kant as he explains in Critique of Judgment, “… there are only three kinds of

fine art: the art of speech, formative (visual) art, and the art of the play of sensations (as external sense

impressions)….To plastic art, as the first kind of formative (visual) fine art, belong sculpture and

architecture. “Architecture” is the art of presenting concepts of things which are possible only through

art, and the determining ground of whose form is not nature but an arbitrary end-and of presenting

them both with a view to this purpose and yet, at the same time, with aesthetic finality. In architecture

the chief point is a certain use of the artistic object to which, as the condition, the esthetic ideas

are limited. temples, splendid buildings for public concourse, or even dwelling-houses, triumphal

arches, columns, mausoleums, etc., erected as monuments, belong to architecture, and in fact

all household furniture (the work of cabinetmakers, and so forth-things meant to be used) may be

added to the list, on the ground that adaptation of the product to a particular use is the essential

element in a work of architecture.”

During an interview with the famous Turkish architect Turgut Cansever, Turgut has shown me

how to use poetry as a representation tool for architecture: he gave a poem instead of a sketch to his

client Ahmet Ertegün and got the commission for the Ertegün House in Bodrum. This approves that

the knowledge of poetry can be as important as the knowledge of masonry for an architect.

Unfortunately today some architects, historians, and even some institutions (schools, chambers

of architecture) seem to have forgotten this fact. On the other hand some architects try to act as

“plastic artists-sculptors” regardless of the logic -scientific dimension of architecture.

Peter Collins criticizes some art historians for dealing with forms rather than the ideas behind

those forms (Collins, 1965). Unfortunately nowadays this approach criticized by him is widely spread

among architects as well. We are more excited by forms rather than ideas or ideals. This phenotypic

shallow attitude contaminates the practice, the theory, and eventually the education. It is highly

contagious; because the gens of this disease can easily be transported via any means of communication

that can easily be accessed. Abuse of this information while creating virgin forms accelerates the

process even further. The outcomes as such are spreading like a plague. Searching for the right

solution is replaced by the search for the spectacular. If one cannot be the first to do anything, he or

she tries to be the second or the third. In other words if you are not able to be the trend-setter you

should be the trendy one. Cloning, copying as fast as possible is an asset. The impact of a professional

atmosphere as such is destructive. Unfortunately this describes the situation amongst the so called high

level professionals! It‟s claimed that they are able to produce a little portion of the physical

environment (2-3% in Turkey). The rest (97-98%) is produced by “building industry/economy”, by the

choice of material, technology influenced by the trends created by the first group of professionals, of

course regardless of any intellectual concern mentioned by Collins.

[9]

Turkey & the Netherlands My first encounter with Dutch colleagues was in 1992 during a workshop organized by the Istanbul

Technical University (ITU) Faculty of Architecture in collaboration with Hogeschool Voor de

Kunsten Utrecht (HKU). The subject of the workshop was Taksim Park Nr 2 (Istanbul). A park

designed to provide a pedestrian connection between Taksim Square, Valikonağı and Dolmabahçe

quay. This connection is now interrupted by some multinational hotels and a congress center. Prof.

Atilla Yücel and Prof. Floor Van Dusseldorp were leading the workshop. Auke De Vires, Adri

Duivestijn, Lodewijk Baljon, Fuat Şahinler, Murat Şahinler were among the participants.

Later in April 1993, with the same group of participants we attended another workshop

together with a group of Turkish architects, organized by ISTAV foundation (Istanbul Tanıtım ve

Araştırma Vakfı – Foundation for Promotion and Research on Istanbul) Discussions I: Taksim. The

main guests of this workshop were Rob Krier and Ariola. Right after he had presented his opinions

about Taksim I asked Mr. Krier if he knew enough to provide a solution for a problematic place like

Taksim considering all the attempts made by us for decades. Underlining the fact that he arrived the

same day in the morning, he admitted that his knowledge for the place was not enough for such a

consultation. He kindly asked us -the Turkish contributors- to share our knowledge. I shared the

following observation:

“In a traditional Turkish house we have two living rooms so to say: the first one is called

„oturma odası – living room‟ where all daily activity of the household takes place and the second one

we call „misafir odası - guestroom‟. This room is a living room not used by the household, kept neat

and tidy all the time and reserved for the guests. There is a similarity in the way we use two main

urban spaces in Istanbul: Taksim and its surrounding is mainly used by us the residents while

Sultanahmet is mainly used by the visitors. In other words Taksim is the living room and Sultanahmet

is the guestroom.

The last workshop we worked together with the same group was for Sarnıç Valley in Çeşme,

İzmir, in 1997. As a preparation for this we‟ve visited the Netherlands. During this visit we‟ve had the

chance to see several land art examples including the observatory of Robert Morris. During the same

visit Lodewijck Baljon guided us through the Niew Slouten Housing Development which was

supervised by him. This was the biggest housing development of the time.

The visit of our Dutch colleagues left some traces as well. In 1995, while we were walking

down the steep Kazancı Street with a group of Dutch colleagues, one of them suddenly stopped and

showed the steps of the pavement. He was very excited about the scenery. Each had different heights,

each paved with different materials. Comparing the steps with the ones in the Netherlands he said:

“You cannot find any difference between any step and pavement in the Netherlands, they are all

standardized. But here, there is a chance to contribute in the city, even individually!” He was admiring

something we were ashamed of! And we were admiring what he was complaining of. From that

moment on I kept on thinking about these issues. Afterwards, I saw some interventions realized by

some municipalities in Turkey: Urban Design Guides were developed to homogenize/standardize the

unique urban texture of Turkish cities, especially of Istanbul!

The last collaboration with our Dutch Colleagues from the Amsterdam Academy of

Architecture was a joint project on the Golden Horn and Galata. This was an interdisciplinary study

organized by ITU Urban Design Interdisciplinary Master Program, ITU Landscape Design Master

Program and Amsterdam Academy of Architecture.

In addition to these encounters I had the chance to visit the Netherlands several times. During

all these encounters (Dutch colleagues in Turkey and us in the Netherlands) the perception of Turkey

and The Netherlands was considerably different:

The Netherlands Turkey

Dutch Opinion Over organized and

standardized, homogenized,

artificial, boring

Original, individualized, open

to informal participation,

exciting, natural

Turkish Opinion Perfectly organized, efficient,

pleasant,

Disorganized, Chaotic,

Inspirations from the Netherlands

[10]

Art is supported by efficient special laws in the Netherlands. Institutional buildings should

reserve a definite percentage of their budget for art. In return they get tax refunds or subsidiaries. This

practice might inspire the situation in Turkey.

Almost all municipalities/cities have an information center about urban & architectural issues

such as Zuiderkerk in Amsterdam (URL 2),

The number of publications on architecture in the Netherlands in ratio with the number of

architects and the population of the country is considerably high.

In the Netherlands, participation is a natural part of planning & urban design processes.

There is a very strong institutional support for architecture and related fields. Dutch DFA

(Design Fashion Architecture), Archined, NAi, and the Berlage Institute are the first ones to

remember. A closer relation among these and similar institutions in Turkey could provide a lot of

opportunities.

Competition culture…

Efficiency

Suggestions “All methods are sacred if they are internally necessary.

All methods are sins if they are not justified by internal necessity.”

Wassily Kandinsky

As it can clearly be understood, the aim of this article is not providing a

retrospective/comparative objective description of the architecture in Turkey and in the Netherlands. It

is more like a subjective diagnostic attempt made by the help of some symptoms and indicators

collected through years of personal experience in the field. In the process of writing this article Turkey

is used as the main field of study, while the Netherlands is used as a benchmark. The following

suggestions are made for both national and international encounters:

We should stop the hypocritical attitude of ignoring each other‟s ideological perspectives.

Without a precise knowledge and acceptance of ideological bases we stand on it is not possible to

establish a healthy and efficient communication environment.

We should honestly exchange our likes, dislikes, judgments and prejudgments about each

other and about any subject we discuss.

There are issues which are problems for one and potentials for the other.

There are issues which are problems for one and were problems for the other.

Same problems in different societies might not necessarily have the same solutions: the danger

of direct know-how transfer!

Because of these differences one society might naturally provide an economical/professional

potential to the other. Let‟s be honest and pronounce this straightforwardly. We all know that this

whole project is not purely idealistic. There is a pragmatic, even opportunistic aspect, let‟s not deny it.

We might share the same profession but not the same motives.

Only then, we can pass to the professional & technical phase and start searching for a healthier

way of collaboration.

* Architecture & fashion [III] *

* Nurbin Paker Kahvecioğlu* Fashion has been the biggest adventure of the 20

th century; Kahraman (2004) expressed that the

fashion industry has continued as part of the capitalist system. In other words, fashion has been the

biggest discovery of capitalism. Fashion can be seen as language/specific vocabulary, as put by

Roland Barthes, one can describe “fashion and its social agenda” (1990). Briefly, as Davis (1994)

mentioned, clothes styles and the fashion that has been affected by these styles mean to a kind of a

„code‟. In this regard, life styles and places directly reflect this language / specific vocabulary or

codes. The transformation of life style/places represents the shift of meaning in the fashion language.

At this point, it is worth reminding that the concept of fashion basically is a phenomenon

which was introduced by the high-class to show their difference from the low-class groups. It is not a

desirable situation that the fashionable becomes widespread in public scale. As it starts to expand in

the public, the sign of change is already given. The direction of this change, as stated above, occurs

from the upper levels towards the lower levels of society. As a matter of fact, this movement direction

[11]

is also valid in the relationship between spatial change and fashion. Behind the continuity of changes

lie consumption and the pursuit of new brands and symbols, new codes and indicators created by it.

What triggers change however, as stated above, is the start of the fashionable to become widespread in

all groups of the society.

In the process of globalization, the economic structure especially changing from the „80s

onwards is creating new life styles and brands for the society which is directed by “media and

fashion”. In other words, “life styles” makes up the target of marketing strategies. The fact that fashion

mobilizes in mass markets means that everything, from life styles to sport habits, music, leisure

activities, all are quickly getting consumed (Akpınar and Paker, 2009). Turkey, in this context, is

producing a quick past and history. The fact that many ordinary things turned up in the recent past –[as

a reflection of all of this, “fast-consumption” culture, spreading of virtual environments starting from

the internet, YouTube, Facebook that are infiltrating much more into our lives, the use of four-wheel

jeep drives, cell phones, credit cards,…skyscrapers of multinational companies, ultra-luxurious

shopping centers emerging around these places, luxurious hotels and “ultra-luxurious residences”,

living spaces behind high walls in and out of the city starting to take place in the geography of the

city]- reveals effectively the fact that change does not have a deep past and past very quickly becomes

history.

All these can be thought as a radical disconnection from the past. However, it can be stated

that this is a permanent “change” period and a new factor identifying the whole world. The fact that

Turkey becomes a more consuming society day by day renders the coexistence of the glimmering

world and the other world that we ignore, and which is shaped by global dynamics. But as much again,

architecture, fashion, art markets and even everyday life today in Turkey expose vivacity

incomparable to the previous periods. A generation living a new, young and alternative life is

emerging. At this point, what else is needed for a new trend or movement to be born? Somehow it can

be said that the most important dilemma brought by globalization on the urban context as well as the

way out depends on this situation. In this milieu, those who wish to lead a distinctive life in this

environment search for an alternative. Living an alternative life, aiming to change the world, trying to

express themselves with their creativity and particularity, these people are creating brand new, unique

languages and codes which are continuously renewed. Just like breaking points triggering change, they

try to be the pioneers of the season‟s fashion by turning to “haute couture” designs and different

attraction areas. The underlying reason of the abandonment of accustomed patterns in the fashion,

design, architecture and even culinary/gastronomic world and the opening of brand new places

becomes to be this fact. “Alternative lives” are being set up at new focal points of the cities. With such

a viewpoint, Turkey is potentially a rich resource. Some cities embrace this transformation completely

and transform themselves as a whole. Istanbul, in this sense, is one of the cities transforming itself as a

brand or a gem by adding besides its known various historical and cultural layers, the components like

fashion-design-architecture.

On the other hand, the valid and powerful fashion, architecture and design world of each

period can be produced by the maximum use of the mental effort and technological possibilities of that

period. What are these possibilities today? It might be difficult to answer this question with a clear

indication, but it can be seen as a drive of an effort to create a “timeless style” going beyond being

seasonal and grasping the mental situation of today.

* Shaping the Netherlands [III] * *Pelin Derviş and Ömer Kanıpak*

It is well known that the “Space for Architecture” from 1991 and “The Architecture of Space” from

1996, and the nine Major Projects “Shaping the Netherlands: Architectural Policy 2001-2004” which

was an action plan, played a major role in determining the Netherlands' architectural policies.

Although still inconclusive, The Chamber of Architects of Turkey has been trying to set up an

Architectural Policy since 2005. Seen almost as a magic wand which is proposed as the only solution

to various issues like dealing with certain construction problems of Turkey, spreading a high level of

architecture culture, a better environment etc, it will be of great value to know the meaning of having

an Architectural Policy in the Netherlands' case. Particularly, what are the pros and cons of an

Architectural Policy? As a series of conferences/workshops that discusses such topics, “Learning from

Shaping the Netherlands” can be of great help for Turkey which is at the brink of establishing an

Architectural Policy of its own. Contribution of various fields is essential (architecture, urbanism,

[12]

inhabitants, NGOs, government etc). Outcomes of the events can be put into a publication form (as an

online media, print etc).

* Archiving matters [III] *

*Pelin Derviş* The history of architecture in Turkey hasn‟t been recorded in a continuous manner yet. A history

written without gaps and mistakes turns out to be impossible due to the scattered and scarce nature of

surviving documents. The most distinguished portal that provides an overall view of contemporary

architecture in Turkey is Arkiv (Arkitera Architecture Center – 2003, http://arkiv.arkitera.com/).

