16 Nisan, 2015

listening to the citizens on urban transformation process / no07

(at) tarlabaşı


by yasemin osmanoğlu + nurcan kotan for fall 2014-15 arch 341 course.

listening to the citizens on urban transformation process / no06

(at) okmeydanı



by ilkyaz özbayır + dilan yünlü + volkan çelik for fall 2014-15 arch 341 course.

23 Mart, 2015

shine through loose relations on place...critical edges of rem koolhaas..

if you haven't read about Rem Koolhaas's speach at the American University of Sharjah, let me share the following link for you:

http://www.thenational.ae/uae/heritage/dutch-architects-high-praise-for-dubai-developments

here are several keywords on the speach...
- sophistication of recent developments
- Dubai has escaped from its architectural caricatures
- involvement of the country’s rulers and the freedom they have given to designers to transform the landscape of the region

critical point of view in my opinion that highlights the so called potential of satellite developments of starchitecture, neglecting the context, place and society.

for a better understanding one can look more on koolhaas's abu dhabi or hadid's kartal projects..

16 Mart, 2015

on the Agora project




After more than a year long collaborative work, this experimental joint project of a contemporary agora is finalised with an exhibition at Villa mediterranee, Marseille on March 13th, 2015.

Thanks to all our participants for their valuable efforts, especially to the participant students of École Supérieure d'Art et de Design de Marseille-Méditerranée / Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design – בצלאל אקדמיה לאמנות ועיצוב ירושלים / Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης / Maltepe University – Maltepe Üniversitesi / IUAV di Venezia

Here is a short video of the Turkish team that was prepared by Ece Üstün for the closing session of the Istanbul workshop on March, 2014.


If you want to know more about the Agora Project, please check: http://agoraproject.fr/

Where is the space of democracy for the modern society?

The world is not safe anymore.
There is terrorism/vandalism/crime.

These are the common arguments of any state or society for the need of a much controlled environment.

We start recognizing more of social, physical and/or economical fragmentations through the society. These fragments are pushing their citizens to demand secured zones of activities. Gated residential areas, secured entries, checkpoints, visible and invisible borders, permissions, social barriers and etc. We are all forced out from our active outdoor public spaces towards new controlled indoors or interactive screens. New forms of architecture supports more and more zones for this socio-economical segregation.

Where is the space of democracy for the modern society?

Modern society is attached to the global economy. Therefore searching for the space of democracy is becoming very negotiable through the permitted acts of politics and society. Society creates its own gated community. Security through entrances, 24/7 surveillances, web controls, besides traditional and social control mechanisms forces us to accept the discipline and behave for acceptance by the society.

Privatization of public space
Public spaces of the global economy developed its own version that is rather secured, cosy, indoor leisure atmosphere serving for the modern society’s needs of consumption, culture and leisure. These generated public areas created the pivotal turn from the use of outdoor public spaces into the shopping malls.

This transformed meaning brought out the fact that the shopping mall is the privatized public space of today’s society. Nowadays families prefer to spend their weekends at a shopping center. Through the center’s secure indoor to stroll around with indoor greenery to please the users -from plastic flowers to short trees growing in a large pots-, various cultural activities – concerts, mini exhibitions, pocket theaters organized by the mall management and/or the cinema corner- for the ones that are interested, playgrounds for the children, market for the house needs and the powerful addiction of consumption, malls are the final public spaces.

This text is written by Demet Mutman for the Agora Project's Final Exhibition, Marseille 2015, March 12. 

source: http://agoraproject.fr/2015/03/where-is-the-space-of-democracy-for-the-modern-society-demet-mutman/

09 Mart, 2015

listening to the citizens on urban transformation process / no05

(at) tarlabaşı




by ali bilgehan + gürhan güzel + ilker duranoğlu for fall 2014-15 arch 341 course.

listening to the citizens on urban transformation process / no04

(at) haydarpaşa



by sena aslan + tuğba süberk for fall 2014-15 arch 341 course.

listening to the citizens on urban transformation process / no03

(at) fikirtepe



by yeşim ünal + damla pınar çelik for fall 2014-15 arch 341 course.

listening to the citizens on urban transformation process / no02

(at) yeldeğirmeni



by dilara börekçioğlu + çağla perkin for fall 2014-15 arch 341 course.

listening to the citizens on urban transformation process / no01


(at) fikirtepe



by almira yılmaz + emel ismailoğlu + berken bengi çabuk for fall 2014-15 arch 341 course. 

destruction of the city

transformation process is like a wildlife documentary in the city...

by d.mutman