NEWS

4 Towards UIA 2005 İstanbul

UIA 2005 İstanbul Congress that will be held in July 4-6, 2005 with theme of “Grand Bazaar of ArchitectureS” is approaching. The Chamber of Architects of Turkey, which intensified its activities towards the Congress, recently announced an international student competition with the theme “EXTREME: Creating Space in Extraordinary Conditions”. The Chamber is also organizing bimonthly national congresses in various regions of Turkey, as a preparation for the UIA Congress: Four congresses have already convened in the cities of Konya (Central Anatolia), Trabzon (Blacksea), İzmir (Aegean) and Diyarbakır (Southeastern Anatolia). The upcoming congresses will be held in Antakya (Mediterranean), Kocaeli (Marmara) and the capital of Turkey, Ankara. Each congress has a theme that questions the relation of architecture and cities under distinct conditions. The themes run in parallel with the sub-theme of the UIA Congress: “Celebrate Our Cities” that aims to reinforce the notion of plurality and the interaction of people.

For further information: www.uia2005istanbul.org

9 From the World of Architecture

Among the news from the world of architecture, the opening of the İstanbul Museum of Modern Arts has significance in the international platform. “İstanbul Modern” was inaugurated on December 11, 2004, after re-functioning of an old entrepot building in the Karaköy Quay. The museum, supported by the İstanbul Foundation of Culture and Arts and financed by the Eczacıbaşı Group, aims to serve as a multidimensional, variable and dynamic educational and cultural center.

For further information: www.istanbulmodern.org

WITNESSING 50 YEARS

14 Notes from the 50th Anniversary Program of the Chamber

The Chamber of Architects of Turkey, which was founded in 1954, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2004. The activity program on 9th and 10th of December included a symposium in the Ankara University’s Faculty of Languages and History-Geography building, which was designed by German architect Bruno Taut in 1937 during the early Republican period of Turkey. In the two-day symposium, the participants presented and discussed the various periods of the Chamber’s history and its significance within the architectural history of Turkey. The symposium sessions were accompanied by a series of exhibitions, which presented the works realized by the Chamber since 1954. After closing of the symposium, a reception was held at the historical Ankara Palace (State Guesthouse) and the Chamber’s Presidents and Secretaries General, who have worked for the organization within 50 years, were presented memorial plates.

AWARDS

16 Archiprix Turkey 2004

The results of the 9th Archiprix Turkey competition, which awards each year successful graduation projects of students of architecture, were announced. Among the 69 projects from 15 universities, Ali Çalışkan from the Uludağ University in Bursa received the first award, Güney Akgül from the İstanbul Kültür University received the second award and Ebru Sevinçler from the Uludağ University received the third award.

18 9th Award Cycle of Aga Khan Award for Architecture

The 2000-2004 awards of the Aga Khan Architecture Awards Programme were announced. The programme awards every three years the architectural works that presents a successful interpretation of Islamic culture in the projects of contemporary design, social housing, community improvement and development, restoration, re-use, and area conservation, as well as landscaping and environmental issues. One of the projects awarded in this cycle is the B2 House designed by Turkish architect Han Tümertekin in Ayvacık-Çanakkale in Turkey’s North Aegean coast, for two brothers Selman and Suha Bilal to spend weekends. The jury awarded the project, “Because it embodies a sense of perfection and well-being. It represents a progressive approach in acknowledging the history of its place, the surrounding houses and landscape, to form a new and unique creation that is, at the same time, an integral part of its community. The house stands apart – beautifully shaped and elegantly dressed – but in the future additional houses may embrace and adopt it, fully integrating it into a wider landscape”. The other recipients of the award are Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Alexandria, Egypt), Grando Primary School (Gando, Burkina Faso), Sandbag Shelter Prototypes (various locations), Restoration of Al-Abbas Mosque (Asnaf, Yemen), Old City Revitalization Programme (Old City, Jerusalem), B2 House (Çanakkale, Turkey) and Petronas Towers (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia).

For further information: www.akdn.org

ACTUALITY

21 Modern Architecture on the Agenda of Turkey / edited by Neslihan Türkün Dostoğlu, N. Müge Cengizkan

DOCOMOMO-International (DOcumentation and COnservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighborhoods of the MOdern MOvement) is an institution that was officially founded in 1990 with an aim to attract attention of the public to the 20th-century modernism and to “document and conserve the works of modern architecture, design and city planning”. The DOCOMOMO-Turkey National Working Group, which was founded in 2002, organized a poster-presentation activity entitled “Local Expansions of Modernism in the Architecture of Turkey” on November 10-11, 2004, at the Middle East Technical University (METU) Faculty of Architecture, Ankara. In this first activity of the working group, poster presentations introduced and interpreted 45 modern architecture works built in Turkey from early 20th century to the beginnings of 1970’s, through visual and written material. 9th International Conference of DOCOMOMO will be held in METU, Ankara, in 2006 with the theme of “ ‘Other’ Modernisms”. As a preparation for the conference, a series of workshops, tours and meetings are planned to be realized in İstanbul by the collaboration of the METU, İstanbul Technical University and Yıldız Technical University. Another significant international event to take place in Turkey is the 5th International Conference of mAAN (modern Asian Architecture Network), which will be hosted by the Chamber of Architects İstanbul Chapter and İstanbul Technical University Faculty of Architecture, on June 28-30, 2005. The mAAN is a network of architectural researchers and experts, who devoted themselves to the investigation, conservation and rehabilitation of modern architecture, urban planning and engineering heritage in Asia. The main theme of the conference, immediately prior to the UIA Congress is defined as “Re-thinking and Re-constructing Modern Asian Architecture”.