Although not following a consistent chronology or format, the second important portal is the virtual

museum of the Building Information Center (2004, http://www.mimarlikmuzesi.com/). Started in 2008

as a joint project of Garanti Gallery and Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Architecture and

Design Archive Turkey (ADAT) has been scanning materials from the beginning of the century till

now. What makes this archive unique and important is the fact that it covers both design and

architecture. It's been planned that, as of 2011, ADAT will be available online for researchers and will

be accessible to the public via projects such as exhibitions and publications in the form of a “living

archive.” The visual archive located at the web page of The Chamber of Architects of Turkey is not

accessible for public use. The documentation of these institutions is mostly digitally, and the original

documents are rarely kept. The main reason for this is the difficulties (mainly economic) encountered

in perpetuating the conditions of such an archive. It takes a long time for a long term project to

produce noteworthy results. All these parameters are major obstacles for possible investments...

Consisting of drawings, preliminary sketches, correspondences, publications, photographs and models,

the collection of NAi is one of the most comprehensive architectural archives of our time. Its members

have access to the database which uses a system called “Collection Information System” online. NAi

is a major contributor to the architectural community by organizing comprehensive exhibitions both

using its own archive and by collaborating with other archives. To encourage and support such

initiatives in Turkey, various cooperative efforts can be considered with the Netherlands.

* From architectural festival to biennale [III] *

* Pelin Derviş* Turkey's one and only Architectural Festival was held in Istanbul in 2004, organized by the Arkitera

Architecture Center. Although attracting a lot of attention, it couldn't be repeated, and an architectural

biennale was not realized. Architecture in Turkey appears on the people's agenda mostly as related to

construction issues and probably as a result of this, construction fairs turn out to be the most vivid and

long lasting events. Considered as an important intermediary for intellectual production and its

communication, can the seeds for such a biennial be sowed in 2012?

In 2012 the IABR will organize a biennale together with Sao Paolo and Istanbul. Although the

Sao Paolo municipality gives full support to realize the biennale on their part, it is still uncertain if

Istanbul municipality will give a hand to this collaboration. Istanbul Bilgi University (Asu Aksoy) is

involved in the organization of the 2012 IABR.

* Visualization of the urban shaping mechanisms [III] *

* Ömer Kanıpak* Buildings, neighborhoods, districts, cities, public buildings, public spaces, streets, market places,

shopping centers etc. They are coming together to form the urban environment all over the world.

However, in each country and in each city the background mechanism of this ongoing process is

different. There are changing and varying types of building regulations, different decision systems,

intricate approval methods, and complicated bureaucratic rules. We used to think that architects and

planners shape the cities, however it is actually this complex machinery formed by regulations, codes

and rules that do so.

The project aims to make this complex mechanism become more visible by means of clear

info-graphics and concise explanations in order to make the whole system easy to understand and

legible. The building codes and urban regulations in Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Istanbul and Ankara will

be examined in detail and with the help of info graphic artists. These will be published in a book. A

website will also be prepared with the same material. In addition, interactive features will be included

[13]

in the website, which will enable the visitors to experience how small changes in building codes or the

ratios in building regulations can affect the shape of the urban environment.

With this project, it will be easier to understand the both societies' motivations in shaping the

environment, their preferences and motivations will become more clear and visible.

* Architects in residency [III] *

* Ömer Kanıpak* "Artists in Residency" is a widely accepted common method providing architects with different and

inspiring environments to produce their artworks. Changing the living environment of the creative

people makes them think differently and increase their productivity. This method also enables the

artists to understand different cultures better.

With this project, a similar method will be applied to a group of young architects from both

countries. A group of young practicing architects both from Istanbul and The Netherlands will

experience 3 to 6 months residency programs. They will work together with a hosting architectural

office on actual projects with real clients. The experience will help architects to learn about the

different building conditions in a totally different city. They will learn about the motivations of

different type of clients. They will see particular problem solving methods in a totally different

business environment. In the end they will return back with invaluable professional and cultural

experiences that will be reflected upon their future projects. The Architects in Residency program will

enable the architects in both countries to understand each other's professional motivations better.

* Cooperation in architectural education [III] *

* Nurbin Paker Kahvecioğlu* Due to the limitations of financial sources, the solution of top priority subjects such as climate change,

energy, environmental issues, natural disasters, population increase, and urbanization which have been

brought to the agenda by the changing world is becoming more and more difficult. Pressures created by

these current issues direct architectural implementations to go beyond their classical limits and to

collaborate with other disciplines in search of innovative approaches which encompass new

technologies. In line with these developments, architectural education not only has to undergo a general

transformation, it also has to prepare a creative environment where it will be possible to translate

information from other disciplines into the field of architecture for the design and implementation of

future constructions and urban texture. In this context, some of the important new components of current

architectural education programs are fields of specialization such as the production of recyclable

intelligent building materials by using new technologies, new environment-friendly energy systems,

high-tech structure designs, digital technologies, organization and optimization of project designs, and

implementations.

Furthermore, the creation of models that will improve the quality of design and the production of

construction in Turkey and render the processes of design and implementation more efficient and

productive has been gaining importance. The transfer of these models to education, research,

development and implementation is also of equal significance. In other words, cooperation in research

and development, technology transfer, and consulting services in the evolution stages of subprogram

components of design education are now considered essential. In this context, experts from the sector or

leading international institutions such as TU Delft Technology University in the Netherlands can be

partners for creative cooperation in education and research activities in Turkey. These can be developed

as short or long term education, seminars, and human resources exchange programs or other

organizations of the same level. Thus, with multiple exchanges of data and information transfer, it would

be possible to build the necessary infrastructure for the formation of “sustainable” data in topic titles in

architectural education and implementation that are lacking in Turkey.

As a result, international cooperation which will contribute to architectural education and

construction technology, to form and support research groups that will realize this cooperation, to

develop and sustain the necessary infrastructure will bring continuous progress together with high quality

and perfection in education and research.

* Impact of Dutch real estate development in Turkey [III] *

[14]

* Kuyaş Örs* There is a new wave of relations between Turkey and the Netherlands. Since the mid-2000s there is a

boom in the Turkish real estate sector. Housing and shopping centers are at the center of this

development. Several Dutch companies are playing a major role in this new era of Turkish real estate.

Mostly concentrating on shopping centers, firms like Corio, Redevco and Multi are making

considerable amounts of investments not only in Istanbul but also in many middle- to large scale cities

in Anatolia. These companies are mainly shopping center developers; they are global players that have

the know-how on planning, building and managing shopping centers and have access to relevant

investment resources from all over the globe.

The shopping centers that these firms have been developing are causing dramatic changes in

the urban life in Anatolian cities. These real estate projects have economic and social effects that may

be the subject of discussion in areas like real estate, urban planning, sociology, architecture etc.

A one day event focusing on this issue could provide an opportunity to discuss this new wave

of Dutch-Turkish relations. Such an event can bring together urban specialists and real estate investors

from both countries.

Questions that can be raised:

Who is in power in shaping today‟s cities?

How do shopping centers act as new public spaces?

What is the knowledge that the Dutch firms are bringing to Turkey and how do they adapt it to

local conditions?

What do Dutch real estate companies conceive from the user behaviors of people in Turkey?

* Livability commons [III] *

* Alexis Şanal * Livability is vital to any metropolis which is a node in global society. Residents of these metropolises

more than ever in human history have a choice as to where they live and often have deliberate reasons

for their choices. Metropolises compete fiercely to obtain and retain their most valuable resources,

their human capital, and invest significantly in the urban design of ephemera dimensions including

events, social-life programs, and investment incentives but also of utilitarian dimensions like

transportation, civil services and parks.

The Netherlands and Turkey have been exchanging their human capital for decades in

academic programs, cultural programs, commercial programs, and leisure programs. Both cultures

have an interest for one another‟s urban life and curiosity for one another‟s notions of livability. For

centuries NL + TR regions are pro-active participants in global trade; this is reflected in that their

culturally distinct metropolis‟ are port cities, are multi-cultural cities, are today industrialized

landscapes, and whose residents have a beloved relationship to their unique geographic settings. Yet

the urban fabrics, architectures, cultural/ecological/social stewardships are highly distinct and resonate

deeply with regional aspirations. In many ways the urban cultures of both regions reflect the

symmetric edges of European culture. It is their familiarity and highly distinct urban life – even

sometimes exotic to one another – in characters, social actualities, cultural aesthetics, or communal

aspirations that offer great insight on urban livability and insight for the design of their metropolis‟

futures. The initiative for a livability commons and an open resource platform between the academic,

professional and resident communities of these two regions recognizes the paradigm of robust design

practice underpinned by the creative multi-cultural knowledge exchange for the creation of their

respective metropolis‟ future.

As residents, visitors and lovers of these Metropolises, robust platforms are essential for the

citizens‟ imaginations to flourish -- to communicate, discuss, act-upon -- as they envision the future of

their city. Paramount questions concern our inter-connection with the regional ecology (including

urban natural systems and energy means), our choreography of diversity of residents to amplify the

use public space systems (including sidewalks and residual un-programmed spaces), our compositions

in the multiplicity of histories and shared futures to steward for future generation (including re-

engaging historic centers in more ways than tourism and re-thinking abandoned infrastructures). The

livability commons open REsource is a multimedia social platform where city design professionals,

bureaucrats, academics, residents, and visitors can actively respond, engage, understand and take

[15]

design action into a more livable future – as individuals for change, as communities for action, as

regional movements for quality of life.

The livability commons is conceived with three action-oriented ambitions: 1st) The structured

platform: formal „project‟ exchange, 2nd

) The responsive platform: spectacle / performing exchange,

and 3rd

) The hub platform: knowledge resource center. Each supports the other and offers access and

engagement to different resident groups. It is important that the action-oriented open RE source

platforms are non-linear and are interwoven to support one another, yet are complete within their

content.

Thoughts Its direction is determined by the priorities, curiosities, participation, behaviors and engagement of

metropolis‟ citizens, residents and visitors. Through the use of narratives, questions, and social media.

Open space, common space, public space, city rooms (courtyards, plazas, and squares), streets,

thoroughfares, pathways, all can contribute to people‟s livelihood and can be easily accessible by most

city residents. They contribute to a significant percentage of the urban land and all the shared urban

spaces one way or the other ensure substance and endurance to the communities they serve.

Inspired from much of the contemporary literature in landscape architecture, urban social life,

responsive environments, social learning and community oriented self-governance.

Notes … the livability commons is conceived of in its parts and as a whole. The three proposed platforms

can be achieved within their own ambitions, although they are conceived to work in concert, each can

be achieved autonomously from the whole. Like an urban system, they need to have a presence to be

set in a dialogue with other systems. This framework would also allow for other contributions to

conceive of platforms or „parts‟ that would further enrich the whole. The approach to including more

structured platforms into the livability commons' dialogues not only invites contributions of others, but

also allows the open RE source to remain relevant and timely to regional issues.

… an inclusive community within the livability commons that represents leading thinkers,

pioneers in urban livability actions, ordinary residents inspired that they be the environment they

aspire to, students with professional aspirations for actuating livable urban paradigms, reflective

practices that can develop and apply actions, civil servants motivated to understand and foresee their

communities‟ future needs, even teachers wanting to use the city as the second curriculum. For this

reason the project needs to create a consortium of contributors and amplify the use of social media for

the parts and the whole. This would include universities and key faculty leading critical thought in

livability within architecture, urban design, visual communication design, urban/social geography

and/or even philosophy/narrative studies faculties; it would include practices leading urban/regional

policy change like West 8, visual designer in development of responsive environment

hardware/software teams like Griduo/Ahmet Kermen, and SANAL arch|urb's design research team to

drive the project development of the livability commons platforms; it would invite the insights of

innovators in the global community like the pioneering former mayor of Bogota, Columbia Enrique

Peñalosa, environmental engineers like Klaus Bode of BDSP, municipal urban designers like Donyun

Kim of Seoul Urban Development Agency, urban planning directors like Weiwen Huang of Shenzhen,

China, and their mentors as well as their next generation of dreamers to contribute to white papers and

best practices; it would include academics to articulate the invaluable contribution of pioneers like

Mimar Sinan, Kevin Lynch, OMA; it would include outreach to residents through social media,

student pilot projects/recognizance research to engage citizens, and municipal engagement; it would

also include the inclusion of other institutions and organizations for the support and investment of the

openREsource platforms -- especially commercial organizations with presence in both regions…the

content of the livability commons ::: open RE source will be the contribution and reflection of this

dynamic group of contributors.

… an ambitious scope, although an elicit urban scale graphics campaign between the two

regions within the existing the metropolis‟ existing visual communications systems and high visibility

to residents – a satisfying first step towards more livable cities – to take the second step of the

responsive urban room – and the next step of the knowledge resource and the coming together of

multi-disciplinary, multi-generational, multi-curiosity minds for our shared future.

[16]

* Swamps of Istanbul [III] *

* Gökhan Karakuş * The wetlands and swamps of Istanbul are an important part of the landscape of Istanbul that have been

largely ignored or eradicated in the uncontrolled growth of the city in the last 30 years. Istanbul is on a

major bird migratory route and home to many species of water fowl in a unique biodiversity mix.

Important wetlands such as the upper estuaries of the Golden Horn, Buyukcekmece and

Kucukcekmece lakes, Göksu River on the Bosphorus and the Tuzla shoreline have been over time

polluted and made uninhabitable for this animal life and in some cases human habitation. This rapid,

uncontrolled, and illegal urbanization accompanied by insufficient infrastructure has caused

degradation of these wetlands in the Istanbul area to the extent that they are hardly a visible part of the

city. In addition the watershed basins inside the metropolitan area and the transportation network have

accelerated the change in character of Istanbul‟s topography with serious negative impacts on water

quality of the wetlands and basin area. The impact on bio-diversity and landscape today has reached a

critical juncture causing deadly floods and earth instability.

While it would be impossible to reverse the pollution and degradation of these wetlands, the

opportunity to strategize how urbanization and the wetlands can develop together is a pressing topic

for Istanbul today. On the urban and architectural scales Istanbul presents a collection of areas where

the technical and social impacts of the wetlands can be addressed by design strategies combined with

ecological thinking.

