Shout. Propose. Construct.” (Reaserch Thesis Project, MArch)

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Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL Stella Papazoglou, Louiza Varelidi

MArch Urban Design 2011 Sustainable Settlements�

Unit 3 Tutors: Nicholas Boyarsky Camila E. Sotomayor

Course Director: Prof. Colin Fournier Course Co-ordinator: Graciela Moreno

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Introduction Chapter 1: Wanderers in Fener

Table Of

Contents

1.1.

1.2.

1.3.

1.4.

Day Day Day Day

1_Observing Fener 2_Getting in touch 3_Going back 4_Findings

Chapter 2: Gentrifying, preserving or something else?

2.1. Preserfication 2.2. Urban renewal: a gentle way to express gentri fication?

2.3. Past VS future 2.4 Yes, but how

Chapter 3: Curating Parasite

3.1. It is a matter of choice

3.2. Co-existing layers

3.3. Expansion through cores

3.4 Material-specific plan

3.5. From a Social point of view

3.6.The “curating” process

3.7. Do It Yourself 3.8.Toolkit

3.9.Setting up the scenery

3.10. Unfolding parasite

3.11. Postcards from the future

3.12.Oncoming “snap shots”

3.13.To be continued...

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Bibliography

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INTRODUCTION

Our project occurs in Fener which currently holds a complex social network and a rich historical timber building stock, and where a number of regeneration plans are being proposed. The inhabitants are being polemic about all those plans and our aim is to provide an alternative.

We present our report as a travel journal because we wanted to communicate to the readers the sense we got from Fener. We want to provide our experience as it was during our field trip to Istanbul but also while working on our project. The first chapter is about lyrical descriptions of four days in the site, documenting the built environment with its unique conditions, as well as getting in touch with local people. Through this wandering process we aim to state the current situation in Fener and also provide the basic information of the site’s social fabric. This documentation will constitute the causation for our further exploration and working method.

Fener-Balat

The second chapter contains our referencing points and our theoretical background. We try to define preservation and gentrification so to gain a critical view towards them. Other ways of acting are being examined from various fields. Questions such as “What is our role in such conditions?” and “At which point does a productive process end?” arise. By this point we know that a need for a change is crucial, however we are still trying to identify our specific criteria and rules.

The title “Curative Parasite” may not include all the aspects of the project; however we believe that it comprises those qualities which make it appropriate for indicating our process in two words. Whereas parasite has somehow a negative meaning adding the word curative to it, we believe creates a new term. A parasite is an organism that lives in or on another organism and benefits from it while the host has no advantage. On the other hand, curative has a double meaning. Firstly it means something that heals a remedy and secondly, something that is in charge of and manages. Combing those two words we believe to have created a term which indicates an organism that lives on another organism, relying on it but also providing healing and managing effects on it. This is what we want our curative parasite to be. So this third chapter explains in detail, the curating processes of our parasite step by step and from different points of view. Starting from the political propaganda it exceeds to the specific detailed elements of our interventions.

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Chapter 1:

Wanderers in Fener

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1.1. DAY_1- OBSERVING FENER

“…Wooden houses with large spread-out roofs warm their purple colors amidst fresh greenery and within enclosures whose mystery delights me; Stone houses scale up within thrusting upward like upright dominoes, offering two sections of white walls riddled with windows and then two adjoining walls the color of dried blood. Nothing softens the severity of this height. There are no trees, for they would take too much space. The streets rise crazily and leave breathless by their thirst for gain; the houses join upper stories over extremely narrow streets…”

(Le Corbusier, 1911) 1

Walking through Ismalega socak and heading towards the heart of Fener we felt like walking into a different perspective of the city; we stepped inside a coffee shop and asked a young boy if he could give us directions to go to Fener. He laughed and told us that we were in Fener and asked us if we wanted some tea.

