In this research, I focused on the mutually constitutive relation between the social and the spatial through what the conditions under which Syrian women who established a social enterprise called ‘Woman to Woman Refugee Kitchen’ came to Turkey from Syria and how their mobility can be shaped by this social enterprise in İstanbul. I aim to analyze space use relations of Syrian women based on their daily life practices after migration. Also, I try to explore the spatial boundaries of Syrian women in their daily lives in İstanbul, if any, and where they are. As a result of in-depth interviews with Syrian women, I visualized their mobility in İstanbul with the mapping method as what they told me, focusing particularly on three main issues : an ordinary day with/without the Kitchen work, mobility in İstanbul for basic needs and also knowledge of neighbourhood and İstanbul. I aimed to visualize the spatial and social boundaries of Syrian women in İstanbul with a focus on where, for what purpose, how often and how they go. While showing each woman in different colors, I symbolized three main time interval frequencies such as from everyday to once a week, from once a week to once a month and from once a month to once a year with various line types (straight, dashed and dotted). Besides, by using the relevant pictogram sign, I showed the places such as shopping, sightseeing, hospital, park etc. and also how to get there on foot, by bus or by taxi. One of the changes that manifest itself in urban and private areas is ‘Woman to Woman Refugee Kitchen’ which is an example of women’s solidarity and togetherness. We see no harm in saying that the journey of these Syrian women have began after establishing this social enterprise because these people have
created visible changes at the economic, social, cultural and individual levels where they migrated with their own culture. Beyond earning their own money, the kitchen is one of the main reasons to go out of the house for these women. These women became close friends with each other since the establishment of the kitchen where they socialize with ach other and take care of their children. While Syrian women always go to the cheap market chains such as BİM and A101 and weekly street bazaar in neighbourhood for basic needs, they often take their children to the nearby parks for playgrounds. Although they sometimes go out with women in the kitchen, most of them rarely go out with their husbands to go outside the neighborhood and if they do, they prefer to go Fatih and Eminönü where Syrian restaurants and shops are concentrated. Furthermore, I realized that they can go to various districts of İstanbul for the hospital such as Fatih, Zeytinburnu and Üsküdar. While most of them never take the metro, they go to these places usually on foot or by bus, sometimes by tram and seldom by ferry and metrobus. Therefore, although they have not yet visited the most of the tourist attractions of İstanbul, they know their close circles, neighborhoods and district of Fatih ,which is mostly similar to Syria in terms of language and familiar on food for them, thanks to the kitchen and their friendship in the kitchen. As a result, I try to understand and transpose to that both women’s experiences which cross the border of Turkey-Syria and experiences of the “border” of being of a refugee woman in the city.
What solutions can be produced for a region (between TEM Highway and E5 Highway in the north-south direction ,and also between Küçük Çekmece Lake and Golden Horn in the east-west direction) with the most concentrated population and the most concentrated urbanization, but with a minimum of urban facilities and green area per person? Human, flora, fauna and all environmental elements are the dynamics that make up the urban ecosystem. One of the ways in which these dynamics can interact with each other and with the city is to create ecological corridors. For this reason, Çinçindere Ecological Corridor is one of the solutions produced as a whole of linear open spaces continuing uninterruptedly in the dense building texture of the city, from the Sea of Marmara to the North Forests. It supports recreational activities such as walking and cycling, while emphasizing the linearity characteristic by circulation of species and nutrients in terms of wildlife; and connectivity feature provides to bind nature into the city, people into nature, and a wildlife environment to each other by articulating to the landscape in every scale. Sustainability concept is supported by integrating every step of the issues of environmental, economic and social sustainability. Multifunctionality is held in the foreground ecologically, recreationally and culturally. And finally, it is a project contributing to landscape planning by producing different spatial strategies by using the possibilities of networked linear open space systems. As a result, Çinçindere Eco-Corridor, is a collection of linear open spaces that consistently embraces every step of the environmental, economic and social sustainability issues and continues uninterruptedly through the North Forests of the Marmara Sea within the city’s intensive building structure where the continuity of biodiversity with public utility is kept in the foreground.
The project site, between the campuses and dormitories of Boğaziçi University, is located on opposite of the north campus of Boğaziçi University, which consists only of buildings and has so little green and social areas compared to the southern campus. Therefore, I aimed to design the project, which acts like a public niche, to meet the social and mental needs not only for the students of the faculty of architecture, but of the entire school. I classified the functions to be specific to the use of architecture faculty from public use. For example, while public zone consists of places of public use such as dining hall, book shop and cafe, semi-public zone has conference hall, library and exhibition area. I created an axis called ‘Design Street’ in the middle of the site to pass through from public zone to educational zone for everyone. Also, I designed other axes and squares articulated to the design street to maximize accessibility. At the same time, thanks to creating these streets, squares and courtyards, the harmony between open, semi-open and closed spaces can allow various activities, meets and gatherings, as well as generate different spatial perceptions to its users. I aimed to design a project that is in harmony with the landscape and its context with the understanding of designing by retreating on a slops and creating terraces. Thus, it is not a single building, but a collection of small architectural structures integrated into the land.