We propose a project where advanced architectural strategies from the Netherlands are

combined with ecological expertise and traditional knowledge systems present in Turkey to produce a

new hybrid type of design approach. This approach seeks to integrate the technological possibilities of

advanced architectural know-how on wetland zones present in the Netherlands with the ecological

experts in environment and traditional systems of land management present in Turkey. This meeting

of the technology and technique is intended to provide each partner with access to knowledge.

Through co-operation on the wetlands of Istanbul the Dutch-Turkish relationship will yield advances

that will benefit both countries.

Study area The Wetlands of Istanbul

Participants

Gökhan Karakuş: Architectural theorist and designer. Focuses on the development of architectonic

systems combining local and regional practices with advances in contemporary design and

architecture. Kerem Ali Boyla: Ecologist and bird expert. He has extensive knowledge about Istanbul's

wetlands and swamps' conservation issues, priority species, threats and pressures.

Güneşin Aydemir: Biologist and conservationist. Active member of Bugday Association; she knows

traditional land use practices in Anatolia (sustainable use, ethno-botany, cultural traditions involving

landscape, species' use). Esra Başak: Ecological economist and conservationist. Ecosystem-based

economies, valuation of ecosystem goods and services, integrated conservation management

knowledge

Possible Dutch participants

West 8, Waterstudio, Factor Architecten, H+N+S Landschapsarchitecten, Anne Holtrop, Drost + van

Veen, Studio Noach

Study scope Long term urban design, architectural and ecological workshop to derive alternative urban design

strategies and building types for the wetlands area of Istanbul to encourage the recovery of these

environments for biodiversity and human habitation.

Term 16 months. 4 one-week workshops every 4 months.

* Doku-polis [III] *

[17]

* Aysim Türkmen* The Netherlands is one of the leading countries in the field of documentary film production.

Organizing IDFA, the most prestigious documentary film festival in the world, and having

internationally acclaimed documentary professionals, the Dutch documentary sector would contribute

to as well as benefit from the thriving documentary scene in Turkey. A collaboration of the two

countries will join the experience and expertise of Dutch documentary sector with the dynamism of a

recently flourishing Turkish documentary production.

Workshops and seminars on developing documentary projects about urban issues in both

countries will facilitate the making of and distributing documentary films as well as capturing and

expressing the particularities and contradictions of the globalizing cities in the neoliberal world.

Two-tiered project: one part will help develop urban visions and the other part involves

documentary film developing.

The program will host 10-12 selected projects about cities. The selected filmmakers will be

invited to participate in workshops and seminars in which they develop a full international production

file which will develop into creative documentary films on cities.

For the first part, an urban visions seminar: Inviting urban planners, architects, urban

anthropologists, professionals from municipalities to work with the filmmakers to analyze and

improve the scenarios of the documentary films.

For the second part, a documentary workshop: Inviting internationally acclaimed documentary

filmmakers, commissioning editors, film funds directors, producers and distributors from the Dutch

and Turkish documentary markets to work with Dutch and Turkish documentary filmmakers to

develop their projects about urban issues into creative documentary films.

The organization can be carried out with the collaboration of: Boğaziçi University, Fine

Arts/Cinema Certificate Programme – Can Candan (documentary filmmaker); Boğaziçi Univeristy,

Sociology Department, Asst.prof. Ayfer Bartu – (specializing on urban regeneration and gated

communities), Ass. Prof. Biray Kırlı, Prof. Çağlar Keyder, Ass. Prof. Tuna Kuyucu; Boğazici

University Mithat Alam Film Center, Yamaç Okur (head of the center, film producer).

List of documentary films on and filmmakers from Turkey

"Ekümenopolis" by İmre Balanlı (2010): www.ekumenopolis.net

"Perfectly Suited for You" by Solmaz Shahbazi (2005):

In her video installation Iranian artist Solmaz Shahbazi addresses cultural stereotypes and the

construction of a new identity by the emerging upper-middle class in the city of Istanbul documenting

the growth of gated communities, areas of elegant comfort and security for an upwardly mobile class

that emerged in the '90s.

"Istanbul Kondu" by Murat Musulluoğlu (2003):

This video brings vivid imagery from various aspects of night landings – shantytowns of Istanbul such

as demonstrations, demolitions, clashes with police, historical-early migration and others. Furthermore

it tries to show some of the silent faces and lives behind these looses through video documentation. It

is a non-linear narrative without characters or a story line.

"34 Taxi" by Belmin Söylemez (2004):

"34 Taxi" is a panorama of today's Istanbul with its architecture, transportation, huge population

and diverse culture.

"KAPITAL-ISTanbul" by Aysim Türkmen and Erkin Peprek (2004):

In this experimental film we are in a capital city of “Kapital” with the post-1980‟s youth, forced to

succeed, to earn money... their unhappiness, their exhaustion, their disappointment with life, their wish

to escape from their daily routine and from the pressure to be successful. The city looks like a

powerful but an old beast. He is tired like his people who feed him and themselves with the Kapital.

"Galata Kulesi Sokak", No: 23 by Aysim Türkmen (2007):

This film is about Sumbul Tuhafiye, all-you-can-find store, lying next to Galata Tower, which, has

been the meeting point of three generations of boys of Galata neighborhood. As Istanbul is becoming a

global city, Galata neighborhood becomes fancy. Most of the residents of the neighborhood are about

to move out of the neighborhood. Sumbul, with the not-at-all rich customers starts to misfit the new

glamour. Just like boys of the hood, the shopkeeper, Liezer Abravaya, Elyazar feels end is near.

"Scavengers of Ankara, Fight for Garbage" by Alper Şen (2007):

[18]

In his documentary, Alper Şen brings to view the invisible citizens who struggle to earn their lives by

collecting garbage which has become a very valuable asset for the private garbage companies and the

municipalities.

Popular [II] * * Funda Uz Sönmez * An important element in the discussion of urban readings is the presence of traces which have been

defining and shaping the city as they are formed throughout centuries. The urban phenomena and

codes which can be accepted as the physical, historical and cultural reflections of these traces also

form another aspect of this element. Deciphering these codes helps us define the chain of relatable

operability between the various layers.

Language is an essential factor in the formation of urban image in the public mind. As a matter

of fact, it would not be wrong to say that urban discourses are linguistic expressions of the urban

image formed in the public mind. Urban codes sustain their presence through the language used in

living areas (physical environment, buildings, media, and maps) which produce their own

characteristic texts.

In the relation of the city to the language which recreates it as a discourse setter, social

knowledge and social memory gain importance as the source and support of life. The city is the

consolidator of cultural production. Some of the sources to be consulted in the understanding of

society, in decoding the public point of view are the written and visual tools of popular culture.

Popular culture is something that helps us survive in this gloomy and depressing atmosphere where

commodification and heaviness penetrates all aspects of our lives, making it impossible to hope for

freedom.

Although a popular culture product cannot defy sovereign forces or deactivate them entirely, it

contains opportunities to shake off the position of being dependent on these forces. In this context,

popular culture is a process of combat. It is a struggle of the significance of public experience, a

conflict between the personality of the individual and social order carried out through the texts and

commodities of this order. Popular culture texts are ambiguous, open-ended and require productive

interpretation. They shape our cultural life, thoughts, judgments and discourses.

For a long time, popular culture studies were not taken seriously by many academic circles in

Turkey. Popular culture studies, which play an important role in our lives, can cover many fields. They

can bring us closer to the world of socializing youngsters or be useful in getting to know groups which

are ethnically or socio-economically different.

The eighties are the years when popular culture became legitimate, and with the widening and

diversification of urban life and its perception by much larger groups (the improvement of

communication channels being an important factor here), began to be consumed as a commodity.

The eighties are worth studying because the potential of economic and social policies to create

a new environment and a fresh situation affected Turkey just as it did the rest of the world. That which

was called “a new era” in academic approach, became the much-used expression, “an era of change”

in Turkey. The physical changes of the city during the eighties that affected our everyday life and the

way we perceived and related to the city, as well as the contribution of these changes to the formation

of urban discourse according to how they took place in the popular media are subjects that also

deserve special attention.

Istanbul is a stage for events that carry marks of culture. It is the central venue of cultural

activities, the center of all the mechanisms that shape, direct and motivate cultural life. The music

sector, the film industry and the headquarters of newspapers are all based in Istanbul. The finance

sector and the financial power that runs these culture mechanisms are in Istanbul. All these factors

make Istanbul the cultural capital of Turkey.

At no time have the symbols of everyday life and those of the large city overlapped as much as

they did in the years 1980-1990. Change, consumption, diversification and assimilation are concepts

that define the course of everyday life from the „80s to the „90s. The notions of “commoditation”,

“placelessness”, centralization, “historicality”, “narrativeness”, alienation, offers of social belonging,

urban cleavage/ghetto forming, speed and action make it difficult to come up with an integrated

definition of the city and “sloganize” the city with new dynamics. Behind all this lies the changing

significance of the city.

[19]

The textual stage of popular media catches the agenda of the day and forms a discourse. Then,

with its newspaper articles, cartoons, magazine covers, advertisements, article series and faded pages,

it is bound and enclosed into stack rooms of libraries, to be reopened one day, or maybe never, on the

call of a researcher. However, certain texts that have found themselves a small place on this stage have

been taken from the pages of newspapers and magazines by their authors and converted into books.

Some of these works that form important references for understanding architecture and the city

through popular culture are “Cilalı İmaj Devri (Age of the Polished Image)” by Cem Kozanoğlu,

“Vitrinde Yaşamak (Living in the Show Window)” by Nurdan Gürbilek, “Tarz-ı Hayat‟tan Life

Style‟a (From Way of Living to Life Style)” by Rıfat Bali, compilations of cartoons published in

various papers and magazines in the eighties such as “Güle Güle Istanbul” by Semih Balcıoğlu,

“Nostaljisi Kandilli” by Latif Demirci, “Cırcır Böceği Muhlis Bey ve Yavlum Mithat” by Latif

Demirci and Behiç Pek, Gırgır humor magazine, the widely circulated Nokta magazine.

* Sub-disciplines [II] * Architects, academics, designers, activists, schools, publicists, NGO‟s and independent initiatives.

* List of practicing architects [III] *

Active middle aged generation:

Tabanlıoğlu (Melkan – Murat Tabanlıoğlu)

Emre Arolat Architects (Emre Arolat, Gonca Paşolar, Kerem Piker, Sezer Bahtiyar)

GAD (Gökhan Avcıoğlu)

Mimarlar Tasarım (Han Tümertekin)

NSMH (Nevzat Sayın)

Tekeli & Sisa (Doğan Tekeli, Nedim Sisa, Mehmet Emin Çakırkaya, Dilgün Saklar)

Öncüoğlu + ACP (Enis Öncüoğlu)

Teğet Architects (Ertuğ Uçar, Mehmet Kütükçüoğlu)

Erginoğlu & Çalışlar (Kerem Erginoğlu, Hasan Çalışlar)

Suyabatmaz Demirel Mimarlık (Arif Suyabatmaz, Hakan Demirel)

Çinici Architects (Can Çinici)

Adnan Kazmaoğlu

Mutlu Çilingiroğlu

TAGO (Tatsuya Yamamoto, Gökhan Altuğ)

Kreatif (Aydan Volkan, Selim Cengiç)

U&D (Emir Uras, Durmuş Dilekçi)

TeCe (Cem İlhan, Tülin Hadi)

DB Mimarlık (Bünyamin Derman)

Boran Ekinci

Erkut Şahinbaş

Şevki Pekin

DS Architects (Deniz Aslan, Sevim Aslan)

Abdi Güzer

Has Architects (Dogan Hasol, Hayzuran Hasol, Ayşe Hasol Erktin)

Şanal Mimarlık (Alexis & Murat Şanal)

TRafo Architects (Arda İnceoğlu, İpek Yürekli, Suna Birsen Otay)

KG Architects (Gürhan Bakırküre, Kurtul Erkmen)

Brigitte Weber

Kerem Yazgan

MArs (Atilla & Cem Yücel)

Ali Esad Göksel

Cafer Bozkurt

Tuncay Çavdar

Turgut Alton

Ali Osman Öztürk

MuuM Mimarlık (Murat Aksu, Umut İyigün)

Yeşim - Nami Hatırlı

[20]

Gül Güven

Semra – Özcan Uygur

Nesrin – Affan Yatman

Hüseyin Bütüner

Hilmi Güner

Semra Teber Yener

Erkal Architects (Emre, Filiz, Çoşkun, Ozan Erkal)

Sibel Dalokay Bozer

Ahmet Tercan

Elif Özdemir

Selda Baltacı

Turhan Kaşo

Selçuk Avcı

Hasan Özbay

Kadri Atabaş

Yakup Hazan

Dürrin Süer Kılıç

Elif Pekin

Selim Velioğlu

Haydar Karabey

Kaya Arıkoğlu

Mehmet Konuralp

Behruz Çinici

Cengiz Bektaş

Ziya Tanalı

Yaşar Marulyalı - Levent Aksüt

Ersen Gürsel

Şans Mimarlık (Ahmet İğdirligil)

Yavuz Selim Sepin

Active younger generation Alişan Çırakoğlu

Tuşpa NK (Nilüfer Kozikoğlu)

PAB (Pınar Gökbayrak, Ali Eray, Burçin Yıldırım)

SO? (Sevince Bayrak, Oral Çalışlar)

8Artı (Devrim Çimen, Sertaç Erten)

GB Mimarlık (Özgür Bingöl, İlke Barka, Emre Savgı)

Superpool (Selva Gürdoğan, Gregers Thomsen)

PATTU (Cem Kozar, Işıl Ünal)

1+1 Mimarlık (Ervin Garip, Banu Başeskici Garip)

About Blank (Gökhan Kodalak, Erhan Vural, Ozan Özdilek, Hasan Sıtkı Gümüşsoy)

Ömer Selçuk Baz

Rahmi Uysalkan

Arkizon (Emin Balkış, Elvan Çalışkan)

MAER (Erguvan Ünal, Mahir Ünal)