We started walking around and observing the area. We thought we would easily be lost without a map but we quickly realized that the streets were quite gridded which is one of the significant characteristics of Fener and the neighboring area Balat. It proved that once you have stepped into the neighborhood you understand how obvious its boundaries are; the street pattern, the built morphology, the sense of community, the noise and street life. A lot of the buildings looked fairly derelict and dangerous, other just abandoned and filled up with garbage and debris; most of the houses were occupied by local residents coming from various areas of Turkey or neighboring countries. The majority of the buildings being in a bad condition were made of timber, which revealed the richness of Fener back in the 60s when it was inhabited by Greeks.

It is impressive how the different layers of building stock have kept their identity and magnificence through time despite their being degraded and altered by their constantly changing inhabitants. As we turned around the corner we came across with a small café; it was obvious that the ground floor was an extension to the old semi ruined timber building that was rising above the coffee shop. As we learned later the house was built in the 18th century, then it was burned at a fire in 1980’s and afterwards the father of the current owner came from Armenia and inhabited it; he remade it but unfortunately out of stone and concrete as it was cheaper and more resilient to fire. His son turned it into a coffee shop 20 years ago and now he is afraid of losing it due to the upcoming renewal project planned for Fener and Balat.

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Le Corbusier, 1987,”Journey to the East”, Ed. Ivan Zaknic, (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press)

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We sat at the tables he had placed on the street being too narrow to besed by cars pass. It was 12.00 and the streets and shops were quite crowded. We suddenly heard a loud order for bread and eggs from a woman in a colorful scarf at the 3rd floor of the house across the road. She was behind the bay window and held a rope with a basket attached at its lower edge in front of the bakkal (local mini market) at the ground level. As we were told afterwards, that is a common thing of the daily life; the order would be shouted over to the shopkeeper or his apprentice, a neighbor’s child playing football at the street or any random passer-by that happens to be at the spot. The money is placed in the basket, taken from the shopkeeper, then the products are positioned among with the remaining change and finally the “shopping basket” is being pulled back up. It’s a local means of vertical communication that enables the street life and social interaction not to be isolated at the street level. It’s the urban language the local inhabitants use to create their own community and enforce their social bonding and identity against the government authorities and construction companies who aim to take away their “home”.

It was 1pm and the street has started becoming less crowded; the prayer was beginning and as every Friday at the same time men were expected to go to the mosque to pray and everything took a time out. We set off the coffee shop, bought a simit from a man with a vending machine around the corner and continued our journey. Vendors (street sellers) are frequently seen in the area and they sell almost everything for just a Turkish lira or two; milk, simit, pogaca (a flaky savory pastry), clam, stuffed mussels even small souvenirs and all kind of portable used devices.2 They have specific routes and they make arrangements with each other so that the vendors who sell similar stuff can cover different parts of the neighborhood. They respect each other.

We wonder how they survive doing this job and why the “vendor” is such a characteristic image of Istanbul in general.

2.

Today’s Zaman, 2010, “Istanbul’s street vendors on same stage as master jazz musicians” [online].

Available from http://www.todayszaman.com/accessed: 15 August 2011]

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Fener’s View

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Walking around the streets of Fener

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The hanging rope

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We came along with Luftu and started talking to him. He is 73 years old and have been selling milk since 1976. He lives in a 65sq.m. flat in Fener with his children and grandchildren. He told us that after the crisis business became even worse and he decided to sell his car to survive. Back in the old days there used to be 40-50 milkman in the wider area, now he sells around 30 liters per day and barely make a living.3 Then he told us he had to go as he was already late for the prayer time.

At first it seemed quite strange to understand why vendors enjoy so much their job in spite of the little money they earn out of it. After meeting some of them we realized that they get the chance through their job to interact with people and be part of the social life of the neighborhood they work in.

It reflects the nomadic way of living Fener and other similar areas have and also the feeling of owning their own portable “store”. Its also quite interesting how some communities or ethnicities have their own history of selling a specific product; for example members of the Roma’s community are known to be flower vendors for many decades.

