MİMARLIK AGENDA

Housing and Urban Crisis / Asuman Türkün

Recently, students' housing problems have led us to re-examine the urban crisis caused by neoliberal urban and housing policies. Focusing on the right to housing as a precondition for many other rights, the author emphasizes that the problems which are arising are not "technical" but "political".

COMMEMORATION

Murat Artu: “The Man Coming from the Opposite Direction” / Celal Abdi Güzer

Murat Artu, one of the founding members of the Turkish Association of Freelance Architects and former member of the board of the Chamber of Architects with the registration number 9594, passed away on September 11th, 2021. Artu, born in Karşıkaya, İzmir in 1954, graduated from METU in 1978 and had worked in the private sector with multiple employers since his student years. He won awards in various competitions, often acted as a jury member, and also contributed to civil society struggles on urban development and environmental issues in addition to his professional work in Bodrum, where he had resided since 2010. Celal Abdi Güzer wrote a text in memoriam.

Doğan Kuban, the Paramount Figure in the Field of Architectural History and Conservation / Zeynep Ahunbay

Doğan Kuban, who was a pioneer in the establishment of the conservation discipline in our country with his field studies, students, exhibitions and publications, passed away on September 22nd, 2021. Kuban, a member of the Chamber of Architects with registration number 683, was born in Paris in 1926. After graduating from ITU’s Architecture Department in 1949, he worked on Renaissance architecture in Italy. He taught at the University of Michigan with a Fulbright scholarship and was appointed in the cadre as a "professor" while continuing his studies at Harvard University. He assumed the position of dean of the Faculty of Architecture at ITU and established the Department of Architectural History and Restoration. Kuban taught at MIT as the "Aga Khan Guest Professor," and besides his academic output, he conducted essential projects in Istanbul, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. He also served as a board member in the Aga Khan Architecture Awards program. Zeynep Ahunbay wrote a text in memoriam.

In the Wake of Doğan Kuban / Günkut Akın

In the aftermath of the writings of Doğan Kuban, who tackled architectural issues in countless works and shed light on Turkey's architectural historiography, the writer takes a quick glance back at the path set forward by Kuban.

AGENDA

Education Spaces after the Crisis of the COVID-19 Pandemic / Pınar Gökbayrak

Educational places, which were detached from their context as the education system moved to online platforms due to the pandemic, switched to physical environments again with the new semester. The author, who reopened the educational spaces to discussion by highlighting lessons learnt from the pandemic, draws attention to the importance of education spaces that can provide "socialization, learning from each other, solidarity with each other, being a community, being inclusive and looking out for everybody" against possible crises.

A New UNESCO World Heritage Site in Anatolia: Arslantepe / Marcella Frangipane

The Malatya Arslantepe archaeological site, dating back to the second half of the 4th millennium BC, has been accepted into the UNESCO World Heritage List. Summarizing the studies and findings carried out for years with the partnership of Italy - Turkey, the author draws attention to the potentialities of the area in terms of history, environment, promotion and locality.

EVENT

Incorporating Local Values and Users in Architecture: 2021 World Architecture Day Events / Seda Zafer

Organized by the Chamber of Architects, the "2021 World Architecture Day" events took place within the framework of the "Clean Environment for a Healthy World" theme specified by the UIA. The Turkish / English YouTube recordings of the event series, the first of which was held in Istanbul with the presentation of Anne Feenstra, and the second with the online presentations of Natalie Mossin and Fani Vavili Tsinika, can be accessed at https://bit.ly/2Zc75Wo.

After the 6th National Architectural Conservation Projects and Implementations Symposium / Zeynep Eres, Mustafa Sayan

The 6th National Architectural Conservation Projects and Applications Symposium, organized in memory of Cengiz Bektaş this year, was held in İzmir on 22-23 October 2021. An exhibition of posters accompanied the conference, whose speakers evaluated the completed and ongoing studies in the field of conservation in our country within a vast array of scales and subjects. The authors share their notes on the symposium program and forum discussions.

Architectural Historiography in the Anthropocene Era: EAHN “Architecture and Endurance” Conference / Pelin Yoncacı Arslan, Pınar Aykaç

The conference “Architecture and Endurance” sponsored by the European Network for the History of Architecture (EAHN) was held online this year from 30 September to 2 October 2021. The conference, jointly organized by METU Architecture, Architectural History and Conservation of Cultural Heritage programs, opened discussions on different geographies, time periods and subjects. The authors assess these discussions in terms of the possible effects of the Anthropocene age on architectural historiography.

COMPETITIONS

Ulus Modern Culture and Art Center National Architectural Project Competition

The competition, organized by the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality Department of Cultural and Natural Heritage, has concluded recently. The aim of the competition was to create spaces that would generate social interaction; to introduce meritable architectural projects and designers that produce value within the context and period; to promote arts, to develop related professions and subfields, to establish ethical values and to provide an environment suitable for the international competition of teams. In the competition (which was freelance, national and single-stage) 59 projects were taken into consideration, 3 prizes and 5 honorable mentions were given, and 2 purchases were made.

Bursa Urban Furniture Design Competition

The design competition, organized by Bursa’s Metropolitan Municipality, Earthquake Risk and Urban Improvement Department - Urban Design Office, has concluded. The aim of the competition was to acquire holistic solutions that take into account the needs of the users in the industrial design scale by considering the urban design principles in the context of the unique identity and development dynamics of the city; environmental-friendly urban furniture that can be adapted to the existing texture, and be reinforced with functional and technological details; the design of applicable products that take into account the optimum costs in assembly, maintenance and repair, and include valuable, safe and efficient design solutions. In the competition (which was freelance, national and single-stage) 46 projects were taken into consideration, 3 prizes and 3 honorable mentions were given, and 2 purchases were made.