Sinan Omacan

Ali Kural

Cem Sorguç

Defne Önen

Ahmet Önder

Eylem Erdinç

Hayriye Sözen

İbrahim Eyüp

Mert Eyiler

Zemin (Nesli Kayalı – Fatma Olgaç)

[21]

Other Aslı Kıyak İngin (Activist)

Faruk Göksu (Urban planner)

* List of practicing 3D designers important for the field [III] *

Zoom (Atilla Kuzu, Levent Çırpıcı)

Tanju Özelgin

Autoban (Seyhan Özdemir, Sefer Çağlar)

Arif Özden

Sema Topaloğlu Studio

Demirden Design

Derin (Aziz Sarıyer – Derin Sarıyer)

Koleksiyon (Faruk Malhan)

Mustafa Toner

Mahmut Anlar

Hasan Mingü

Alper Böler

Ömer Ünal

Ypsilon (Yeşim Bakırküre)

Yılmaz Zenger

Yalın Tan

* List of academics [III] *

Academics Istanbul Technical University İpek Yada Akpınar

Sait Ali Köknar

Hüseyin Kahvecioğlu

Semra Aydınlı

Arzu Erdem

Belkıs Uluoğlu

Zeynep Kuban

Yıldız Salman

Nurbin Paker Kahvecioğlu

Funda Uz Sönmez

Arda İnceoğlu

Ayşe Şentürer

Yüksel Demir

Hakan Tüzün Şengün

Sinan Mert Şener

Turgut Saner

Afife Batur

Nur Akın

Metin Ahunbay

Zeynep Ahunbay

Academics METU – Ankara Suha Özkan

Ayşen Savaş

Abdi Güzer

Haluk Pamir

Aydan Balamir

Academics Yıldız Technical University Uğur Tanyeli

Bülent Tanju

[22]

Candan Çınar

Şebnem Yalınay Çinici

Cengiz Can

Ayşen Ciravoğlu

Ebru Omay Polat

Aysim Türkmen

Murat Soygeniş

Academics Istanbul Bilgi University İhsan Bilgin

Tansel Korkmaz

Günkut Akın

Sibel Bozdoğan

Murat Güvenç

Asu Aksoy

Eda Yücesoy

İdil Erkol

Academics MSGSU Aykut Köksal

Özgür Bingöl

Oğuz Özer

Ahmet Tercan

Academics Bahçeşehir University Ahmet Eyüce

Burak Altınışık

Işıl Altınışık

Deniz Kural

Hülya Turgut

Academics Kültür University Hakkı Yırtıcı

Academics 9 Eylül University – İzmir Deniz Güner

Academics Uludağ University – Bursa Neslihan Dostoğlu

Academics Ticaret University Işık Aydemir

Academics Osmangazi University – Eskişehir Levent Şentürk

Academics Erciyes University – Kayseri Burak Asiliskender

Academics Kadir Has University Ahmet Özgüner (Faculty of Fine Arts, Interior and Environmental Design Department)

Other academics Atilla Yücel (Cyprus International University)

Nuray Togay

[23]

Aslı Özbay

Gökhan Karakuş

Pelin Tan (Sociologist, Art Critic)

Korhan Gümüş (Architect, activist)

* List of professional organizations [III] *

Chamber of Architects Turkey

Istanbul Freelance Architects Association

Izmir Freelance Architects Association

Turkish (Ankara) Freelance Architects Association

1927 Architects Association

* List of schools of architecture [III] *

Influential schools of architecture Middle East Technical University (METU)

Istanbul Technical University (ITU)

Yıldız Technical University (YTU)

MSGSU (Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University)

Bilgi University

Bahçeşehir University

Other educational organisations Arkitera Education Center

CAT Educational Department

* List of NGOs and initiatives [III] * Human Settlements Association (İnsan Yerleşimleri Derneği)

Architecture Foundation (Mimarlik Vakfı)

Imkanmekan

Difüzyon

Kolokyum.org

* List of other institutions [III] * Arkitera Architecture Center

Building Information Center

Garanti Gallery & Garanti Culture Inc.

History Foundation (Tarih Vakfı)

* List of publications [III] * Arkitera (Arkitera.com, Gazeteparc, Raf Magazine)

Boyut Yayıncılık (Arredemento Mimarlık)

Tasarım Yayınevi (Tasarım)

Depo Yayıncılık (XXI, Yeni Mimar, GMTR)

PAB (Betonart)

Natura Magazine

PLD – Professional Lighting Design

Doxa

Dipnot

*Venues [II] * In this case we do not describe actual venues nor the main State and Independent organizations.

* State and municipality [III] * It is hard to say that the state or municipality has a definitive policy on contemporary architectural

culture in Turkey. Even though in the long architectural history of Turkey, Seljuks and the Ottoman

[24]

Empire had left a great number of masterpieces, in today's current architectural production it is hard to

find challenging examples which contribute to the global contemporary architectural culture.

According to the state, architectural production is a side service of the construction industry rather

than a cultural field. Even the current Public Procurement Law is adjusted to select the contractor

before the architectural design. Architecture is actually stuck between the Ministry of Public Works

and Settlement and Ministry of Culture and Tourism, neither of them actually patronizes the

architectural culture.

The “longing for the past” is a common leitmotif in today's governing bodies and it is reflected

in the architectural production as well. Imitation of the old historic civil architectural appearance or

creating an artificial glory by mixing Seljuk and Ottoman periods‟ architectural elements is common

in many recently commissioned public buildings. Thus, most of the architectural cultural activities,

organized by the municipalities or the state are usually framed within this perspective in which the

history is highlighted and contemporary global architectural concerns are often ignored.

In the last decade, the number of architectural competitions for public buildings is increasing

which signifies an interest to a more up-to-date architectural production in the mind of the state or

municipalities but these may be counted as individual attempts usually triggered by the Chamber of

Architects of Turkey (CAT). However, Turkey's reputation is not good in the execution of the

architectural competition winners. We still cannot speak about a clear and well defined viewpoint of

the state towards architecture.

The state, and especially the municipalities which have been selected from the same

government party, has not had a fruitful relationship with the Chamber of Architects for many years.

The chamber is famous for suing municipalities and opening law suits for big projects which bothers

the state and the mayors for long years. This tense relationship also made the Chamber of Architects

lose all its lobbying power in the government which is a pity for the architectural community in

Turkey.

* Independents and activists [III] * Even though the construction industry is one of the leading industries of the economy in Turkey, and

the building production is immense, it is hard to find solid criticisms on the quality of these

productions. The most active resistance comes again from the Chamber of Architects' Ankara and

Istanbul branches.

The Human Settlement Association (İnsan Yerleşimleri Derneği) is the single and most active

NGO in the architectural field, which was founded by architect Korhan Gümüş, who may also be

easily called the most active (!) activist in urban and architectural issues. Similarly his colleagues Aslı

Kıyak İngin and Derya Nükhet Özer who once worked together with Korhan Gümüş, may also be

named as one of the few activists of the field.

Tarih Vakfı (History Foundation of Turkey) was once one of the most influential NGOs which

also operated in the urban and architectural fields, thanks to the small circle of architects and planners

who were friends of the founders or members of the foundation. However, in the last couple of years,

the foundation lost its power due to financial problems.

On the other hand there are some neighborhood NGOs which were formed to resist some

urban developments that would occur within their regions. Sulukule, Karanfilköy, Başıbüyük,

Cihangir, Arnavutköy, Tarlabaşı, Fener-Balat are the most active regions where urban rehabilitation

projects or large scale developments are threatening the presence of the residents.

*Festivals and events [II] * If we keep the commercial industry expositions out of the framework, Turkey does not have a

continuous architectural event which is organized on a regular basis. The Arkitera Architecture Center

(AAC) organized the Istanbul Architecture Festival in 2004 and tried to turn it into a biennale but

couldn't find enough support to realize it.

CAT, Building Information Center (Yapı Endüstri Merkezi), Arkitera Architecture Center and

Garanti Gallery (GG) are the most active organizations but none of the events organized by them so

far had a continuous repeating cycle except for GG. GG which was founded in 2003 and functioned

until 2010 is based on architecture, urbanism and design. GG realized numerous exhibitions in its

venue and internationally, organized other events like workshops and lectures, and produced

[25]

distinguished publications. GG is now consolidating with its sister institutions under the Garanti

Culture Inc. umbrella which will be functioning in its renovated venues in 2011.

In 2010, Arkitera started to organize the Open Door Architecture Festival with the support of

Istanbul 2010 Agency and have plans to repeat it every year in the future.

“Kayıtdışı” is another annual initiative originating from Yıldız Technical University. Some

young academic staff of the university together with some enthusiastic students developed a series of

events lasting for a couple of days each year. Ayşen Ciravoğlu from Yıldız Technical University was

the leading academic in organizing this event, where the contributors change each year. The third

kayıtdısı event was organized in 2010. (www.kayitdisi.org)

“400 Saniye (400 Seconds)” is a non-regular event, based on the famous Pecha-Kucha format,

which is organized with some young academics, students and architects grouped under the title

Difüzyon. It has been organized at seven different times where architects, artists and people working in

different creative fields presented their one or two projects in 400 seconds to an audience in an

informal environment such as a night club. (www.difuzyon.org)

Especially in the last five years, because of the mediation of publications and exhibitions, the

architecture in Turkey obtained a position from where it is capable of both representing and being

represented. Founded in 2006, the “World Architecture Community” organized an exhibition called “7

Hills 7 Architects” which, after its first show in Torino in 2008, visited Berlin, Brussels and Jakarta.

Other events Urban affairs such as public space, political sphere, right of habitation, urban transformation, gated

communities, heritage etc. have become the focus of attention also for contemporary art, resulting in

increasing communication and collaboration between artist-architect/urban planners. Some examples

are “Cultural Agencies” (http://cultural-agencies.blogspot.com/) and other projects by Oda Projesi

(http://odaprojesi.blogspot.com/), Open-City Istanbul exhibition realized in cooperation with the 4th

International Biennale Rotterdam IABR “Open City – Designing Coexistence”

(www.depoistanbul.net/en/activites_detail.asp?ac=25), “My City”

(www.mycity.eu.com/content/about) project realized by the collaboration of British Council and

Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center.

Besides these examples, it has to be mentioned that the research project by Garanti Gallery

entitled “Becoming Istanbul” (www.becomingistanbul.org) is in circulation with an exhibition

(Frankfurt, Berlin, Bahrain, Lille and web), three books and an ever growing database. Freed from tags

full of same old, cliché arguments, and with over 200 participants from both inside and outside the

architecture circles, “Becoming Istanbul” is trying to delineate the architecture, and on a larger scale,

the complexity and the contextuality of the city.

*Educational institutions [II] * As of 2010, there are 35 universities in Turkey which have architecture faculties; 14 of these are in

Istanbul. Amongst the students who have been successful in the national university entrance

examinations and have won the right to begin their studies in architecture faculties, the contingent for

Turkey is 2,095 (925 in Istanbul). “The Bologna Process” is the name given to the series of activities

which are carried out in the realization of the European Higher Education Area. This is the integration

project implemented by European countries in the field of education. The main goals of the European

Network of Heads of Schools of Architecture which focuses on the education of architecture, are to

support the creative efforts made by European schools of architecture in their attempts to follow the

dynamics of the “Bologna Process”, to define the contemporary “profile” of European architectural

education and to develop methods to adapt the existing curricula to this “profile”. As guarantors of the

system of quality assurance in architectural education, the Network of Heads of Schools of

Architecture and the Chamber of Architects of Turkey took these goals as a starting point and formed

the Architectural Accreditation Council in Turkey in 2006. Their aim is to raise the standards by

monitoring architectural education and the post-education period. Another important accreditation is

NAAB (National Architectural Accrediting Board) which is the sole agency authorized to accredit US

professional degree programs in architecture. As a result of these initiatives, a certain percentage of the

lessons are now being taught in English. Furthermore, students and faculty members have started to

participate in international exchange programs. At the moment, the presentation of a thesis is

compulsory for a master‟s degree in the architectural faculties of Turkish universities. However there

[26]

are two exceptions, one is the Architectural Design Graduate Program of Istanbul Bilgi University

which was started in 2005, and the other is the Architecture Department of the Istanbul Technical

University Architecture Faculty which has been given Substantial Equivalency by NAAB (1940). As

for entering the universities in Turkey, this is still only possible by a single-stage examination system.

With the support they get from other universities as well as from practicing professional architects,

faculties of architecture, which generally provide an introverted education system, are now trying to

open out to the world. However, faculty members are not officially allowed to have their own

architectural practice. In other words, the gap between academics and the professional practice of

architecture continues to exist.

* State educational institutions [III] * There are currently 22 state universities which have an architectural department.

Most established ones are indicated in quotation marks:

Abant İzzet Baysal University

Anadolu University

Balıkesir University

Bozok University

Dicle University

Dokuz Eylül University

Erciyes University

Gazi University

Gebze Yüksek Teknoloji Institute

„Istanbul Technical University‟

İzmir Yüksek Teknoloji Institute

„Karadeniz Teknik University‟

Kocaeli University

Mardin Artuklu University

Mersin University

„Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University‟

„Middle East Technical University‟

Selçuk University

Süleyman Demirel University

Trakya University

Uludağ University

„Yıldız Technical University‟

* Private educational institutions [III] * There are 13 private foundation universities which has an architectural department. Universities which

have only interior design departments are not included in the list. Most influential private universities

are indicated in quotation marks:

Atılım University

„Bahçeşehir University‟

Beykent University

Doğuş University

Haliç University

Istanbul Arel University

Istanbul Aydın University

„Istanbul Bilgi University‟*

„Istanbul Kültür University‟

İzmir Ekonomi University

Istanbul Maltepe University

Yaşar University

„Yeditepe University‟

* Istanbul Bilgi University architecture department has a postgraduate program which was

initiated in 2005; undergraduate program is initiated in 2010.