Fener’s community is consisted out of fragments of many other ethnicities, cultures, customs and religions. The majority of the current and incoming population is immigrants that left their village, town or country to come to Istanbul and have a better life.4 They all consider their neighborhood and their old- 18th century –derelict apartments as home and their neighbors as family. They all want to mingle in their daily life their own culture and heritage which as the years pass by create a unified multicultural and unique identity, the identity that makes Fener so distinctive.

We continued walking. The streets were still quite empty as most of the inhabitants were inside the mosque or their houses doing the noon prayer and then they would go either back to their jobs or have a family lunch. There is a man sitting inside his grocery store watching a small television who wouldn’t be muslin. A string of naked light bulbs hang over the crates of radishes that are placed at the pedestrian zone outside the grocery store. As we stare up to the buildings we realize that the sky is not really visible as dozen of clothes are hanged out of ropes connecting almost every single opposite building along the road and enabling an explosion of colors above us.5 It seemed like an informal ceiling over the street that gives neighbors the excuse to communicate while they dry their laundry; over the laundry rope they discuss everything from politics to arts. The neighborhood has its own values and its unique ways to connect its residents.

3.

Blogspot, Building and Urban Design in Development, UCL, 2007, “Diaries of Sulukule” [online]. Available from http://diariesfromsulukule.blogspot.com[accessed: 14 August 2011] 4.

Nilay Kayaalp, 2009, “y Tarlabasi Districts”, Bahcejehir University 5.

Svetlana Boym., 2001, “The Future of Nostalgia”, Basic Books

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Fener owns much of its vibrancy and heterogeneity to non- organized spaces which they create a blank canvas for the citizens and their activities.

They give the neighborhood an enviable diversity and a characteristic locality through the many unplanned, temporary meeting places for the rich mix of social and ethnic groups it accommodates. The actual method the inhabitants use to produce space, to decorate the existing space and to enhance public space is giving different uses and social meanings to local, cheap everyday elements. This is part of the amazing mobility and constant interaction be tween the inhabitants; some examples could be the usage of a wooden fruit box, turned upside down to create a coffee table or the combination of tires, canvas sacks and barrels to make stands for their street markets. The lack of open space makes the street the main place that accommodates people’s meetings and celebrations – which are quite frequent .

It was 7 pm and we were heading towards the main road to get a taxi back to our hotel when we see a lot of people behind a small metal door that leads to an empty space full of debris in-between two buildings. We stepped in and to our surprise we realized there was a wedding going on at this place and time. We met with Asin who was actually the groom and he told us that the celebration had been going on for two days in this ruined back yard. Roma, Kurdish or Gypsies’ weddings last four days full of chaotic celebrations, which echo through the whole neighborhood from the seven or eight in the afternoon until late at night.6 The preparation for the musical night was in great progress: installing the wooden stage, electricity cables everywhere and speakers, but looking around we could see the whole community was there; men were forming their own groups in strategic location and engaging occasionally to talk to the visitors; a woman was sitting on balcony; other women were looking, watching and chatting. We were offered wine and food and became part of their small local cheerful event. Everything in Fener is so welcoming and original; we wonder why we had been told that the area is precarious.

6.

Neuwirth, Robert (2006): “Shadow Cities. A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World”, Routledge

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What goes on behind closed curtains?

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1.2. DAY 2_ GETTING IN TOUCH

When we first arrived in Istanbul, we thought it was important to get in touch with the people and understand the social structure of the area we were interested in, from its core. That is the people who inhabit the area. At the moment most of the people living in Fener are low-income immigrants coming from 42 different cities around the world. The largest groups originated from the Black Sea region, other groups come from Armenia, Kurdistan, Marmara and central Anatolian regions.

