#DİRENGEZİPARKI

An Alternative Public Space is Possible! GEZİ PARK! / Behiç Ak

When the “Pedestrianization Project of Taksim” was prepared and the first steps were taken to carry it out there weren’t many people around except the groups such as Taksim Solidarity and Taksim Platform and a few young environmental enthusiasts. However following the interventions there was a sudden rise of reactions in an unexpected scale from diverse fractions of the society. In a very short time people, who have contravened with the police, invaded Gezi Park and Taksim Square. The author says that for acclaiminga common lifestyle both for individuals and for the society, people fought side by side, without taking any step back at Gezi Park. Thus Gezi Park experience can be regarded as an achievement in proving the fact that while acquisition of individual rights rely on social dispute,the success in social struggle base on individual respect.

#DİRENGEZİPARKI

A New Political Culture is at Stake in Gezi Park / İlhan Tekeli

While people, who have attended the resistance in Taksim Gezi Park, go through a personal experience, they also cause an interesting experience to stage in Turkey. According to the author this experience was a surprise not only for the participants but also for the society. He evaluates the resistance as a positive but fragile development raising hopes for the future of Turkey, adding that as he doesn’t belong to the younger generation constituting the vast majority of the resistance, he doesn’t find it right to speak on behalf of them. For this reason he conveys his evaluations on the developments during resistance from an eye of an observer freed from political ambitions.

AWARD

2013 Mies van der RoheAward, Harpa - Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre 335 buildings from 37 countries were proposed for 2013 European Union Contemporary Architecture Awards, organised by the European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation in every two years. The award was given to Harpa-Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Centre, designed in the partnership of Batteríid Architects, Henning Larsen Architects and Studio Olafur Eliasson in the city of Reykjavik, in Iceland. Emerging Architect Special Mention award is given to Red Bull Music Academy, designed by María Langarita and Víctor Navarro in Madrid.

AWARD

20 Projects Short-Listed for the Final of Aga Khan Awards are Announced

The main purpose of Aga Khan Architecture Awards programme is to define and encourage unique and innovate building concepts that respond to the needs and requirements of Muslim societies. In the 2013 cycle 20 projects short-listed for the final round are from Afghanistan, Austria, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Lebanon, Malaysia, Morocco, Palestine, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Thailand, and Yemen. Among the selected projects there are multi-storey modern apartment buildings as well as projects that present reinterpretations of different traditional building techniques. 

50th ANNIVERSARY OF MİMARLIK

Half a Century and Mimarlık Magazine / Haldun Ertekin

In the issues of the year 2013, where we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Mimarlık magazine, there have been articles covering the ideas and evaluations on the past 50 years, memories related to the magazine, suggestions and visions for the future. For this issue, as the owner of the magazine and editor in chief between the years 1980 and 1985, we read Haldu nErtekin’s contribution for the section.

FILE: CLIMATISED ARCHITECTURE, GOING WHERE?

File Editor: Günkut Akın

Following the summer where energy consumption of Turkey reached the highest level, it seems the subject of natural ventilation that is in the scope ofbuilding science and basic knowledge of architecture, has sunk into oblivion. While the developments in technology instigate different potentials and resources, they increase the destruction of nature. The system which continues to proceed inside this vicious cycle gradually moves away from the core of the problem. Precisely for this reason, the file opens to discussion how the ways of using air-conditioning systems or the architectural reflex that completely climatise the buildings by air-conditioners, have adverse effects onthe quality of architecture and life. The file includes articles on modern architectural works that either date before the use of air-conditioning systems or willingly give up the use of air-conditions altogether. Sibel Bozdoğan’s article titled “Modern Architecture and Tropical Geographies” focuses on modern architecture in the tropics: the climatic zone between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Burcu Kütükçüoğlu’s article, “Modernism in Mediterranean Climate, Mediterranean in Modernist Climate: Local Examples of 20th Century Catalan Architecture” subjects buildings constructed in and around Barcelona during 1950s that present innovative and creative research on Mediterranean elements, in terms of their potential in both achieving climatic control and generating original architectural language. Günkut Akın in his article “Kouvelas House in Santorini and the Production of a New Locality” suggests a reading of the house on two different, but complementary levels, which we can summarize as function and meaning. This reading tends towards a phenomenological approach, as we are faced with a creative work of art, which is more than the sum of concrete solutions and abstract imagination. Finally the article titled “Local Solutions for Global Emerging Needs: The Italian Case of Frigerio Design Group and its ‘Slow Architecture’ Method” of Luca Orlandi, presents some good architectural experiences, related to the processes of built environment and focuses on important issues like the bioclimatic changes, the global warming and the energy saving.

