ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN ASSEMBLIES

“Towards An Architectural Politics

for Turkey” Architecture and Urban Assemblies Have Started

In order to sustain a medium of

communication between cities and architecture the Chamber of Architects of

Turkey had started a series of meetings under the theme “Towards an

Architectural Politics for Turkey”: Architecture and Urban Assemblies. The first

meeting had already taken place in Kayseri, in early September, under the

themes; “Architecture in Kapadokya” and “Politics of Tourism and Architecture”,

where local governments, government officials and non-governmental organizations

as well as architects had a chance to meet and discuss their problems. The

assemblies will continue travelling across the country and to various cities for

two years.

EVENTS

Turkish Aesthetics Congress in the

road to 2007 International Aesthetics Conference

There has been a vast accumulation

of knowledge in the practice of arts in Turkey. However ongoing researches,

critical approaches and views produced in different fields, haven’t been brought

to a common ground and they neither have a change to open to public

intervention. Turkish Aesthetic Congress has aspired from this urge to reveal

and expose this knowledge field to public attention as well as to open the path

for future debates. The conference, which is going to take place between 22-24

October 2006 in METU will not only aim in achieving this but also will be a

contribution for the upcoming International Aesthetics Conference which is going

to take place in Turkey in 2007.

Chamber of Architects “Mimar

Kemalettin Bey” Commemoration Programme

The first event of the

commemoration programme of the 10th Cycle of Turkish Architecture Awards and

Exhibition, had taken place at the graveyard of the architect on 13^th

July 2006. The attendants from the commemoration committee members, Afife Batur,

Yıldırım Yavuz and Günkut Akın, emphasised the significance of creating a

platform for discussing the architecture of Mimar Kemalettin Bey as well as drew

attention to the future projects like a retrospective book, exhibition,

symposium and a documentary movie of the commemoration programme. During the

talks on the memory of the architects the committee members also pointed out the

necessity for restoring of the architect’s tomb.

Battlestar Architectura

Part 223: Human Race have Generated

a Weapon for Tearing the Armor of Saylons

/ Aktan Acar

10^th International Alvar

Aalto Symposium 2006 had been organised under the theme “LESS AND MORE -

Extending the Rational in Architecture” between 28-30 July in Finland. Aktan

Acar gives an overview to the inherent dynamics of the symposium in its relation

to the notion of rationalism within architecture, as well as reflects on the

ongoing uneasiness of architectural discourse with rationalist discourses in

general.

Afterthoughts on the Visual

Sociology Conference /

Pelin Tan

Taking place in “Carlo Bo” Urbino

University during 2-5 July 2006, Visual Sociology Conference organised by

International Visual Sociology Institution has set “urban” as its core theme. In

its tries to create a discursive discussion environment with participants from

various fields, such as anthropology, sociology, architecture, planning and

political sciences, Pelin Tan reviews the discussion platforms engendered by the

conference, where contemporary urban representations were compared to local

cases.

AGENDA:

Conserving Modern Architectural

Heritage and Environment

DOCOMOMO International, founded in

1990 has been organising conferences in every two years in the interest of

documenting and conserving buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the late

Modern period. This year the 9^th meeting took place between 25^th

September and 1^st October in Istanbul and Ankara. The conference,

whose theme was set as “Other” Modernisms, was hosted by the DOCOMOMO Turkish

work group and various universities such as METU, İTU and YTÜ. Instead of

getting trapped in modernist mainstreams, the conference sought for pluralities

that can stem from different modernisms within the global context and individual

societies that comprise it.  As a consequence the

conference tried to provide an opportunity for focusing on such “other”

modernisms in their full geographical, chronological, formal, ideological, and

political diversity on an international level.

The Conference, in that sense, created a

platform of discussion for a timely, critical and rigorous debates of

revisionist trends, not only in highlighting the actual plurality, complexity

and heterogeneity of modernisms across the globe from the early twentieth

century to the 1970s, but also in asking the question in reverse, how far can

these “other” modernisms challenge mainstream or canonic modernism and yet still

remain “modern”?

Aspiring from similar

contexts and urges the work program for the 2006-2008 prepared by the Chamber of

Architects of Turkey gives emphasis on the preservation and documentation of the

modern heritage within the country scale. The article of Bülend Tuna, the

president of the Chamber, presented in the opening of the conference, puts

forward the ongoing studies and future plans of the Chamber within this field.

Emre Madran’s article, on the other hand, analyses the preservation of the build

environment in the light of current laws and their applicability. Apart from the

above articles the issue presents “Houses of the 20^th Century Turkish

Architecture” exhibition, opened as a parallel event to the conference, and

which displays an array of examples on the residential culture of Turkey in

different periods of 20^th century. The closing reception of the

conference took place in the Sedad Hakkı Eldem’s Netherlands Residence. The

final article reviews the recent renovation of the residence, which constitutes

a significant example in the field of preservation of a late modern building in

Turkey. Preservation and documentation of the 20^th century

architecture of Turkey will continue to be a topic that is going to be evaluated

further in the future issues of the magazine.