In the competition which intergenerational cohesion is expected to be taken into consideration while transforming the existing settlement into a sustainable and climate balance, we sought the answer on how a building transformation can contribute to the city. We aimed to remove the warehouses located in the middle of two residential blocks and design a street where residents can meet and interact with each other. With the passage spaces we created on the ground floor, we increased accessibility and dialogue between the inner garden area and the surrounding streets and park. We changed the spaces facing the inner garden with commercial functions such as grocery, hairdresser, florist and cafe, which can meet the needs of daily life, so that it can be a focal point to bring together the close environment. In Madrid, where summers are very hot and dry and winters are cold and rainy, building air conditioning is very important. Therefore, in addition to the use of panels containing phase change materials for constant inner temprature in the inner walls, we prefer to design winter gardens that not only create a stack effect when used on the southern facade of the southern building, but also provide insulation when used on the northern facade of the northern building. Also, for summers, the recycling of gray water is used in garden irrigation, building cooling systems and in water tanks that cause natural cooling by sprading purified gray water placed in the landscape of the inner garden. As a result, not only the focal area were created but also living conditions were improved for homeowners thanks to the urban acupuncture concept.
Creating a street atmosphere which is related to meeting outdoor and variety public activities and also integrating landscape are the main aims of the project. In this sense, I focused on integrating closed spaces into the semi-open and open spaces thanks to courtyards and streets. Considering the view of the river, I paid attention to ensure the continuity of the road axes near the project site . In addition to these main street axes, I created a new main street axis and centered it in the east-west direction towards the landscape. I designed open & semi-open side streets in order to maximize accessibility. According to the needs of sunlight of places functionally, I placed the places level by level around these created main streets. Also, I have designed a science and technology workshop which has toys to to experience, practice and learn science as a new function in order to actively involve science in this youth center project that brings together art, craft and sports. In addition to the rain water cycle system, the geothermal system which is a renewable and sustainable energy source integrated to the pile foundation, a heat exchanger that changes the water temperature of the river and radiant system which prevent energy loss by providing heat control is used to in this youth project in order to maximize environmental sustainability.
Levent district, one of the commercial, economic and financial centers of İstanbul, has a high contrast texture consisting of low-income residential area, business and shopping towers and high-income self-contained residential area. Büyükdere Avenue has a high pedestrian circulation flow with heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic on the shopping malls side, opposite the project site. I aimed to reduce this one-sided density and spread the density evenly across the avenue by creating a green passing or hanging area around the avenue. I created console floors on the Büyükdere Avenue of the city hotel and arranged the semi-open area under this console as a public space. Thus the public space and park, which also allows for variety activities from exhibition to concerts, acts as a niche on the avenue. One of the main entrances to the Green Escape hotel is on the park side connecting the Büyükdere Avenue. I preferred to place more public spaces such as restaurants, patisseries, shops, conference and meeting rooms, exhibition area, spa and sports center on the ground floor because I aimed that the ground floor of the hotel acts as a public space integrated with the park . In addition, I created a pedestrian passing tunnel connecting the lower street level in Hacı Adil Street, and the park level in Büyükdere Street by drilling the hotel in order to maximize accessibility. This passing tunnel, which is open to everyone, also cuts the botanical garden and provides visual connection with the garden. Throughout the design process, I focused primarily on the use of people with disabilities, due to the lack of emphasis on hotel design. I designed ramps for the main circulation to give different experiences within the hotel. With these ramps I placed in the botanical garden, I aimed to create various perceptions of space on different floors. The ramps in the botanical garden lead to a terrace open to the use of hotel customers, while the ramps in the courtyard in the public park lead to the public terrace. Thus, I created a green escape that can be experienced at different levels in the chaos of the city, not only for hotel customers but for all citizens.
Edirne province, where an elementary school project is designed, is a city that maintains its own neighborhood culture and maintains neighborhood relations besides its historical texture. Unlike children who grow up in today’s big cities, children who grow up in Edirne still play in the streets. Inspired by this situation, since the project land is located just outside of the city center, I developed a concept of creating a street effect in order to ensure the continuity of the streets and a more familiar and friendly atmosphere for the children. In this sense, due to the continental climate of Edirne, I aimed to create a street effect under a shell, that is inside the building. Therefore, I prefer to design a horizontally spreading structure due to the low-height urban fabric in the surrounding area. Throughout the design process, I focused on how maximize better communication between students and each other and with the spaces in the school. For this reason, I started the design of the school building by designing a modular desk as a small architecture unit that students could use in a functional and flexible way. Based on this approach, I have designed a modular class that will provide better acoustics and offer different spatial potentials when placed next to each other. In fact, when the modular classes are placed with gaps between them, it allows the creation of recreational areas with multi-purpose use or modular classes that can be added later when needed. I designed the central part of the building as a large gallery space to ensure the integrity of the building and the visual relationship between the floors. For the social, physical and mental development of the children, I tried to provide the flexible circulation between the floors by creating bridges and ramps, based on the street concept. The Social School project, which returns to the children’s playground, is covered by a dynamic roof shell consisting of triangular frames rising from the ground. In order to experience light and shade indoors, the roof shell consists of transparent (plexiglass) and non-transparent (molded metal sheet) materials. Glass façade was preferred for more daylight usage and building a transparent relationship with the environment. I designed sliding and colored triangular sunshades that inspired by the triangular frames of the roof shell in order to get the sunlight inside more controlled. These sunshades and roof shell give a dynamic appearance to the facade and structure. Also, because of the contribution of plants to heat and air circulation in the building, green roof technique was applied to the ceilings of the closed space on the top floor.
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