MİMARLIK AGENDA

What is Happening to Copyrights? / DoğanTekeli

In Turkey architectural rights and applications and the methods of obtaining projects for public buildings began to change radically. Unprecedented powers have been provided to the Mass-housing Development Administration and the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning. In these days when there is a re-arrangement of architects’ rights, the author states that these changes are done for the sake of realising certain ideas that are not accepted by the society or got stuck to copyrights restrains. He underlines that the committee, which has a say on the aesthetic value of architectural works should be impartial. 

AGENDA

Atatürk Cultural Centre: Carrying a Twentieth Century building to Twenty-first Century, Views on Murat Tabanlıoğlu’s Article in Mimarlık/ Bozkurt Güvenç

PM of Turkey, in his speech, where he refrained from saying “opera” instead of “cultural centre”, drop to mind the question of “which culture?”. As a response to Gezi Park resistance, demolishment of İstanbul Atatürk Cultural Centre (AKM), which is another public realm expounded as much as Taksim Gezi Park, was expressed once again. The author assess the “operation and management models” of cultural centres in the light of current advancements through the article of Murat Tabanlıoğlu on AKM, published in the previous issue of the magazine. 

FROM RURAL / CITY

Tavlusun: A Multi-Cultural Architectural Platform / Gonca Büyükmıhçı

Tavlusun, located 10 km from the city centre of Kayseri, has been used as a resort area by bureaucrats and elitist merchant groups that form the Ottoman-Kayseri bourgeoisie. The valley, the hillside settlements and the agricultural areas form three different settlement patterns and the way these integrate with the natural landscape makes the region a genuine environment, distinguished from similar regions. The settlement, which is abandoned and neglected today, houses well-defined street and square junctions and bridges made out of simple and natural use of local material with aesthetic value and structural quality reveals that there was once a high level of architectural understanding in the past.

COMPETITION

Municipality of Lüleburgaz International Bus Terminal Architectural Competition

The existing bus terminal that has been in service for over 30 years, in the rapidly growing city of Lüleburgaz, has been insufficient and lacking the necessary conditions to be a central terminal due to its improper position, and therefore failing to meet the needs of the city. 94 projects have been evaluated in the scope of the competition announced by the Municipality of Lüleburgaz in order to achieve a new bus terminal building. 3 awards, 3 mention and 4 purchase awards were distributed.

ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM

On Vehbi Koç Foundation Ford Otosan Culture and Life Centre / Berin Gür

The author states that the rewarded building group in the scope of 2012/13th National Architecture Awards “Building Category”, with its human and nature-centred approach, bring together dichotomies in a complementary manner and thus provide tension-free living environment. The culture and life centre, located in an important earthquake region like Gölcük, manages to turn the challenges posed by the land into potentials and reunite the buildings and hence the users with nature. She discusses the approach of the architects in forming out “a natural habitat” through a dichotomy and through the existence of a “twofold” concept: “rational” and “architectural games”.  

PRESERVATION REVITALISATION

Restoration of Foundation Buildings and Üsküdar Selimiye Mosque / Betül Ekimci

There are 19.825 buildings with cultural value under the property of the General Directorate of Foundations.  This figure displays the significant ratio of foundation buildings within the potential of our cultural heritage. From the year 2000 and onwards in accordance with the rise in the budget of the institution, restoration works of 750 structures have begun within a year. The impetuous nature of these works raise certain concerns especially when there are too many unknowns regarding the process of how and by whom these practices are being made especially for buildings needing scientific accuracy and responsibility. The author evaluates on past and present practices on Üsküdar Selimiye Mosque, which exhibits a general profile on the multifaceted preservation problems, with respect to restoration and preservation principles. 

PUBLICATION REVIEW

Chamber of Architects: A Work of “Soul”, Personal Notes on the Book “Chamber of Architects from the Witnesses 1954-90” / Aydan Erim

The book “Chamber of Architects from the Witnesses 1954-90” was published last March from the Chamber of Architects publications. The author conveys the story of the publication, which provides a compilation on the history of the Chamber, upon approaching the 60th anniversary of the Chamber of Architects. Even though the Chamber couldn’t sustain its institutional memory in a systematic manner, the author argues that the personal archives of the members should be brought in and preserved with a constant effort. She further shares short reminiscence speculiar to the Chamber, as an old witness of the history of the Chamber.

CONTACT

A Space Falling Asleep and Awaking with Light: Church of Myyrmaki / Erkut Şahinbaş

In history, there are striking examples of architects’ adventure with light and different stories on forms and volumes of each building. The most outstanding examples among these are the religious structures. The author tells the symphony created with light in Church of Myyrmaki, which was designed by Finish architect Juha Leiviska in Helsinki. The building, which awakes with natural light, and falls asleep with the fall of light at any time of the day, is one of the deemed examples of modern architecture that establishes an association with natural light.