COMPETITION:

Balıkesir Çamlık Peak Urban and

Architecture National Competition

The reorganization of Çamlık Peak,

which acts as a panoramic observatory terrace of Balıkesir, was subjected to an

architectural competition organized by Balıkesir Municipality. The competition

sought for projects, which can catalyze the area to be integrated to daily use

and consequently increase the quality of city life together with the forest

fields situated below the area together with its surroundings efficiently. The

result of the competition was announced in 6^th August and the jury

has given 3 awards, 5 mentions and 3 purchase awards as a result of the final

evaluation. The first prize was given to the project of Elif Çelik, Ceren

Hancıoğlu, Ceyda Özbilen, İlker Aksoy, Esra Doğan, İpek Yürekli , Deniz Aslan,

Arda İnceoğlu, where the second and third prize were given to the project of Ali

Muslubaş, Ayşegül Kuruç Ada, Aslı Doğan, Murat Polat and to the project of D.

Ümit Yücel, Aysu Akalın Başkaya, Çiğdem Yücel, Uğurtan Aybar, Gül Sayan Atanur,

Ülkü Duman, Aslı Dural.

Regeneration of Old Trabzon Tekel

Building Architecture Competition

The results of the architectural

competition opened by Trabzon Municipality for the regeneration of Old Tekel

Building complex for the sake of integrating the building complex back to city

life has been announced recently. The main purpose of the competition was to

rearrange the present administrative, historical and cultural space together

with a new service building for the municipality and a shopping complex, in

order to attain a second attraction centre within the city fabric. Among 16

projects submitted to the competition the jury has given 3 awards, 3 mention and

3 purchase awards. The first award was given to the project of Ozan Öztepe,

Derya Ekim, Ali Eray, Ali Çalışkan, Emre Apak, where the second to Ayhan Usta,

Gülay Usta, Necmettin Selimoğlu and finally the third award to the project of

Arda İnceoğlu, Aslı Çalıkoğlu, Sevince Bayrak, İpek Yürekli, Deniz Aslan, Sevim

Aslan.

AGENDA:

Architecture As Palimpsest

In most of the cities and in

buildings from antiquity we can still follow the traces of different times and

periods. They still preserve their inherent accumulated layers, that is to say

they are “architectures as palimpsest”. However our contemporary era doesn’t

seem to endure such kind of layering. Political benefits and land speculations

seem to be the only designative factors that govern every decision regarding

destruction or construction within our cities. Turkey also takes its part within

these rapid changes. It is a fact that the act of destruction is usually

associated with negative connotations. What is felt when a part of the city is

destroyed is not only a nostalgia or melancholy to what is lost but it is

usually a fear from indefinite surprises that can come along with the

implementation of the new. Gürhan Tümer tries to bring a different

perspective to look at ‘destruction’ both as an activity and as a concept in his

article, “Building, Destroying and Architecture”. The following article;

“Cultural Heritage in Lebanon, Destruction and War”, is part of a lengthy

presentation made by Khaled Tadmori in the Architecture Week events of

Bursa Branch. The author, who is a member of

Tripoli

Municipality and the president of

Historical Affairs and Cultural Heritage Committee provides inside information

on the ongoing redevelopment plans of Beirut after the destructive affects of

the civil war and the current condition of the city, which still faces the

destructive power of war.

ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION:

METU and YTU Summer Practices

There have been ongoing efforts in

emphasising the role of summer training practices as a significant extension of

the architectural education programme and a way to introduce architecture

students with the building materials and technologies in advance. In this sense

architecture departments of METU and Yıldız, the prior since 1958 and the latter

this year, have started to organise summer training practices for their

students. Being practiced only in two schools countrywide the following articles

portray different aspects of their working strategies and future attempts. The

first article covers the history of the ongoing summer trainings in METU and is

an outcome of an interview between some of the organisers such as

Rize Arılı, Berin Gür, Onur Yüncü, Mine Özkar, Alper

Semih Alkan and head of the department Selahattin Önür. Gül Ünal on the

other hand describes this years’ summer practice organised by the Yıldız

University architecture department, which tried to bring together the

architecture students, local craftsman and professional architects of the

building world in order to create an environment for the students to test their

theoretical knowledge this time on practical grounds.

MEA ARCHITECTURA MEA CULPA:

A Nostalgic Document / Gürhan Tümer

This is an architectural drawing.

There are no more of those drawing plates in such particular sizes. Therefore we

are experiencing a nostalgic document that needs detailed observation and

analysis. Do we have to emphasize that these documents need preservation as much

as the buildings that were build in the light of those drawings?