Eli Saul, a Jewish writer who was born and grown up in Fener-Balat, in his memoirs “From Balat to Batyam”, has a clear description of the social fabric of the area: “From 1900 to 1950, Balat looked like a small Jewish town. The Jews formed the majority of the inhabitants. They had about ten synagogues and more than one hundred rabbis. The doctors and the dentists were all Jewish. All the firemen in Balat where there was often a fire were Jewish. The shops except three sellers of roasted chickpeas at Leblebiciler Street were owned by Jews.”

“One walked from Balat towards Edirnekapi, one could see Turkish families.

The Greeks used to live at the high street and side streets from Balat towards Fener. A few Greek families had settled among the Jews around the Ayistrati Church and few in Inner Balat. The Armenian community used to live around two Armenian churches. There were Persians who had shops in Balat, selling herbs, folk remedies and small wares and notions.

The Bulgarian families were engaged in dairy business, producing delicious cream. There were also a few Albanian families living in Balat, selling vegetables in the street, singing and shouting appraisingly of the vegetables they carried in large wicker baskets mounted on horses or mules. The Albanians used to sell also hot salep (a hot drink made with powdered orchids) and ashura (a pudding made with cereals, sugar, raisins and various other dried fruits) in winter mornings...” 7

So we thought that it would be important for us to meet with some families of different background. We decided to go back to the coffee shop we had been two days ago, to see if we could have some talks with people. The guy recognized us, and asked how our past few days have been in Istanbul.

We talked for a couple of minutes and then a man jumped into our conversation. He seemed to meet in his mid-forties. His name was Gediz and he was married to Rabia. Gediz and Rabia are two Kurdish immigrants from a city in East Turkey called DiyarbakIr, which is actually the largest city in southeastern Turkey. Their families had to leave during the 1920’s because after the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, DiyarbakIr became the center of Turkish-nationalist policies against Kurds, as a result Kurdish elitist communities were destroyed and many Kurds were deported to western Turkey.8 7.

Eli Shaoul, 1999, “From Balat to Batyam”, Istanbul, Iletisim baski 8 Diyarbarkir, wiki article, September 2010, accessed August 2011, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyarbak%C4%B1r>

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Gediz’s family

Alkis family

So Gediz and Rabia after coming to Istanbul they occupied an old house in Fener with their two daughters and baby son. Gediz works two to three days a week cleaning houses. But that obviously is not enough to support his family; his place of origin makes it hard for him to find work. “When you want to get a job, they ask “Where are you from?”. . . I am from Diyarbakir. They immediately say Okay, we’re not looking for help any more, there is no work.”9 Rabia is also looking for work but she only finds temporary occupation. They rent above a restaurant in Fener, “Alkis owns the restaurant and our house.

His is a nice person; we are sometimes late for the rent. ” They live in a typical wooden two storey house in Fener. These types of houses are mainly relics of Fener’s Greek heritage since Greek people held the main construction activity in the area. Gediz is very close to Alkis and his family and he claims to know a lot about the Greek history of the area. “Since the Byzantine period, Fener was dominantly a Greek neighborhood, mainly due to the location of the Greek Patriarchate and the Orthodox Church. In the 17th century, Fener became the residence of upper classes and the bourgeoisie with its stone buildings and richly ornamented house facades. During the Ottoman period, an important segment of Greeks who lived in Fener, who were well-educated and fluent in several languages, held high government positions as interpreters or diplomats.

During the 18th century, the majority of new constructions were made of stone or wood; and aristocratic Greek families started to build villas around the Patriarchate.”10 he says.

We asked Gediz if he could bring us in touch with his friend Alkis, he replied that this would not be a problem so we followed him a couple of blocks farther on until we reached Alkis restaurant. Alkis origin is from Istanbul, or Constantinople as it is known to the Greek population. His family belongs to the very few Greek families who did not leave Istanbul. He is property owner, and city officials have tried to get in touch with him in order to buy his land for redevelopment. “I was not offered a very good deal,” he says, “I own a four storey house, counting 200 square meters in total. In exchange for that I was offered a 39 square meter flat and a compensation of 30.000 Turkish liras.”