FILE: OPPORTUNITIES AND QUESTIONS AT THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE AND PANDEMIC

Alongside the pandemic we are experiencing various changes and transformations in all areas of life. It is an indisputable fact that architectural offices, which are perhaps the most important actors of architectural practice, were also affected by this change and transformation. The change in working methods and strategies, and the need to reconsider spatial habits and activities such as online meetings / discussion / production that have entered our lives, define this new reality. In this emerging new world, the opportunities provided by new ways of thinking, discussion and production should not be ignored, nor should the problems and constraints that arise in regards to the way of thinking, producing and working in architectural practice. Hereby, the aim of this compilation is to interpret the transformation/change in architectural practice that occurred due to the pandemic in the architecture offices within the scope of the contemporary professional climate of Turkey through the lenses of spaces, actors, strategies of design / implementation and sustainability criteria. In this regard, we would like to thank the authors who contributed to our compilation by expressing their thoughts on how the practice of architecture can be continued online, the limitations birthed by pandemic conditions and the effect of the new opportunities it offers for the architecture bureaus.

CULTURAL HERITAGE IN DANGER

The Lonely of the Countryside: The Silent Witness of Our Architectural Heritage, Çarşamba Porsuk Mosque / Zeynep Aktaş

In this chapter of Cultural Heritage in Danger, a series which began in our 405th issue, Zeynep Aktaş wrote a piece on Çarşamba Porsuk Mosque.

ARCHITECTURE-DEMOCRACY-PARTICIPATION

My Soil Teacher and Architectural Ethics / Hossein Sadri

Given the entrapments of the human-centered system to tame even the climate crisis, the author criticizes the efforts of capitalist system to justify and legitimize itself by using the term "green". He invites us to unlearn what we know about human beings, time, nature, and being both one and many.

ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM

From Cassandra and Hector to the Troy Museum / İpek Yürekli

The Troy Museum was deemed worthy of the "Building Category Award" at the 2020 National Architecture Awards for “its design approach that creates the ultimate layer by expanding underground without competing with the history and topography of Troy; its circulation route that guides the visitors and gains dynamism with the usage of lights, and the rich and surprising plan setup created by the fluency between the spaces; its mass formation that reflects the rich interior design to the building container with a calm and contemporary expression; its symbolic expression that reveals the idea of creating a landmark that connects the past to the future by challenging the future within the historical landscape with singularity and simplicity". The author, searching for traces from the geographical past in which the building is located to the present day, draws attention to the aspects of the museum that make people question, introduce, distinguish and adopt.

The Mediterranean Way of Architectural Transfer: The Mezitli Municipality Service Building / Berin F. Gür

The Mezitli Municipality Service Building, which was a "Building Category Award Nominee" in the 2020 National Architecture Awards, stands out with its remarkable use of architectural elements both for air conditioning and for establishing a particular architectural language. The author draws attention to the building's "system of thresholds, which links the architectural program with climatic data, brings it into contact with the Mediterranean lifestyle, and breaks with the stereotyped norms and perceptions usually attributed to public buildings".

ARCHITECTURAL THEORY

The End of the Classical: The Archeology of Modern Architecture in Peter Eisenman / İhsan Sefa Özer

In The Order of Things, Michel Foucault describes the episteme that makes Western culture possible as “the condition of possibility of knowledge and discourses in an existing culture”. Peter Eisenman, on the other hand, tries to make a holistic reading (information archeology) of these cultural components, including architecture, in “The End of the Classical”. Inspired by Foucault's analysis, the author discusses how Eisenman reopened the history of architecture to interpretation and the method of "architecture as text".

ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY

The Boundaries of Identity: An "Old-New" Debate in Mimar / Arkitekt Magazine / Neslihan Şık Glosset, V. Gül Cephanecigil

Debates on “identity,” a topic that was often on the agenda in Turkey’s architecture circles, can also be followed through architectural publications of the period. The article dwells on a debate between B. O. Celal, who used to write for the Mimar / Arkitekt magazine, and the staff of architects who published the magazine in 1932-33. The writers, looking at the paths taken during the times when the architectural identity establishment was in the making, argue that “the debate concerning the period and geography in which the identity is to be sought is also a sign of an epistemological change in our perception of past and future”.

URBANIZATION

Place/Settlement-making Practices in the Process of Population Exchanges: Sinasos (Mustafapaşa) - Nea Sinasos* / Serhat Ulubay, Feride Önal

The 1923 Turkish-Greek forced population exchange is one of the most comprehensive displacement movements our geography has seen. The efforts of the migrating masses to establish new settlements by carrying over the practices of their lives in the settlements they left behind to different geographies led to radical changes and transformations in terms of space. The authors scrutinize the practice of making a settlement/place and preserving the "essence" through the settlement of Nea Sinasos, which the people of Sinasos established themselves in this new geography, where the adventure of exchange and migration brought them.

CONTACT

The Common Space of Native Knowledge: The Library of Sámi Architecture / Simla Şanlı

While Sámi artist and architect Joar Nango, who has spent his life in Norway, makes his personal archive public with the mobile Girjegumpi project, the space he produces also contains local knowledge. The author, describing the structure built firstly in Jokkmokk, Ottawa, Skánit, Karasjok and Bergen, identifies a pluralist and alternative type of globalization for indigenous communities subjected to assimilation.