MEETINGS

* The Chamber of Architects 50th Anniversary Oral History Meetings / Çetin Ünalın

* TSMMD “Buildings and Design” Meetings / Hasan Özbay

* The Chamber of Architects Ankara Chapter “Library Conversations” / Rabia Çiğdem Çavdar

Three activities regularly held in Ankara provide platforms for sharing experiences and discussing actual issues of architecture. In its 50th anniversary, history of the Chamber of Architects is being documented with the “Oral History Project” organized by the Chamber, The Chamber’s Ankara Chapter and Architects’ Association 1927. Significant figures, who have contributed to the organization and activities of the Chamber since its foundation in 1954, continue revealing experience in oral history meetings. The Turkish Free-Lance Architects’ Association is gathering architects since November 2003 in meetings titled “Buildings and Design Stories”, in which built projects are presented, evaluated and criticized. “Thursday Conversations” regularly held for two years in the library of the Chamber of Architects, which has been hosting architects until now, will be welcoming poets, painters and musicians in the coming weeks to overview cities through their artistic points of view.

LAWS AND REGULATIONS

Misinterpretations about Burden of Partial Plans, Conservation Plans and Preservation Area Transitory Period / Hüseyin Besim Çeçener

The article draws attention to the legal pitfalls in the implementation of Building and Conservation Codes, which cause ambiguities in the creation of Master and Application Plans, especially in big cities. Çecener says that conservation plans should be taken as an input for the master plans and that, conservation planning should become a part of the Building Code.

FILE: THE METAMORPHOSIS OF THREE MAJOR CITIES: Recent Urban Projects of Local Administrations in İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir editor: Cânâ Bilsel

* Urban Metamorphosis or the Fragmentation of Public Space by “Centrifugal Forces” / Cânâ Bilsel

İSTANBUL:

* Transformation and Administration of İstanbul / İhsan Bilgin

ANKARA:

* “Look at the Stone of Ankara!” / Sedvan Teber

İZMİR:

* Three Urban Projects in İzmir: The Harbour, the Kordon, the Konak / M. Levent Gedizlioğlu

* Master Plan for the New City Center of İzmir and the Arrangement of Historical-Urban

Areas and Squares / The Chamber of Architects, İzmir Chapter, Administrative Committee

Towards municipal elections, it becomes necessary to review the transformation and metamorphosis experienced by cities, together with underlying factors and social dynamics. Focusing on İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir, the file takes a snapshot of the “urban projects” recently realized or planned by the local administrations of these three metropolitan cities. These projects, as effective components of the current urban metamorphosis, also reflect the future visions of the municipalities. Under the light of these examples, the file projects about the nature of a close urban future. Taking a glance at the recent urbanization in the world cities, Cânâ Bilsel claims that recent municipal projects and applications in Turkey are usually tackled on the basis of legal problems or ideological symbolism. This clearly shows the lack of social consciousness about public space and proves evidence for fragmentation of it. İhsan Bilgin, Sedvan Teber and Levent Gedizlioğlu articulate their own perspectives on the recent municipal projects in İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir respectively, while The Chamber of Architects İzmir Chapter comments on the master plan for the new city center of İzmir.

ARCHITECTURE IN THE BALKANS

The Balkans: New Limits in Architecture, New Definitions in Identity

* Globalization and Architectural Identity / Lillo Popov

* Architecture in the “Region of Contact” / Elena Ivanova

As the Chamber of Architects of Turkey and the Union of Architects of Bulgaria are preparing to revitalize the Balkan Architecture Conferences, which were interrupted since 1991 because of political conflicts and wars in the region, and as the definition of Europe has been changing throughout these years in the framework of EU enlargement, it becomes necessary to take a closer look at the Balkan issues. These two articles propose new perspectives regarding the identity of Balkan architecture especially focusing on the case of Bulgaria, which remained under the influence of several cultures throughout the history. Questioning the concepts of global-local and their reflections on architecture, Lillo Popov warns about hazard of witnessing the architectural kitsch imposed by the all-powerful market. Elena Ivanova, on the other hand, proposes to emphasize the shared values rather than distinguishing ones, by viewing the Bulgarian architecture from an impartial and scientific position without being overwhelmed by the Balkan nationalism.

IMAGINARY

Yellow Line / Levent Şentürk

Departing from the ephemerality of the balloon, situated at the Kadıköy port next to the contrasting heavy mass of the Haydarpaşa Railway Station, Levent Şentürk dreams of a mobile museum project made up of movable containers, constructed from used railway materials. The fantastic museum project, thought as a pedestrian shortcut from the port to the station and a cultural meeting point by means of a series of containers, falls between the “real” and the “imaginary”. The container-museums are foreseen to be continuously reconstructed in various stations of the world.

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY

‘Modern’ Heritage of the Early Republic:

Sümerbank Kayseri Cotton Factory and Lodgings / Burak Asiliskender

As the city of Kayseri has been reformed as a city of industry and trade during the Republican period, the Sümerbank Factory played significant role in transforming the city into a “defined and livable place”. Despite the thesis of Giddens that the Modern city, which is established under capitalist influence brought by Modernization, shall become an “artificial and fictive” piece of land, actually this was not the case for Kayseri. Sümerbank Cotton Factory and Lodgings, foundations of which were laid in 1934, was designed in Russia and constructed under the Turco-Russian cooperation.

EARTHQUAKE

Determining Severely Damaged Sites in Earthquakes and its Importance in City Planning / D.Ali Keçeli, Mustafa Cevher, Fügen Avdan

Experts of the Metropolitan Municipality of İzmit, one of the severely suffered cities from the Marmara Earthquake in 1999, are explaining the outcomes of their research for determining the highly damaged sites, directly related to abuse of planning in earthquake zones. Outcomes of the research show that severely damaged regions can not be predetermined with a shallow-depth soil survey of 10-15 meters, but it is rather necessary to make macro zoning on regional basis with a survey of minimum 100 meters or a local micro zoning on land plot basis of at least 30 meters.

English and Turkish translations by Tuğçe Selin Tağmat