Alkis’s building is an old wooden one, quite traditional so it has a historic value but that is something the construction companies do not take into consideration. “Why does not the municipality give us the project plan, so we can implement it ourselves on our own buildings? Instead they want to take my property and sell it to ‘Ahmet, Mehmet.’ This is not fair.”11 he says.

9.

Today’s Zaman, 2010, “Istanbul’s street vendors on same stage as master jazz musicians” [online]. Available from <http://www.todayszaman.com/newsDetail_getNewsById.action;jsess ionid=859BA41EB665DCA937EA719E6337B45D?load=detay&link=218429&ne wsId=218330> [accessed: 15 August 2011] 10.

Martin Bachman, M. Baha Tanman, 2008, Wooden Istanbul: Examples from Housing Architecture, Istanbul, Arastirmalari Enstitusu, pp. 14-17 11.

“Calling it home” of Zeynep Uygun, 14 March 2010,online vimeo video, accessed February 2011, <http://vimeo. com/10242376>.

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He is an original Istanbulian and he knows the history of this city through many generations and in great detail, so we asked him to tell us everything he knew about those amazing Fener houses. “There were many people working on these houses”, he says, “There were so many different ethnicities who participated in accomplishing those buildings but the most important part of the construction was formed by Greeks living in the area, who were chiefly bricklayers and carpenters. They were the ones with the skill and they were in charge of the construction. But besides those, non- local workers were also employed, particularly for those jobs which need foreign building materials and a delicate or practiced and creative execution, like stone masonry, concrete- and stuccoworks or similar. As a result, most nations of Europe were contributing in some way to the building activity. Maybe that is the reason why those buildings are so unique” he adds, “Turkish workers did not participate frequently. Only for the lower grated jobs, for unskilled labour, breaking stones etc. There was also a crowd of Kurds on the area, who had their own leaders and foremen and formed a relatively constant fraction amongst workers.

Loads were exclusively carried by them, but for longer distances donkey teams were used.

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They belonged to Persians, who rented them out as their own.”12 Alkis seems really proud of Fener and its cultural heritage and he really looks like he wants to provide us with everything he knows. “I have an Armenian friend”, he says, “he has a spice shop just around the corner, he could tell you more things about those houses. You should visit him.”

We thanked Alkis for all his help and headed towards our hotel in Sultanahmed. The sun had started setting down and most of the shops were closing, so we thought we would visit Fener the next day as well. As we started walking on our way back, the light kept changing and we realised that Fener was getting an amazing sepia tone. The light effect on the houses of the area made them even more picturesque.

12.

A. Wegner, 1889, Bau des Sommersitzes der Kaiserclich deutschen Botschaft in Therapia, Berlin, Centrablatt der Bauverwaltung, Jahrgang IX, pp. 35-38

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1.3. DAY 3_ GOING BACK

We headed once again to Fener. The scene seems very familiar but we still can’t find our way to the area easily. As a result we found ourselves somewhere in Fener but not in the right place. The narrow cobbled streets seemed similar to us. As we were looking around, for the spice shop, a shoemaking workshop caught our eye. We looked inside, everything looked very old, and they were six men working inside, cutting leather and soles manually. It was not a very common view for us since we are used to mass production. We went inside to ask for directions, the leather smell was very intense and distinctive.

A grey-haired man said something in Turkish but he immediately understood we were foreigners so he repeated in broken English.

His name is Yusuf and in 1974 he ran away from his village Agri, in the eastern border of Turkey and came to Istanbul. Agri province’s population is composed of ethnic Turks, Azeris and Kurds. “When I arrived here”, he says, “I followed a man and we walked together until we reached Fener. There was an old four storey building there, where I started my shoemaking business. There were 30 of us working there.” Some years ago people from the municipality came to tell them that they were planning to restore their houses.