For further information: www.docomomo.com; www.m-aan.org

23 International Seminar on İstanbul in the Grenoble School of Architecture / Nur Akın

The Grenoble School of Architecture in the city of Nancy, France, organized an international seminar with the theme “İstanbul: City of Yesterday, Metropolis of Today” (İstanbul: Ville d’hier, Métropole d’aujourd’hui) on November 18-19, 2004. In the first day, the seminar participants from İstanbul, Grenoble, Nancy and Paris presented their papers about these cities and their architectural heritage. In the second day, the possibility of conducting a collaborative work among these cities was discussed. The seminar was also accompanied with an exhibition that included the projects of students from Nancy School of Architecture, who worked on the Süleymaniye and Kumkapı regions of İstanbul.

ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION

24 Notes from the EAAE Conference… / Deniz İncedayı

The European Association for Architectural Education (EAAE), which announced the results of the 2003-2005 EAAE Prize for Writings in Architectural Education, organized a conference to discuss the papers awarded in the competition. The conference was held in auditorium of the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts School of Architecture on November 25-27, 2004. Deniz İncedayı from Turkey was also among the recipients of the EAAE Award with her paper entitled “Architect as a Facilitator / Architecture as an Instrument of Social Politics”.

LEGISLATIVE ARRANGEMENTS

26 New Legislative Arrangements in Turkey / edited by Mehmet Bozkurt

The article makes a brief overview of the three recent legislative arrangements. The first is the Municipality Law, which broadens the authorities of the local administrations. The second is the Law on Land Office and Public Housing Administration, which foresees the closure of the Land Office and the transfer of its responsibilities to the Public Housing Administration. Mehmet Bozkurt says that the integration of these two offices can be problematical because the Public Housing Administration, which has been specifically working on the housing issue, now becomes an authority for the public improvement plan. The third law foresees amendments in some laws and statutory decrees, which rearranges the plots in the region of Haydarpaşa Railway Station and Harbor for the realization of a new project including office centers, tourism investments and sportive facilities. Bozkurt criticizes the new arrangement because of the lack of democratic participation in the project process, which will disturb the integrity of the city plan.

FILE

28 Digital Architecture / editors: Tuğçe S. Tağmat, Alper Alkan, N. Müge Cengizkan

In the same way the mass production techniques has affected the production-consumption relations in the “early machine age”, the Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) model will influence the professional lives of not only architects, but also other design and construction related professionals. The file aims to discuss the use of digital tools in architecture through professional, academic and educational perspectives in order to make it possible for us to re-think the transformation in architectural design and production processes. The article “Alternative Digitality” by Bruno Latour questions the nature of digitality. According to Latour, “Digitality does not propel us into the formal paradise of virtuality, but on the contrary, it gives a new materiality to everything formal and spiritual”. “A Non-Digital Interface for the ‘Digital’: Basic Design” by Mine Özkar and “Architectural Design Research and Education in Digital Media” Şebnem Yalınay Çinici focus on how digital tools can be used in architectural design studios. Zeynep Mennan, the associated curator of the exhibition “Non Standard Architectures” held in December 2003-March 2004 at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, discusses about the effects of the transformation in the industrial production regime in architectural design processes. Elif Kendir’s article “Computer Aid in Architectural Practice: From Representative to Structural” and Burak Pak’s article “New Architecture: Three Dimensional Interfaces and Spatialized Media” discuss how the use of digital tools in architectural design transforms the architectural production and construction processes. “Urban Projects Through Network: Urban Probes” edited by N. Müge Cengizkan is about an alternative usage of digital tools in architecture. Urban Probes, one of the groups that participated in the exhibition “Design(ing) Network(ing)” at the Garanti Galeri in 2004, establishes a digital network to gather various professionals for the production of urban projects in specific sites. As the final discussion, “Confessions About Computer Aided Design in Turkey” by R. Faruk Şahin and İlhan Kesmez presents a brief overview about the usage of digital tools in the architectural offices in Turkey.

COMPETITION

51 Constitutional Court Building Architectural Project Competition

The results of the competition opened by the Ministry of Public Works for the Constitutional Court building were announced. The project of Aybars Acarsoy, Gökhan Aksoy and Gökhan Büyükkılıç was chosen as the first running project for the harmonious, simple and contemporary character of the plans and facades; the successful relation between entrances and the related functions; architecturally harmonious solution of the high court, social facility and presidency functions; massive harmony to topography; positive response of users to the proposed modifications to the original program and easiness of the proposed administration.

CITY IMPRESSIONS

56 Architectural Scenes from My Country / Gürhan Tümer

Gürhan Tümer, who attracts the attention to the interface between architecture and life, outlines his impressions during his trips to various cities of Turkey including Balıkesir, Eskişehir, Bilecik and Kütahya.

CONSERVATION-REVITALIZATION

59 Diyarbakır City Walls and Conservation Problems / Meral Halifeoğlu, Neslihan Dalkılıç

The article includes evaluations and suggestions about the restoration of the city walls surrounding the historical city of Diyarbakır, in the Southeastern region of Turkey. The city walls, which were modified, damaged and partially demolished throughout the history, are currently under restoration by the collaboration of the Diyarbakır Municipality and ÇEKÜL Foundation.

MEA ARCHITECTURA MEA CULPA

65 Symphony of Houses / Gürhan Tümer

“Architecture is frozen music” they say. Why not? Such a connection can be established between the two arts. Architecture can well be defined this way. Then, the name of this song should be “Symphony of Houses”. We can call it “Chorus of Houses” too. Or it may be “Symphony of Facades”, “Chorus of Facades”. This symphony has no composer. This chorus has no conductor. This is because these houses and facades have no architect. The photograph demonstrates this colorful carnival.

English Summary by Tuğçe Selin Tağmat