MİMARLIK AGENDA

Can Shared Values and Commons Give Us Hope for Crimes Against the City? / İpek Akpınar

Underlining that we are responsible, as citizens, for remembering public values and rejuvenating all citizens tirelessly, for demanding transparent, polyphonic and participatory processes in public procurement methods, and for expressing that we expect to produce projects for the benefit of the public, the writer states that focusing on shared values and commonalities can give us hope for the future.

COMMEMORATION

A Masterful Personality: Yıldırım Yavuz / Yiğit Acar

Prof. Dr. Yıldırım Yavuz, who graduated from METU in 1961, joined the Chamber of Architects Ankara Branch with the registration number 1658, acted as the dean of the METU Faculty of Architecture and vice dean of Bilkent Faculty of Fine Arts and Architecture, passed away on 11th September 2019. During his career, this highly esteemed professor contributed to countless projects at the Chamber of Architects. Yiğit Acar wrote a text in memoriam.

AGENDA

The Surviving Resolve of Bauhaus in Its 100th Year Anniversary / Tonguç Akış

Following the article “A Global and Minority-based Look at the Events Commemorating Bauhaus Centennial”, which can be found in volume 407, we continue to trace the repercussions of the Bauhaus school on architectural education. The writer, observing the history of architecture within a utilitarian perspective, on one hand, dwells on the abstract space understanding of Bauhaus and modernity; on the other hand, he analyses the effect of the concepts being discussed in regards to Bauhaus and their application on the “scientification” of architecture in Turkey.

Something for Everybody / Many Things for Everybody / Fatma İpek Ek

The topic set by the International Union of Architects (UIA) for World Architecture Day, which is celebrated on the first Monday of October each year, was announced as “Architecture… housing for all”. Questioning what this sentence means for various groups, the writer asserts the possibility that the theme "can be nothing for anyone while trying to be something for everyone".

EVENT

Questioning and Discussing ‘Quality’ in Architectural Conservation / Zeynep Eres, Merve Arslan Çinko

The National Architectural Conservation Projects and Applications Symposium took place in Istanbul for the fifth time on 28 September 2019. Tackling the symposium where the debates took place about the conservation projects and applications of the monumental structures, archaeological sites and examples of civil architecture in Turkey, the writer draws attention to the importance of the symposium in sustaining the continuity of the circles of practice and debate regarding conservation sites.

Şevki Pekin with His Architectural Conception between Times and Places / Pelin Derviş

Within the scope of the National Architecture Exhibition and Awards, the 2018-2020 Sinan Awarded Architects Program was organized for Şevki Pekin, winner of Mimar Sinan Grand Prize. “This panel and exhibition show that Pekin’s publications, archives and the man himself are with us as an open source”, the writer said, evaluating the event organized by the Chamber of Architects and hosted by the Chamber of Architects Istanbul, Büyükkent Branch.

Remembering / Reminding Nezih Eldem / Bahar Gökçen Kumsar, Elif Öz Yılmaz

The event titled “Nezih Eldem and Organizing the Space”, held within the scope of the Chamber of Architects 2018-2020 Commemoration Program, took place on October 8th, 2019 at the Conference Hall 109 designed by Nezih Eldem. In addition to conveying their impressions from the event, the writers comment that “from the moment we are inside the Taşkışla Faculty of Architecture, we begin to see the traces of [Eldem's] understanding of education. These encounters and debates around architecture are articulated and multiplied in Hall 109.”

Finding the Anthropocene in the Seventh Continent / Can Boyacıoğlu

This year's title of the Istanbul Biennial, which has been organized since 1987, refers to the huge pile of waste in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, one of the most visible results of the Anthropocene Age and its accompanying global warming. The writer evaluates “non-human beings’ right to exist”, which is an important part of the debate on the Anthropocene, as portrayed in the works of the Biennial.

Invisible Layers of Architectural Education at the EAAE Conference / F. Cânâ Bilsel

The 42nd International EAAE Conference and General Assembly took place in Zagreb on 28th-31st September 2019. The author, who was one of the scholars attending the event, reflecting on a conference organized around the question “What constitute(s) the invisible layers of an architectural school?”, draws attention to these invisible processes affecting the quality of education in architectural schools.