[27]

Architecture education is governed by the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) both in state

and private universities. Students have to pass a central assessment exam in order to be registered to a

university. Students can choose their schools and departments according to the grades they obtain in

this exam. There are no exams evaluating the student‟s skill in any department of architecture in

Turkey. The architectural education last 4 years excluding the English preparation classes required in

some universities. The average graduation time may extend to 5 or sometimes 6 years in some schools.

Two months internship is obligatory for many schools in a four years period. After graduation

the students are given the Architects Diploma which enables them to start practicing. In order to

design a building or to enter an architectural competition, besides the need of a diploma the architect

has to be registered to the CAT.

Amongst the 35 universities who have architectural departments, 9 of them are members of the

ERASMUS student exchange program.

CAT has also initiated a “continuous education in the profession” program where some events

related to architecture and urbanism are graded and collected. Those grades are then recorded to the

architect‟s files. Even though CAT claims that grades will be required for all practicing architects to

continue their registration status, after the law suits opened by architect Murat Artu, the court order

made the grade system invalid in November 2008.

*Professional associations [II] *

Chamber of Architects (CAT) CAT, which was founded in 1954 with a private law, is defined in the Constitution as an institution

working for the interest of public and society. Similar to any chamber of architects in many countries

which formed the UIA (The International Union of Architects), CAT is a professional organization

responsible for regulating architectural profession and registration to CAT is compulsory for the

practice of architectural profession in Turkey. Since its foundation CAT has been following

urbanization problems closely and makes interventions when necessary. CAT as a professional

organization in the service of the society, besides protecting the rights of architects throughout the

country, also works for the sake of providing a healthy living environment. CAT is administrated by

democratic organs constituted of architects who are appointed to duty via elections amongst registered

architects. As of 2010, CAT has branches in 25 cities, representative offices in 82 cities/counties, and

55 representatives.

CAT has been an institution of opinions and struggles emerging from the inseparable bond

between architecture and the rights of the public related to cities, environment and culture. CAT

endeavors to solve related problems and to eliminate objectionable practices in the light of the

principles of architecture with its central, branch and representative office organizations. CAT,

especially brings law suits against the development decisions and practices which are not compatible

with the interest of cities, society and country. (http://www.mo.org.tr/eng/belgedocs/CAT-leaflet.pdf)

During its half a century long history, CAT's interest shifted to a more hard core politics rather

than the professional framework. The leftist political opinions had been announced loudly and many

applications of the governments are being severely criticized. Having more than 40.000 members,

some architects who do not agree with the political views of the CAT started to complain about their

professional organization, accusing the administration of neglecting the real problems of the

profession and delving into politics. For the last couple of decades it is widely accepted among

practicing architects that CAT is not effective anymore and does not fulfill its main obligations. It is

also believed that CAT had lost its lobbying power in the governing bodies because of its continuous

resistance to most of the urban development projects and lawsuits that are being opened one after other

for major building projects.

See also:

Chamber of City Planners www.spo.org.tr/

Chamber of Interior Architects of Turkey www.icmimarlarodasi.org.tr/

UCTEA Chamber of Landscape Architects www.peyzajmimoda.org.tr/

Freelance Architects Association

[28]

Within the last decade freelance architects in three major cities, who are complaining about the tense

atmosphere the CAT created for years, founded the Freelance Architects Associations in Ankara,

Istanbul and İzmir. Ankara was founded in 1983 but was not effective until 2000. Istanbul Freelance

Architects Association was founded in 2003 and it has been followed by İzmir. Even though they were

founded with the ambitions to fill the gap that CAT has been leaving empty they couldn't fulfill the

expectations of the practicing architects, especially of the young generation. The practicing architects

were expecting the FAA to be more effective in putting regulations within the profession itself that

would create a more just environment. For instance the minimum fee dispute has not been solved for

years which actually the CAT has to resolve. Also the quality of the organization of architectural

competitions needs other regulations, where the FAA could be effective to put pressure on CAT.

www.tsmd.org.tr/

Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Istanbul Metropolitan Planning (IMP) is a special department within the Istanbul Metropolitan

Municipality (IMM) generating large and medium scale plans for Istanbul and its districts. IMP is

formed under the company owned by Istanbul Municipality (BIMTAŞ), and does not have any legal

status. It is formulated as a think-tank office to plan the future of Istanbul. Initially IMP invited

hundreds of academics, specialists and professionals in order to work extensively on Istanbul. Huge

amounts of work have been produced; loads of analysis has been made. Within a couple of years, IMP

became the central attraction for many academics both from Turkey and from Europe. However, what

IMP was proposing for Istanbul couldn't be applied in most cases. In the last couple of years, the sweet

dream started to turn into a big disappointment. IMP lost its influence because it couldn't deliver what

it promised with its huge staff and competent advisory team. IMM and the central government act

independently and sometimes in contrast with what IMP is proposing. Eventually in 2009 the director

of IMP, Hüseyin Kaptan resigned and IMP started to shrink, both in terms of its size and influence.

Today it is still active with minimum amount of employee but actually without any effects on the

decisions related to Istanbul.

Arkitera Architecture Center Arkitera Architecture Center is an independent architecture and urbanism center founded in 2000 in

Istanbul. Its mission is to sustain a better architectural practice, enhance the architectural culture and

raise the quality of the built environment in Turkey. In order to achieve this mission, Arkitera develops

and publishes several online (arkitera.com, gazeteparc.com etc.) and printed magazines (Raf Product

Magazine) which is followed by the majority of the professionals of the related fields. Arkitera keeps

its independent status by financing all of its events and publishing costs by sponsorship and

advertisement revenues from the construction and property development industries.

Arkitera initiated the first and largest archive of contemporary architecture in Turkey, which is

also published over internet under the name Arkiv. Arkiv is currently the only and largest resource on

contemporary architecture of Turkey which can also be followed in English over internet. The archive

also forms the resource for the online architectural map of Turkey.

Arkitera initiated the ARKIMEET lecture series in which the most famous internationally

acclaimed architects were invited to Istanbul for conferences. (www.arkimeet.org)

The center has close relationships with many similar institutions in Europe (NAI, Architektur

Zentrum Wien, CABE, LSE – Urban Age, Europan etc.) and also has collaborations with many

architectural schools in Turkey or abroad.

In 2007, Arkitera Education Center (AEC) has been initiated in order to provide continuing

educational courses for professionals. The education center focuses mainly on professional CAD and

BIM software used by architects, planners and engineers. AEC has other short term workshops on

professional development skills such as architectural photography, modeling or certificate courses

such as property assessment trainings.

Since its establishment, the Arkitera Architecture Center became a central communication

platform for debates, discussions and dialogs for architecture and urbanism issues thanks to hundreds

of conferences, panels and exhibitions organized.

Building Information Center (YEM)

[29]

The Building Information Center (BIC/YEM), established in 1968, is an information center that

provides services to all users of building materials, including companies engaged in the production of

goods, services, professionals, executives, architects, engineers and contractors.

The Centre forms a common platform between producers and users and is a unique media

group, which organizes sector-based fairs, publishes technical journals and periodicals, provides

professional information, and organizes technical trips, meetings and symposiums.

www.yem.net/yem07/english.aspx

Garanti Gallery (GG) & Garanti Culture Inc. Garanti Gallery founded in 2003 by one of the leading banks of Turkey (Garanti Bank), specializes in

contemporary architecture, urbanism and design of all fields. Through its diverse programs like

exhibitions, workshops, lectures and also with its publications, archive (Architecture and Design

Archive Turkey) and library GG aims to contribute to a better understanding of built environment.

Garanti Bank‟s other two culture and arts foundations - The Ottoman Bank Archive and

Research Center and Museum, Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center - which are significantly

successful each on their own fields are coming together with GG under the roof of Garanti Culture Inc.

The institutions, with their forces combined and their shared usage areas widened (covering a total of

15.000m2 of space), will reach to audiences with multi-disciplinary activities. Garanti Culture Inc.

will be active in the fields of "contemporary art", "architecture, urbanism and design" and

"economical, historical and social works" with activities such as researches, exhibitions, causeries,

conferences, workshops, training programs and screenings alongside publications regarding the

mentioned topics. The archive and library available within its scope will provide valuable resources

for researchers in cultural and social fields. Garanti Culture Inc. will offer service in 2011 at two

historical buildings, which are still being renovated in the Beyoğlu district.

www.garanti.com.tr/en/our_company/social_responsibility/projects_on_art_and_culture/garanti_cultur

e_inc/garanti_gallery.page

*Critics and academics [II] * There are not so many critics and academic people who frequently write about contemporary

architectural production in Turkey, even though the number of architectural publications is well

beyond that of many European countries.

One of the most influential and prolific names is Prof.Uğur Tanyeli who is teaching

architectural history in Yıldız Technical University and also who is the chief editor of Arredemento

Mimarlık magazine for years. Another influential name is architect Aykut Köksal who is teaching in

Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and Istanbul Bilgi University. Prof. İhsan Bilgin (Istanbul Bilgi

University), Prof. Günkut Akın (Istanbul Bilgi University), Assoc.Prof. Tansel Korkmaz (Istanbul

Bilgi University), Bülent Tanju (Yıldız Technical University), Haydar Karabey (Mimar Sinan Fine

Arts University), Atilla Yücel, Doğan Kuban (proffesor of architectural history), Aydan Balamir (Prof.

in METU), Suha Özkan(former general secretary of Aga Khan awards, Prof. in METU), Doğan Hasol

(founder of BIC) should be mentioned as other names who write occasionally on architectural and

urban issues. Korhan Gümüş should also be mentioned as the only architectural critic who frequently

writes on daily newspapers and makes a radio program on urban and architectural issues

(Metropolitika) and who currently is the director of Urban Applications Director of 2010 European

Capital of Culture. Some other important academic names whose voices occasionally can be heard are

Gülsün Tanyeli (ITU), Yıldız Salman (ITU), Hakkı Yırtıcı (Kültür University) and architects Aslı

Özbay or Haydar Karabey.

*Publications and blogs [II] *

* Print based media [III] *

Daily Press Currently, there is no regular columnist who writes about urban and architectural issues in any of the

daily press.

[30]

Magazines Turkey is actually a rich country considering the number of architectural periodicals being published.

However, only a few of them are influential. The list below is ordered according to their estimated

printing numbers.

Mimarlık Official periodical publication of CAT published bi-monthly since 1963 and distributed to its

registered members. Even though it is high in the printing numbers, it is not as influential as other

independent magazines.

Tasarım Contains mostly project drawings and photographs from Turkey and from abroad.

Yapı Periodic publication of BIC. Contains project photographs and drawings, news about the architectural

community, some articles on different issues.

Arredemento Mimarlık

The most influential publication for years led by Uğur Tanyeli. Contains articles on theory or

architecture and urbanism as well as projects from abroad and from Turkey.

XXI The second most influential publication published by DEPO Publishing. DEPO also publishes a

monthly newspaper on architecture called Yeni Mimar.

Betonart A quarterly publication on the use of concrete in contemporary architecture. Rather than being a

standard industry magazine, Betonart achieved an appreciated acclaim thanks to its rich content with

critical and well written essays and careful selection of projects from around the world. Betonart was

initiated by Arkitera Architecture Center for Turkish Cement Manufacturers Association and now is

being published by PAB, a young architectural research office in Istanbul.

Doxa A periodical published 3 times a year, consisting mainly academic essays on different disciplines on

the boundaries of space, design and criticism, which was initiated by the faculty of architecture of

Eskişehir Osmangazi University in 2000. In 2006 it started getting published by Norgunk Yayıncılık.

Starting from the beginning Levent Şentürk was the editor in chief for a long time.

Dipnot An academic journal published in MSGSU, consists of essays on art and design written mostly by

academics and is published twice a year. The journal is the result of personal endeavor of Aykut

Köksal, who is also teaching in the same university.

* Online publications [III] * Ordered according to their estimated visitor numbers and influence:

arkitera.com The official publication of Arkitera Architectural Center. It is the most influential and widely followed

publication in the architectural community since 2000.

yapi.com.tr Online publication of BIC, similar to Arkitera.com

yenimimar.com Online publication of DEPO Publishing. More focused on the issues of the contemporary agenda.

[31]

kolokyum.com Online publication dedicated to the discussion and announcement of architectural competitions,

initiated by three young freelance architects.

mimdap.org Online publication initiated by two middle aged freelance architects. Started as a counter-argument

publication against the policies of CAT. Today followed by a small group of architects.

* Archives [III] *

Arkiv The most complete archive of Turkish contemporary architecture is published and maintained by

Arkitera Archtiecture Center which is actually an online database, published on www.arkiv.com.tr. It

covers most of the current well known architects and their works and extends back until 1920s with

some scanned archival data.

Virtual Architecture Museum www.mimarlikmuzesi.com which is published by BIC may also be counted as an online archive which

does not have a systematic database but rather it has a virtual architectural museum role with thematic

exhibitions.

Architecture and Design Archive Turkey Started in 2008 as a joint project of Garanti Gallery and Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center,

the Architecture and Design Archive Turkey (ADAT) has been scanning materials from the beginning

of the century till now. What makes this archive unique and important is the fact that it covers both

design and architecture. It's been planned that, as of 2011, ADAT will be available online for

researchers and will be accessible to public via projects such as exhibitions and publications in the

form of a “living archive.”

CAT Archive It is also believed that CAT has quite a number of unorganized materials in their archives. On the

other hand the visual archive located at the web page is not accessible to public use.

Becoming Istanbul Garanti Gallery‟s unique database entitled “Becoming Istanbul” should be considered as a multi-

disciplinary archive on contemporary Istanbul: www.becomingistanbul.org /

database.becomingistanbul.com/

*Prizes and grants [II] * National Architecture Awards Chamber of Architects (CAT) is organizing the most established architectural award of Turkey

under the title of “National Architecture Awards”. The awards are given bi-annually by a jury selected

by CAT. Under different categories buildings and their architects are honored in each award.

Additionally in each cycle, a person or an institution is awarded for their contribution to the

architectural culture.

www.mo.org.tr/eng/

Arkitera awards

The Arkitera center initiated the first systematic awards to honor architects under 40, the best clients

who had a fruitful relationship with the architects, and the most innovative construction materials or

products. For all of these awards, Arkitera forms independent juries which change in each cycle.

