2014/5-6 Post-World’s end Architecture: Turkey / Blueprint 334
Mayıs 30, 2014 § Yorum bırakın
Istanbul is in turmoil. While not the only Turkish city to experience disquiet among the populace, this ancient place is, it could be argued, facing greater upheaval in its urban fabric with mega expansion plans that include a new airport, a new bridge over the Bosphorus, the demolition of whole communities and relocation of inner city schools. But as this fifth instalment of Post World’s End Architecture reveals, there are some architects and designers-cum-activists trying to tackle the city’s problems with positive action.
Words: Irmak Turan
DDRLP Architecture & Design
Architect as social advocate
TOKI, the Housing Development Administration of Turkey, is a federal agency established in the mid-Eighties to address the country’s housing shortage. In the past decade however, TOKI’s liberalised income scheme has shifted the focus to luxury and profit-driven projects, largely ignoring the needs of lower-income residents. But because of the urban transformation law to replace buildings at risk to earthquakes, many poorer residents have been left at the mercy of TOKI, forced to relocate to new mass-housing developments. This move has uprooted entire neighbourhoods and destroyed communities.

Survival Manual for TOKI Dwellers, a hand-drawn pamphlet, aims to address the social problems that result from new mass housing projects in the city
Survival Manual for TOKI Dwellers, originally presented at the _ rst Istanbul Design Biennial in 2012, aims to address the social problems that come with this physical relocation. The manual, a hand-drawn pamphlet, explores the spatial constructs of the residents’ original communities and their new TOKI dwellings. The simple and straightforward illustrations are as amusing as they are informative, making suggestions for how residents can adapt their new dwellings to suit their domestic lifestyle.
Pdf Download: B334-172-P-Turkey-csh ph
2012/09: TURKEY modern architectures in history /Sibel Bozdoğan, Esra Akcan/ Book
Eylül 29, 2012 § 1 Yorum
2011/12 Short History of Architecture / Cultural Exchange Turkey X Netherlands
Aralık 2, 2011 § Yorum bırakın
SHORT HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE / Authors: Pelin Derviş, Gökhan Karakuş
…
The 2010s
Today, a new generation of young architects has started to raise the level of architecture through an interest in discourse and information. The likes of Nilüfer Kozikoğlu, Alexis and Murat Şanal, Superpool, and Boğaçhan Dündaralp represent a generation that understands that architecture has to be produced with a distinct technical, ideological or architectonic rationale that is explicit and documented. Each of these groups has come to produce architecture based on their studied methodologies and is likely to extend their building practice and knowledge base in pursuing an intelligence and discursive driven architecture. Their vision is firmly locked in the optimization of the possibilities of the information age. It is interesting to note that they are joined in the increasing specialization of architecture in Turkey by architects emerging from interior design, specifically Autoban and Tanju Özelgin, who bring sophisticated understanding of craft, local building techniques and computer assisted visualization to produce advanced design. This group, along with continuing efforts of advanced architects such as Sayın, Arolat, Tümertekin, Pekin, and Çinici, promise that Turkey’s contemporary architecture will start to develop based on its own dynamics, yet with a widened eye attuned to universal progress. As Turkey asserts its position in the center of the newly forming geopolitics of Europe and Asia, the regional leadership provided by these architects will be important in setting standards for how architecture can balance the needs of the modern world and the pragmatic approach required at the local level.
Read the full text of the original source