ARCHITECTURAL CRITICISM

Transitions between Layers: Museum Lounges and Suites / B. Selcen Coşkun

The Museum Hall and Suites project, which is part of the Argos in Cappadocia hotel, was given the “Building / Preservation Category Award” at the 2018 National Architecture Awards with the following praise: “the successful design of the newly added Museum Lounges and Suites to the building fabric which is located at Uçhisar, Cappadocia, is compatible with the existing topography of the region, as a part of a process that integrates the historical buildings which were uncovered in different phases of the many years of studies with the project adopting a holistic approach and using it for accommodation purposes.” The writer points out the difficulty of intervening in structures in Cappadocia, which has a multi-layered tissue.

Collective Production, Collective Place: KHO Laboratory Center / Esin Boyacıoğlu

The Laboratory Center of the Military Academy, candidate for the Building Category Award at the 2018 National Architecture Awards, is notable for its distinctive mass morphology, shaped by its function as well as by the use of materials. Emphasizing the structure's fluid space configuration, the writer states that the building achieves a collective space experience that allows for encounters and coexistence.

An Urban Building in Kırlar: The Bodrum Chamber of Commerce Service Building / Bülent Bardak

This candidate for the Building Category Award at the 2018 National Architecture Awards does particularly stand out because it resulted from an architectural project competition held in Bodrum. Despite the fact that the structure is located in an urban space, the writer, stating that it gives strong references to its context, emphasizes how both the spatial quality and the use of materials will generate effects of development in its surroundings.

ARCHITECTURE IN THE CONDITION OF THE CRISIS

The Agenda of Labor in Architecture and Non-Optimistic Hope / Esra Sert

In the midst of the economic crisis experienced in Turkey lately, the discipline of architecture feels the tension prompted by the current conditions, and also struggles with the crisis as it continues to build a crisis of its own. Evaluating these crises by focusing on the devaluation of labor-occupations and unemployment, the writer emphasizes that the problematic situation of “whether we will completely change the existing system of values of architectural practice, whether we can reinvent architectural practice somehow, and whether we seek an answer to our ‘real’ collective needs specific to this century” stands just before us.

COMMEMMORATION PROGRAMME: NEZIH ELDEM

Nezih Bey: Brave, Reliant, Persistent / Belkıs Uluoğlu

The writer, who shared with Nezih Eldem the same pulpit at İTÜ, tells us about “Nezih Bey”s approach to architectural education through an interview with him.

CULTURAL HERITAGE IN DANGER

Cultural Traces Facing Disappearance in Gökçeada: Historical Roads and Roof Structures / Ayşe Ceren Güler

In this chapter of Cultural Heritage in Danger, a series which began in our 405th issue, Ayşe Ceren Güler wrote a piece on Gökçeada, Çanakkale.

URBAN HISTORY

From Divided City to Global City: Berlin / Arzu Başaran Uysal

30 years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the symbol of the Cold War, on November 9th, 1989. The wall’s construction became the symbol of the divided world in 1961; its destruction would then become the symbol of globalization, and thus is a remarkable enclave in terms of the reproduction of urban space and memory. The writer stresses that Berlin, which in her opinion is a unique example of a city inasmuch in it we can see political changes all through the 20th century and their reflections in place, serves as a laboratory in terms of the reproduction of urban space and collective memory.

ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

OMM: What is Modern Museum? / Ayşen Savaş

Opened last September, the Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM) in Eskişehir has become a new structure which will be discussed for a long time in the fields of art and architecture. The sole fact that a museum has been designed and built from scratch - especially by the world-renowned architect Kengo Kuma - in our country, where usually existing structures are converted into museum structures, is a matter worth considering. Questioning what a modern museum is, the writer evaluates OMM through the fact that the structure is modern / home to the modern.

ARCHITECTURE OF THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD

Process-Oriented Approaches in Architectural Production: the Çorum Binevler Housing Settlement / Güldehan F. Yavaşoğlu Atay

The Binevler Housing Settlement project, designed and executed by Altug Çinici and Behruz Çinici between the years 1971-1975, appears as a major process-oriented architecture project example and can be considered to be a precursor in Turkey. The writer, by carefully examining physical and social data, draws attention to the importance of the project as having been an architectural production that pioneered the creation of new employment and dynamics in the region.

CONTACT

Splashing Colors in the Urban Space / Sinem Görücü

Camille Walala, recently known for her tribal-pop installations and wall paintings in public spaces, creates a kind of public living room with the Walala Lounge, located along a 200 meter stretch at the shopping street South Molton, open only to pedestrians, in the middle of the city center, as part of last September’s 2019 London Design Festival.