*Non-professional [II] *

İmkanmekan İmkanmekan was founded by Bilge Kalfa, Evren Uzer and Okay Karadayılar in March 2007 with the

aim of forming a database for public space related design projects, organizing design workshops and

[32]

forming a discussion platform related to public space. Together with the involvement of Şebnem

Soher and Hakan Tüzün Şengün the practice of imkanmekan expanded in 2008 towards publication

and public discussions in relation to problems and components of public space. İmkanmekan was

awarded in 2010 in the National Architecture Awards of CAT. http://tr.imkanmekan.org/

World Architecture Community WAC is a project initiated by Suha Özkan and Cüneyt Budak as an online architectural portal with the

ambition to address the overall global architectural community in 2006. However, after the unexpected

death of Cüneyt Budak -the mastermind of the project- WAC's energy declined.

www.worldarchitecture.org

Metropolitika The longest lasting and the only radio programme (on açık radio 94.9) on architecture and urbanism

organized by Korhan Gümüş and Aysim Türkmen, started in 2006. www.metropolitika.com/

Made in Şişhane „Made in Şişhane‟ was founded by Aslı Kıyak Ingin in 2006 during the „Istanbul Design Week‟ in

2006. The project aims to get a better understanding of the networks in Şişhane, to help the habitants

stay in their native land, to institutionalize their material culture (which is being rejected by the local

government), to help them gain self-confidence via learning the production culture, and finally to

equip them with social and economic tool kits of community empowerment. www.madeinsishane.com

Sulukule Platform Sulukule is an old neighborhood inside the historical peninsula famous with its Roman population.

When TOKI (Mass Housing Department of Turkey) decided to evacuate the area and build new

residential blocks, a group of academics, architects, urban planners formed an informal platform to

raise support for the Romans living there. The case grow bigger and even European Court of Human

Rights was involved however TOKI and the Fatih Municipality did not step back and eventually the

houses were torn down and many Roman citizens were forced to live in distant mass housing units.

Mekanar Mekanar (spatial researches), is an online publication and events series initiated by architect Hakkı

Yırtıcı, who also teaches in Kültür University. www.mekanar.com

*Audiences [II] * In Turkey “contemporary” architecture is perceived as a construction activity rather than a cultural

field. The word contemporary is emphasized here deliberately since in the public realm architectural

history, or its artifacts are valued due to their historic identities. Identity has been the catchword in

architecture for over 80 years. Even though the content of the identity changes in every period -

between a scale of conservatism and progressiveness- the search for an integrating identity does not

change. It is usual for any nation who had a breaking point in its natural course of history, to

experience fluctuations while developing a perception of cultural fields and in this sense architecture

has been one of the best reflective fields.

The search for identity created perception templates for the man on the street with the help of

the mass media. Those templates usually dictate that “once we had created one of the greatest

architectural cultures of the world” and “the remnants of those cultures should inspire the new

productions.” This crooked idea dominated the building productions of the state and many

municipalities, which resulted in contemporary-kitsch examples in public buildings. This concept is

best visible in the architecture of mosques. The religious and historic baggage of this type of buildings

is very loaded in Turkey, but it is almost impossible to see experiments in the contemporary mosque

architecture even though it is the only building type that has been built in great numbers both by

individuals, neighborhood communities and by the state itself.

Civil architecture -especially residential architecture- suffers from problems brought on by

rapid urbanization. This realm is dominated by apartment types mostly built by small contractors

without the help of any regular architectural service. In all cities in Turkey, the urban tissue is formed

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by these typical multi-storey apartments, ignoring any geographical or social features as a design

input. Thus the man on the street longs for the appearance of historic residential settlements. Actually

the “Turkish house” has become a myth, almost a heroic figure in the minds of the public realm due to

several academic studies which became popular sources for documentaries and mass media. The

preserved Safranbolu district and the popularization of this small village and its buildings, created a

motif that can be replicated or applied to any type of buildings in any scale. Today in many

applications, especially the ones initiated by the municipalities, we see the replication of some

architectural elements of this „typical Turkish house‟-leitmotiv in schools, court houses, ferry

terminals, apartment buildings even in industrial facilities.

*Facilities [II] * Practical places to go for an architect/designer visiting or working on a project in Turkey

Plotter and printing service

Cemil Ozalit (www.cemilcopy.com/)

Necdet Ozalit (www.necdetozalit.com.tr/)

Netcopy (only printing service, www.netcopycenter.com/)

Teknik Servis Kopyalama Sistemleri (www.teknikservis.com.tr/)

3D prototyping, printing, rendering

+90 (rapid Prototyping, www.plus90.com/)

Infotron (3D Printing, rapid prototyping, www.infotron.com.tr/)

Parlak Kırmızı (3D Rendering Service, www.parkir.com.tr/)

Model makers

Ahmet Sertaç Öztürk, Hayalbilim (http://hayalbilim.com/)

Atölye 77 Modelling (www.atolye77.com.tr/)

Mavi Işık Modelling (www.maviisik.com/)

Mehmet Erkök (www.merkok.com/)

Murat Küçük, Atölye K ( www.atolyek.com/)

Modelling, painting and drawing (M+P+D) materials

Balcı Stationary (M+D materials)

Karum Stationary (D+P materials)

Mektup Stationary (D+P materials)

Kabalcı (D+P materials and bookstore)

Books

Homer Bookstore (www.homerbooks.com/)

Pandora Bookstore (www.pandora.com.tr/)

Robinson Crusoe Bookstore (www.rob389.com/)

YEM Bookstore (www.yemkitabevi.com/)

Architectural photographers

Ali Bekman (www.alibekman.com/)

Cemal Emden (www.cemalemden.com/)

Murat Germen (www.muratgermen.com/)

Oğuz Meriç (also aerial photography)

*Financial situation [II] * * Ömer Kanıpak* Construction is one of the leading industries in Turkey, often mentioned as the locomotive of the

overall economy of the country. Even though there are different statistical numbers on this issue, it is

obvious that the construction is one of the major business fields in the country; just a short stroll in any

part of a city anywhere in Turkey makes this apparent.

[34]

Contrary to the scale of the building economy, the architectural service industry is not as

developed as the contracting business. Unfortunately CAT cannot provide actual statistical figures

about its members' financial and business activities. There are around 40.000 registered architects in

Turkey, mostly clustered in four major cities, Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir and Bursa. However it is

believed that only less than half of these architects are actually practicing their profession. Also the

number of above the line active architectural offices is less than five hundred.

Actually contractors are valued more since constructing a building is more visible than

designing it. Either state or private, the clients rarely hang back on the cost of the construction of their

buildings. On the contrary, the more expensive materials the better it is. However, they severely cut

the architectural design fees, sometimes a quarter of one fifth of the lowest fee that CAT designated.

Constructing a building is more valued than designing it. Even the legal tendering law of

Turkey first selects the contractor for the public buildings, including the largest court houses,

stadiums, schools etc. The winning contractor of the bidding process is than free to choose the

architects they would like to work with. Thus in many public buildings architectural design is seen as a

secondary task. Contractors become clients of architects.

In this difficult and harsh business environment where almost 20.000 architects look for

commissions in order to survive, the professional competition amongst the architects is also severe,

even in some cases unethical. Even though CAT has designated a minimum fee for each type of

building for each scale in each city, it is believed that only one or two percent of the overall architects

could apply these fees to their project service. The lack of consensus amongst architects on the

minimum fee obviously makes the clients' hands more powerful, which in the end creates a vicious

circle. Many architects are obliged to design cheaper projects in order to survive.

The motivation to survive makes the owners of the architectural offices to pay less to their

employee, to keep their accounting procedures illegal in order to avoid taxes, to work with

unregistered software and eventually decrease the quality of the service they gave. It is unnecessary to

speak about research and personal development in a situation as such, which is actually a must for the

profession itself.

Most of the recent graduates start working in architectural offices with salaries starting from as

low as 750 Euros/month which may go up to 1500 Euros. Senior architects' salaries may go up to 3500

Euros. Most of the above the line offices have around 8 to 15 staff. Only a small fraction of the active

offices have employee more than 20. Offices which have more than 50 employees are very few.

Architects usually base their fees on the total square meters of the buildings they are

designing. As a general estimation the architectural fee is around 1% to 7-8% of the total construction

cost of the buildings. This ratio increases to %10 or even %15 in interior design projects.

Foreign architects can work in Turkey, only if they are registered to CAT and have working

permissions issued by the government. However this is a very rare situation since many of the foreign

architects working in Turkey have local partners registered to CAT which makes them easier to carry

on their business.

Turkish architects residing and working in Turkey rarely have the chance of designing for

their foreign clients in foreign countries. The ones who manage to design projects out of Turkey are

mostly commissioned by the Turkish contractors working in former Russian or North African –

Middle East countries.

Turkish architects also pay little attention or reserve no time to promote their works and

services abroad. The number of architects who enter international architectural competitions is also

very few.

*TR + NL collaborations [II] * Between Turkey and the Netherlands there are currently only a few projects dealing with architecture

and landscape design. Mostly there is a focus on urban planning. However the quality and duration of

existing projects is substantial: Nai (Istanbul), Berlage Instituut (Diyarbakir) and Delft University

(Ankara) are active partners of Turkish organizations. Another remarkable feat is that Dutch partners

in this field are also venturing outside of Istanbul. Especially in Dutch city building, town-planning,

and the construction of public housing there is a lot of interest from Turkey. On the other hand there is

also interest in Holland for „Mediterranean building‟. However, the quite specific and limited

respresentation of „Turkish architecture‟ in the Netherlands – read: mosque design and the housing of

[35]

Dutch elderly with a Turkish background – raises some eyebrows amongst Turkish professionals. A

more balanced representation of Turkish architecture in the Netherlands is long overdue.

* Dutch Architecture in Turkey [III] *

In March 2007, Prof. M. Hajer gave a lecture at the Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center in

Istanbul. He is one of the best-known urban planners in the Netherlands, and has written several books

about this topic.

http://platformgaranti.blogspot.com/2007/03/maarten-hajer-conference.html

In 2007, as part of the night program „Nightcomes‟ at the 10th Biennale in Istanbul, Bik van der Pol

(Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol) have conducted research on „gecekondus‟ in Istanbul. These

gecekondus were built by immigrants, and are described as Uncontrollable Urbanism. There is also a

book on the topic, namely, Istanbul 59 locations: a Format for Nightcomers.

In March 2007, Bik van der Pol also seems to have given a lecture at Galeri Pist, but there is no further

information available about this event.

http://www.bikvanderpol.net

http://www.aptglobal.org/view/artist.asp?ID=4480&ImageID=6473

http://www.metropolism.com/magazine/2007-no5/oncontroleerbaar-urbanisme/

At the 10th Biennale in Istanbul there were, apart from Bik van der Pol, also other contributions by

Dutch architects. These were AMO/Rem Koolhaas, Justin Bennett, Ivan Grubanov, Kan Xuan,

Aleksander Komarov, Cristina Lucas, Sophia Tabatadze, and Yushi Uehara / Berlage Institute.

http://www.iksv.org/bienal10/

For the „Transdiscipline Lecture Series‟, Gijs van Oenen gave a reading in 2009. The reading was

organized by Garanti Gallery and Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center Istanbul and held at the

Istanbul Technical University. For this lecture series Gijs van Oenen discussed „Architecture, Security

and Interpassivity‟.

http://platformgaranti.blogspot.com/2000_01_01_archive.html

In 2008 there was collaboration between the Istanbul Technical University and Jana Crepon and

Miguel Loos who accompanied a group of students from The Academie van Bouwkunst on their study

trip to the waterfront site of Galata in Istanbul. Jana Crepon works together with Petra Blaise in Inside

Outside. Jana Crepon: janacrepon@yahoo.de, www.insideoutside.nl

Miguel Loos : info@loosarchitects.nl, www.loosarchitects.nl

Adri Duivesteijn, founder of Nai worked in a workshop carried out by Istanbul Technical

University in 1990 together with Lodewijk Baljon - landscape architect - one of the 10 winners of Parc

De la Villete competition. The workshop was based on Democracy Park (once upon a time a green

area now Congress Valley) starting from Taksim Square. Adri Duivesteijn:

adri.duivesteijn@gmail.com, www.adriduivesteijn.nl and Lodewijk Baljon: lodewijk@baljon.nl

Regarding the above mentioned 2 workshops you can get in touch with Yüksel Demir who ran

these workshops and who is currently teaching at ITU Faculty of Architecture and also is the head of

Fine Arts Department (ITU). Yüksel Demir: yukseldemir@gmail.com 0532. 2476767

At Arkimeet in Turkey there were several Dutch architects that were invited as keynote speakers:

The most recent visit of Rem Koolhaas was in 2008 for the Arkiparc Meeting. ArkiPARC is a series of

meetings where Architecture, Property and Construction industries are coming all together.

For Arkimeet 2006 MVRDV and Kees Christiaanse were invited.

For Arkimeet 2005 Rem Koolhaas was invited. Rem Koolhaas came to Istanbul first in 2005.

For Arkimeet 2004 Ben van Berkel, Adriaan Geuze, Willem Jan Neutelings and Francine Houben

were speakers.

http://www.arkimeet.org/engine.php?ID=1

http://www.arkiparc.com/2008/en/katilimcilar/detay/uid/833

Inspired by a long-standing partnership between the port cities of Istanbul and Rotterdam and the

occasion of Istanbul European Capital of Culture 2010, the IABR launched a series of activities to

[36]

bring the spirit of the 4th Biennale to Istanbul. DEPO Istanbul and the Istanbul-based curators Philipp

Misselwitz and Can Altay had conceived an intensive program for 2009 and 2010 with the following

aims: Stimulating close cooperation between the partner cities of Istanbul and Rotterdam in the field

of architecture, planning and urban design through exchange visits among key urban stakeholders;

Bringing a high-profile international architecture and urbanism exhibition to Istanbul;

Triggering discussions on innovative tools and practices to face the challenges of Istanbul‟s urban

transformation projects. The following activities were organized:

Between November 18 – 20, 2009 a 4-day Field Trip was hosted by IABR Rotterdam and the

municipalities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. From the Netherlands Delft University, Erasmus

University, Berlage Instituut, dS+V Rotterdam, DRO Amsterdam and others. A group of Istanbul

experts - representatives of Istanbul‟s municipalities, IMP, housing associations, civil society actors,

planners and architects and academics of Istanbul‟s Bilgi University and Mimar Sinan University -

visited Rotterdam and Amsterdam and learnt about these cities‟ socially inclusive strategies for urban

transformation.

In 2010 a series of follow up activities have been organized by DEPO. The event series began

with the exhibition “Open City – Designing Coexistence” at DEPO Istanbul. The exhibition, which

was curated by Philipp Misselwitz and Can Altay, opened on March 12 (until May 9, 2010). The

exhibition consisted of 3 separate exhibitions (Open City Forum, Refuge, and Bas Princen – 5 Cities

Portfolio):

Open City Forum, curated in collaboration with Tim Rieniets, brought together elements from

Rotterdam‟s recent 4th IABR and at the same time functioned as a platform for a series of lectures,

presentations and discussions.

Refuge approached spaces of refuge from opposing angles: as threats to urbanity that need to be

prevented or dismantled, and as intimate, but still underdeveloped forms of the Open City.

Bas Princen – 5 Cities Portfolio presented a series of works in which the Dutch artist Bas Princen

observes contemporary urban transformation in Turkey and in the Middle East: how Istanbul, Beirut,

Amman, Cairo and Dubai have become laboratories for a proliferation of spaces and practices of

refuge.

DEPO has designed an intensive outreach program (curated by Yaşar Adanalı), which enabled

to engage cultural producers and citizens of Istanbul in lectures, presentations, exhibition tours and

discussions on the theme of socially inclusive urban transformation and urban coexistence. Between

March – May 2010, twice a week throughout the exhibition, NGOs, Universities, community groups

and international researchers were provided with guided tours.

The 2010 event series culminated in an International Workshop hosted by DEPO Istanbul,

Boğaziçi University, Istanbul Bilgi University, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and three local

Istanbul municipalities – Maltepe, Sariyer and Arnavutköy in May 6-8, 2010. A delegation of Dutch

and international architects, planners, development specialists and cultural producers including

representatives of the Rotterdam and Amsterdam Municipalities, and staff members of IHS/Erasmus

University Rotterdam were invited to Istanbul. Together with local experts they formed three tasks

forces that were hosted by the local Istanbul municipalities of Maltepe, Sariyer and Arnavutköy. Over

a period of two days, key transformation challenges faced by these municipalities were discussed. The

mixed local and international group then developed scenarios, concepts and tools, which were

presented to the general public on the final conference day, hosted by Bilgi University.

An Open City Istanbul Conference (May 8, 2010) was curated by Philipp Misselwitz, Yaşar

Adanalı and Zeynep Moralı and organized by DEPO Istanbul in cooperation with Boğaziçi University,

Istanbul Bilgi University and Mimar Sinan University, in partnership with the International

Architecture Biennale Rotterdam (IABR), and with support from the Rotterdam Municipality,

Erasmus University Rotterdam and Stuttgart University as well as Maltepe Municipality, Sariyer

Municipality, Arnavutköy Municipality, Sarıyer Neighborhood Associations Platform, and Başıbüyük

Neighborhood Association. Renowned international architects, planners and development specialists

as well as local experts and community representatives presented ideas and visions for sustainable and

inclusive urban change in Istanbul. The conference presented international research and case studies as

well as concrete transformation scenarios, concepts and tools developed in a three-day workshop

jointly organized with the Istanbul municipalities of Maltepe, Sariyer and Arnavutköy.

http://www.depoistanbul.net

http://www.iabr.nl/NL/open_city/tentoonstelling/Open_City_Designing_Coexistence.php

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http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/redactie/redactie_detail.asp?iNID=22367&s=1

From July to August 2010 there was a project called „Play the City‟ organized by the Dutch agency

Dus Architects. It was held at Bilgi University and in several districts of Istanbul. This project was a

city design game wherein the background narratives of the game are based on Istanbul and the

Netherlands contexts. These narratives were earthquakes, urban transformation, flood, and urban

shrinkage.

http://www.en.istanbul2010.org/PROJE/GP_678861

http://www.thereponsivecity.org

http://www.dusarchitects.com

The architect Kees van Hoek was assigned to design a shopping mall for Tokat, a city in the Anatolian

Black Sea region. This city is one of the most important trading cities in the region. The shopping mall

was developed by the ACTEEUM group and was ordered by Meinl European Land. The building

began in the second half of 2009 and the shopping center will be ready for use in 2010.

On the website by Kees van Hoek there is also some information about the design of a shopping mall

in Istanbul, but there are no further details about this project.

http://www.acteeum.com

http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/redactie/redactie_detail.asp?iNID=16987&s=1

http://www.keesvanhoekarchitect.com/Winkelcentrum%20Tokat/

http://www.keesvanhoekarchitect.com/winkelcentrum%20istanbul/

First year research studio

After Displacement: Large-scale Housing Solutions for Diyarbakır.

The city of Diyarbakir is one of the historically richest yet economically poorest cities of the country.

Forced migrations since the 1990s have affected a population that varies in estimates from 953,000 to

3 million people. It is especially regarding these citizens that the traditional housing solutions adopted

by the national government (TOKI mass-housing program) fail to meet the demands of living, opening

a possible field of research into alternatives practices.

The studio will investigate the possible role of municipal housing in meeting the desires and

demands of an urban population with rural backgrounds in the context of a scarcity of means. The

studio research will weave between the local, urban, and socio-political conditions and an

understanding of the modern and contemporary, municipal/collective housing tradition. The analysis

will critically assess the current planning instruments (regulatory plan) and housing policies (TOKI

mass housing schemes) and will revisit the work of Ernst May in Silesia, the Red Vienna, Dutch

collective housing, and self-help housing programs.

Housing proposals will be inserted into an overall urban strategy in which special attention will be

devoted to urban typologies and to the infrastructural urban apparatus. Among the considerations will

be the possibility of a comprehensive system of public transportation, in a city where the large

majority of the population moves on feet, and a new, dense network of social and public facilities.

For approximately two weeks, the studio will conduct fieldwork in Diyarbakir with a stop-over visit to

Istanbul.

http://www.berlage-institute.nl/research/details/after_displacement

When staying in the Orange County Resort in Kemer one will feel as if being on holiday to Holland,

and especially to Amsterdam and Volendam. The outside of the hotel looks like Amsterdam façades,

and the entrance is a replica of the Amsterdam Central Station and Dam Square. The hotel is also

inspired by the city of Volendam, with some typical Volendam houses. Throughout the hotel there are

also reproductions of masterpieces from famous Dutch painters including van Gogh and Vermeer on

display. The project is an initiative by Torogluoglu, supported by investments from the Dutch tour

operator Kras Stervakanties.

http://www.orangecounty.com.tr

Dutch architect F. Annet Bakels lived in Istanbul for more than a year. First towards the end of 1990‟s

due to the scholarship she received and she participated in a workshop run by Ferhan Yürekli at ITU

(for a month or so). Then recently she received another scholarship for a year and worked in Yedikule

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in connection with MSGSU. In 2000 / 2001 she collaborated to make a design for a them-park in

Antalya. In 2007 she won a competition with a concept for a resort designed for people with

disabilities in Selcuk. Unfortunately both projects were not further developed or realized. For 2011

two activities are planned: a workshop in Istanbul with Spatial Design students of the HKU and a pilot

of an international Laboratorium: UrbanDesign_LAB is focused on redesign of public space. F. Annet

Bakels is currently working in HollandsBLAUW.

* Turkish architecture in the Netherlands [III] *

Hüsnü Yeğenoğlu is a Turkish architect who lives in Amsterdam. He is a member of different

organizations / associations: Chamber of Architects, Amsterdam Aesthetics Committee (he was a

member of Welstand for six years), The Netherlands Architecture Fund (he was a member for 4

years), Raad voor Cultuur (he became a member in 2010).

www.yegenoglu.com/

In the Netherlands 'Turkish architecture' is applied to projects concerning mosques. The majority of

these projects look like copies of classic mosques in Turkey (Westermoskee project in Amsterdam). A

new generation of architects with Turkish origins, takes charge of mosque buildings or other building

projects related to religion (Poldermoskee / Ergun Erkoçu, Muslim Cemetery / Furkan Köse).

Han Tümertekin‟s Mimarlar Tasarim office is based in Istanbul and completed several projects in

Amsterdam. www.mimarlar.com

Turkish Architects, Dutch students of Turkish origin or the growing number of students coming from

Turkey, study in Dutch universities (albeit limited numbers) and teach there. Information on this

subject can be obtained from TU Eindhoven and TU Delft. Professors Ihsan Bilgin and Murat

Tabanlıoğlu are involved with the University of Amsterdam.

The NAi organizes a debate in collaboration with Arkitera in 2010. The director, dhr. Omer Kanipak,

visited NAi in 2010 thanks to the HGIS – visitors program. The curator international, dhr. Chris Luth,

is responsible for the content and organization of the debate.

In 2004 (18 September-13 November) ARCAM, an architectural organization with a focus on

Amsterdam, organized an exhibition about contemporary Turkish architecture: 'Turkey Today', with

contemporary Turkish architecture both in Turkey and in the Netherlands. ARCAM also made a

publication wherein an overview was given of modern Turkish architectural buildings built in Turkey

and in the Netherlands, which together are representative of architectural developments from 1980 to

the present day. As part of the ARCAM project on Turkey, Han Tümertekin was invited to give a

lecture in De Brakke Grond theatre on October 25th. This Turkish architect was included in the

exhibition. On November 6th, the annual Museumnight was also devoted to Turkey, combining the

possibility for the audience to see the exhibition with getting insight in other aspects of Turkish

culture. Aim of the project as a whole was to present contemporary Turkish architecture within the

context of both regional, national and global developments.

The PDF file about the activities at ARCAM can be found through the following links.

http://www.arcam.nl/exposities/archief04_nl.html

http://www.arcam.nl/docs/nl/discussies/foldernederlandsturkeytoday.pdf

A project initiated by Dus Architects was a temporary summer hotel Gecekondu, opened in 2009 on

the Arcam Island in Amsterdam. The hotel was built of so-called „turkentassen‟ (Turkish bags) and

was a plea for spontaneous and informal use of the city. Therefore there was a whole program

dedicated to themes related to informal building.

http://www.dusarchitects.com/gecekondu/

http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/redactie/redactie_detail.asp?iNID=21021&s=1

Atelier PUUUR was founded in 2004 by M. Arch. Furkan Köse. The office is involved in various

projects from research projects to building commissions, from interior design to urban challenges.

[39]

PUUUR (PURE) stands for the purity of a design, at all scales in the design process. The details are as

important as the context in which the building stands.

Atelier PUUUR has carried out many projects for the Turkish community in Holland: a hamam in

Amsterdam, a Nederlands Islamitisch Cultureel Instituut in Amsterdam, a Turks Cultureel Centum in

Doetinchem (planned to be build in 2010) and even a teahouse pavilion.

In 2008 PUUUR, and Furkan Köse together with F. Annet Bakels were involved in the project „Het

gebouw, toekomst van de dood‟ in which wishes of Dutch inhabitants with diverse cultural

backgrounds regarding future burial or remembrance sites in the Netherlands were explored. Students

of the Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht (HKU) and the Meerstroom College in Utrecht expressed

their ideas on this topic in the exhibition The future of death (De Toekomst van de Dood) at Het

Gebouw, a exhibition paviljoen of BEYOND, the art plan for the Utrecht district Leidsche Rijn. De

HKU students were supported by the design offices of Annet Bakels, Hollandsblauw, Furkan Köse,

atelier PUUUR and Yusuf Kho, who were also responsible for the exhibition design. The exhibition

traveled to St. Bavokerk in Haarlem and Het Gebouw of BEYOND.

www.beyondutrecht.nl/index2.php?nav=3&gebouw&geweest&id=24

http://www.puuur.nl

http://www2.doetinchembouwt.nl/data/Librarymodule/getFile?fileId=677

http://www2.doetinchembouwt.nl/doetinchem_nieuws/getArticle?id=307

DP6 Architectuur

For the building of an elderly center in Haarlem, research has been conducted under Turkish elderly.

Based on this research a building has been designed by the DP6 architectural studio which answers to

the wishes of the Turkish elderly, but is also flexible enough to accommodate other elderly people.

http://www.architectuur.nl/1018473/Een-project-uitgebreid/Huisvesting-Turkse-ouderen-Haarlem.htm

In May 2009, Architectural historicist Christian Welzbacher and architects Hüsnü Yegenoglu,

Wilfried van Winden and Paul Böhm had a debate about the origins and visual language of Islamic

architecture in Western Europe, with a focus on mosque building. Eventually the questions that

resulted from the debate and may need further discussion were whether the architectural design of

mosques needs to get a generic quality and should focus on the religious experience instead of copying

cultural relics like the minaret and the dome, whether the architecture of a mosque should create a link

with the Western reality of Europe, or whether the architect should be submissive to the commissioner

and answer to his wishes of keeping the identity. The debate was held at the Nai and lead by Martien

de Vletter.

http://www.archined.nl/en/news/de-positie-van-islamitische-architectuur-in-europa/

Ergün Erkoçu has a Dutch mother and a Turkish father and grew up in The Hague. He graduated from

the TU Delft and set up his own architectural bureau under the name CONCEPT0031. The bureau

organizes debates, expositions and other activities. Ergün Erkoçu also wrote the book The Mosque

about political, economical and societal transformations.

http://www.concept0031.com

http://www.honderdprocenteigenwijs.nl/index.cfm?fuseaction=site.portfolios&pid=104a4403-423b-

391f-e9ad-c8253d153036&itemId=2bdaf31c-423b-391f-e448-379cee1b3268&menuItemId=08f3cf79-

423b-391f-e036-d5d01fdc54e7

Gökçen T. van Vliet - Temelci graduated from the Istanbul Technical University, and started doing her

PhD in architecture. In 2001 she moved to Holland, and has worked there for several bureaus in

Rotterdam and Delft. For these jobs she lead several projects, wherein she was responsible in all

processes for designing a building, from the drawing of the concept to the definitive design.

http://www.mimarchitect.nl/

* Other [III] *

Newspaper article about the necessity of minarets for mosques built in Holland. A discussion initiated

because of the prohibition of the use of minarets in Sweden.

http://www.volkskrant.nl/kunst/article1323843.ece/Minaretten_De_moskee_kan_goed_zonder

[40]

The answer of Stichting Trafik to the question „Why Istanbul?‟ is that they want to fill in the space in

the cultural supply from Turkey in Rotterdam and Holland with presentations of contemporary

Turkish art and culture, as well as the other way around. Especially architecture is a topic where not

many activities are taking place. But especially for this topic (including typical Dutch city building,

town-planning, and the construction of public housing) there is a lot of interest from Turkey. On the

other hand there is also interest in Holland for „Mediterranean building‟.

http://www.trafik.nl/waaromIstanbul.htm

* METU and TU Delft [III] *

In 2010, Bilge İmamoğlu received his PhD for conducting research about the professionalization of

Turkish architecture. The title of the work is „Architectural production in state offices: an inquiry into

the professionalization of architecture in early republican Turkey‟. The research took place both at the

Middle East Technical University in Ankara, and the TU Delft.

http://www.bk.tudelft.nl/live/pagina.jsp?id=33724468-60fe-461b-9ebb-b4197dd5e0a8&lang=nl

Developments in information and communication technology have an impact throughout the entire life

cycle of a building, not only from a process and technical point of view but also from a creative design

and materialization point of view. The rise of spatial modeling and form creation techniques enables

architects to deal with forms that previously could barely be drawn or built, and that require

nonstandard engineering and construction methods for their materialization. Therefore, the exploration

and adoption of new techniques and methods for design and manufacturing, including parametric

design approaches, performance-based design approaches and digital manufacturing techniques, are

necessary. Parametric design enables the exploration of alternative designs within a single

representation using parameters and associative relationships to control geometric and constructive

aspects of the design. In performance-based design, performance goals with respect to various aspects,

such as comfort and structure, are explicitly developed and updated during the design, and assessed

and guarded throughout the design process. Digital manufacturing enables innovative design

exploration through physical prototyping during the design process, and mass customization of non-

standard architecture towards industrialization in a cost-effective manner.

The Faculty of Architecture of TU Delft and the Department of Architecture of METU

developed a Joint Master of Science Program on Computational Design and Fabrication Technologies.

The program aims to form a well-structured collaboration between the two universities in a graduate

program ending with a double Master of Science degree. The Joint Program focuses on Computational

Design and Fabrication Technologies with the goal of research in cutting edge design technologies and

new design tools as well as new design paradigms in architecture. Candidates are expected to be

adequate in research and have a background to follow up new design technologies and to enrich

research and design in the field of architecture.

A graduate of the program is expected to be competent in one or more scientific disciplines, in

doing research as well as in designing; and to have a scientific approach; to possess basic intellectual

skills; to be competent in co-operating and communicating; to take account of the temporal and social

context in addition to the exit qualification criteria for professional architecture programs in the

countries of participating universities.

For further info contact department chair Guven Arif Sargin (sargin@metu.edu.tr) or program

coordinator of computational design, Arzu Gonenc Sorgun (arzug@metu.edu.tr)

*Recommendations [II] * In the future more projects in the fields of architecture and landscape design would be welcome. There

are possibilities for collaboration on an educational, professional, cultural and multi-disciplinary level.

Organize (digital) meetings

First and foremost there is a need for more contacts between actors in the fields of architecture and

landscape design and even in the field of urban planning in order to explore similarities, differences

and global issues that actors in this field have to deal with. It is advisable for the industry players such

as academics, architects and other industry professionals to meet or have video conferences in order to

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explore on which of the many possible topics are relevant for Turkey and the Netherlands the focus

should be placed. The topics below give a first indication about what kind of topics may be discussed.

Support archives

Like other almost all other disciplines, architecture and urban planning also have problems with

archiving, however some archives exist and may be open to collaborate. Dutch professionals that have

seen these archives expressed that they are a valuable source to study the development of Modernism

in Turkey.

Cooperate in architecture education

According to Nurbin Paker Kahvecioğlu, international collaboration in architecture education on

research and development, technology transfer and consulting services in the emerging specialist fields

such as the production of recyclable intelligent building materials by using new technologies, new

environment-friendly energy systems, high-tech structure designs, digital technologies, organization and

optimization of project designs and implementations is now considered essential in Turkey. Pressures

created by climate change, energy, environmental issues, natural disasters, population increase and

urbanization direct architectural implementations to collaborate with other disciplines in search of

innovative approaches which encompass new technologies. In line with these developments,

architectural education has to change. Existing partners such as Delft Technology University in the

Netherlands can also be partners for creative cooperation in education and research activities in Turkey.

The interest of the Netherlands in working with Turkey is that in Turkey there is experience with

earthquakes and uncontrolled urbanization and there are professionals working on those topics.

Set up architects-in-residencies

A group of young practicing architects both from Turkey and the Netherlands may go on a 3 to 6

months „residency‟ program. The idea is that they‟ll work together with a hosting architectural office

on actual projects with real clients in the other country. The experience will help architects to learn

about building conditions and clients in a totally different context. They will experience particular

problem solving methods in a totally different business environment. In the end they will return back

with invaluable professional and cultural experiences that will be reflected upon their future projects.

An architect-in-residency program will enable the architects on both countries to understand each

other's professional motivations better.

Discuss Dutch real estate development in Turkey Since mid-2000s there is a boom in Turkish real estate sector. Several Dutch companies are playing a

major role in this new era of Turkish real estate. Mostly concentrating on shopping centers, firms like

Corio, Redevco and Multi are making considerable amounts of investments not only in Istanbul but

also in many middle to large scale cities in Turkey. The shopping centers that these firms have been

developing have economic and social effects on the Turkish cities in which they are building. This

may be the subject of discussion in areas like real estate, urban planning, sociology, architecture etc.

Questions that can be raised: Who is in power in shaping today‟s cities? How shopping centers act as

new public spaces? What is the knowledge that the Dutch firms are bringing to Turkey and how do

they adapt it to local conditions? How do Dutch real estate companies interpret the user behavior of

people in Turkey?

Support Turkish Landscape designers interested in NL

Young Turkish landscape architects/academicians such as Ata Turak, Arzu Nuhoğlu, and Oktan

Nalbantoğlu look at the Netherlands for inspiration in order to regenerate the landscape architecture in

Turkey. Landscape architecture is a field in which practical results in the context of Dutch-Turkish

collaboration can be achieved. Tekfen Holding may be interested to collaborate on some Turkish-

Dutch botanical garden projects focused on flower bulbs in either Istanbul (Topkapi) or Gaziantep.

Both the Keukenhof and the Floriade want to focus on Turkey in 2012.

Support design + ecological thinking

According to Gökhan Karakuş the wetlands and swamps of Istanbul are an important part of the

landscape of Istanbul that have been largely ignored or eradicated in the uncontrolled growth of the

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city in the last 30 years. Professionals in the Netherlands are talking about how some lands can be

returned as „natural‟ wetlands and about what parts of the land can be flooded first when water levels

in the sea or rivers rise above safe levels.

There is an interest in Turkey to collaborate on strategies regarding how urbanization and the wetlands

can develop together. On the urban and architectural scales Istanbul presents a collection of areas

where the technical and social impacts of the wetlands can be addressed by design strategies combined

with ecological thinking. The collaborators can work on alternative urban design strategies and

building types for the wetlands area of Istanbul to encourage the recovery of these environments for

biodiversity and human habitation.

Discuss Dutch architecture policies with TR

The Chamber of Architects of Turkey has been trying to set up an Architectural Policy since 2005 and

it will be of great value to know the meaning of having an Architectural Policy in the Netherlands'

case. Particularly, the Turkish side is interested to know what are the pros and cons of an Architectural

Policy.

Support research on the urban environment

The mechanisms that shape the urban environment in each country and in each city are different.

Building regulations, decision systems, approval methods, complicated bureaucratic rules all differ.

Ömer Kanipak wants to make the building codes and urban regulations in Rotterdam, Amsterdam,

Istanbul and Ankara will be examined in detail and with the help of info graphic artists. An interactive

feature/website may be build, which will enable the visitors to experience how small changes in

building codes or the ratios in building regulations can affect the shape of the urban environment.

With this project, Ömer Kanipak aims to make it easier to understand the preferences and motivations

of Dutch and Turkish societies regarding formation of the urban environment.

Discuss standardization

Dutch and Turkish architects differ quite a bit in their perception and appreciation of standardization.

This is reflected in how they value the situation in each other‟s country. Turkish architects love the

fact that the Netherlands is so well organized and crave a bit more standardization in Turkey, whilst

the Dutch architects love the fact that Turkey is so dynamic and original. They are looking for ways to

allow more spontaneous behavior in the Netherlands. This could be a nice issue to focus on.

Support urban engagement

According to Alexis Şanal a discourse on „livability‟ needs to be started between the Netherlands and

Turkey. Cities like Istanbul and Rotterdam have in common that they are multi-cultural harbor cities,

but at the same time reflect the very different urban cultures of Northwest and Southeast Europe. The

priorities, curiosities, participation, behaviors and engagement of metropolis‟ citizens, residents and

visitors can be explored through the use of narratives, questions and social media. In Turkey the

decision making process is mostly top-down. The Netherlands with „inspraak‟ has more ways to

ensure communication and bottom-up decision making processes. Especially open space, common

space, public space, city rooms (courtyards, plazas, squares), streets, thoroughfares and pathways are

easily accessible by most city residents and can contribute to livability of the urbanscape. Some open

source and participatory projects may be supported in the areas of landscape architecture, urban social

life, responsive environments, social learning and community oriented self-governance, regional

ecology (including urban natural systems and energy means) and diversity of residents in order to

create engagement with the build environment and the quality of life these environments may bring.

More bottom-up approaches are needed in urban planning in the public sphere. Urban planning used to

be a public activity but in the last 15 years the private sphere took over.

Support alternative expressions on urbanism

The Netherlands may collaborate in urban activism and urban exploring activities; there are many

alternative ways to interact with cities. Nobody tried to mix extreme sports with urban exploring in

Istanbul, nobody bungee jumped of the Bosporus Bridge or initiated underwater exploration of cisterns

for artistic purposes. Urban activists have made some alternative maps of Istanbul municipalities, and

[43]

attitudes towards urban regeneration. But so much more is possible in this field. Some night-life

figures in Istanbul would like to see less tame expressions of urban engagement and more action.

Support reoccurring architectural events

Turkey's one and only Architectural Festival was held in Istanbul in 2004 which was organized by the

Arkitera Architecture Center. For some time there have been attempts to organize an architecture

biennial. There is a wish to set up a architecture biennale with IABR (The International Architecture

Biennale Rotterdam) and the Sao Paolo municipality in Brazil. The Brazilians give full support to

realize the biennale on their parts but it is still uncertain if Istanbul municipality will give a hand to

this collaboration.

Explore Turkey with European colleagues

According to the Goethe Institute in Istanbul there is hardly any cultural collaboration between Turkey

and Germany in Architecture and Urbanism. The German architecture organizations are interested in

Turkey but are at the very beginning of their explorations. Since the Dutch Architecture Fund also is at

the start of their explorations it may be useful to combine study trips and other more general

explorative activities.

Support cross-disciplinary + multi-national teams

The Netherlands are seen as being strong in cross-disciplinary teamwork. The architect has to use all

required knowledge regarding the design problem. Thus, the scope of any architectural study cannot

be limited to the so called field of “architecture”, which has no clear borders. (Demir, 2000). In Turkey

a holistic approach is needed in order to deal with many challenges. Practically collaborations could

emerge in projects combining restoration (monumental) – city planning (surrounding) – industrial

design (street elements) and sanitary wares because industrial designers makes these, but architects

buy them.

Films on urban issues

The Netherlands are seen as one of the leading countries in the field of documentary film production

(a.o. IDFA). According to Aysim Türkmen the Dutch documentary sector would contribute to as well

as benefit from collaboration with the thriving documentary scene in Turkey. Workshops and seminars

on developing documentary projects about urban issues in both countries will facilitate the making of

and distributing documentary films as well as capturing and expressing the particularities and

contradictions of the globalizing cities in the neoliberal world. Matchmaking and a film festival may

be organized. There is an audience for films about specific topics in Turkey and there exist several

festivals on a wide variety of topics. 60% of the audience of such festivals is under 30 years old.

Mix fashion, design and architecture

From the viewpoint of the creative class, Turkey is potentially a rich resource. Some cities embrace

their transformation completely and transform themselves as a whole. Istanbul is one of the cities

transforming itself by adding beside its known historical and cultural layers, the components of

alternative life-styles like fashion, design and architecture. The constant interaction between different

expressions and life-styles and the fast changing society, in which they occur, open up possibilities for

creative individuals to compose their own mix and try out unique languages and codes which are

continuously renewed. The underlying reason of the abandonment of accustomed patterns in the

fashion, design, architecture and even culinary/gastronomic world and the opening of brand new

places results in new focal points in the cities.

Study the eighties in Turkey

The eighties are the period where the transformation that Turkey still goes on, became the most

visible. In the eighties, after the coup d‟état when the country opened up to the world and with the

widening and diversification of urban life, popular culture became legitimate in Turkey. The masses

could learn about urban life partly due to improving communication channels and began to consume it

as a commodity. The physical changes of Istanbul and other urban areas during the eighties affected

everyday life and the way Turkish people related to the city as well as the way these changes

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contributed to the formation of an urban discourse (informed by how the popular media reported on

these changes) are subjects that deserve special attention.

*