Yusuf says that they only mentioned the restoration part so they all happily agreed. “Two years later we were told that we would have to leave. My job is really affected by this situation. Retailers don’t want to shop here anymore because we have become a nomadic population and they are not sure that they will find us here after a year or so. As a result our jobs are deteriorating year by year.We moved here to escape terrorism, but we are experiencing a kind of terrorism here as well.” Yusuf was very concerned about this regeneration plan; he does not want to leave his shop and house. “I live in one of the most beautiful streets in Istanbul, beautiful people live here and we have learned to communicate in our own way. No one wants to leave, we have our own traditions and costumes and we want to be included in the preservation of our neighborhood and houses. If they make this regeneration everything will change. In Fener people spend most of their lives outdoors, working, eating and drinking, so if they accomplish this regeneration plan, a very modern life style with new expensive block of flats will suddenly enter the area and our current way of life will be impossible.” Then there were some seconds of silence, until he asked “You like Fener don’t you?” We nodded. “Well, it might seem strange to them but we enjoy selling things on the streets, we have milk sellers, cloth sellers, simit sellers, and those people are everywhere. If this lifestyle extinct it will no longer be Fener.” Then Yusuf pointed towards the Golden Horn to show us how to get to the spice shop, which was actually very close.

A few minutes later we arrived to the spice shop of Kaspar, which also was the name of the shop. Spices, herbs and natural cosmetics were all around the shop which had a very distinctive and intoxicant smell. The colors were also so bright and unique, orange, ruby red, glossy yellow. As soon as the shopkeeper saw us, he greeted us with a pile of perfumed dried apple pieces for us to smell. Kaspar is Armenian; his name is a very typical Armenian one.

“I should be in the position of pronouncing it comfortably in Istanbul” he says

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Yusuf’s family

Kaspar’s family

“I want to feel free to say my name is Kaspar and this is my store with my nameplate. This is one of the principles of democracy”. Armenians in Turkey are mostly concentrated around Istanbul. The Armenians support their own newspapers, schools and churches.

It was incredibly obvious from the beginning of the conservation that Kaspar really loves his neighborhood, “I love everything about it”, he says, “I like my neighbors a lot, we have our disagreements but we are like family here and we respect each other. My building has been empty for ten years because I knew it was going to be demolished one day. They turned this area into a dangerous backstreet. I don’t really care about the profit that I can or cannot get from here. I’d like some extra money but if I get 50000 less it wouldn’t upset me that much. I’ll drink a bottle of raki and forget about it. This is a war of cash. No one cares about the historic value that exists in this neighborhood.

Everyone thinks about what the profit they can make out of this place“13

He is completely aware of the historic value his house has, his father was a worker in Istanbul for many years and also himself worked in Fener for some time with the Greeks. “Generally the construction principle was that every structure should follow the traditional style which was half- timbering.

The reason for preferring those against the purely stone built houses was the low cost of the construction, the fact that wooden houses were healthier to live according to the climatic conditions of the area and of course the fact that they were a safer option in case of earthquakes.” says Kaspar, “The materials of the constructions were supposed to be local building materials according to the traditional fashion, but in reality they came from many different locations for solidity reason. For example the roofing was made of French tiles from Marseille, the oak for the floors and the window glasses were brought from Hungary and the pinewood for the beams and wall claddings from the lands of Danube.”14

Kaspar seems to know a lot about the construction aspect of the wooden houses in Fener and he also gave us a hint on how the actual structure was made. “The timbering of the walls is especially strange for the traditional way of building. It consists basically of a framework of oak, with different compartments placed closely together. Also all other framing and decorations were cut from small boards and were attached to it. There was also a mastic resin pressed into all joints and cracks and three layers of oil paint to protect the wood from the heat of summer and the high winter humidity. Especially for the houses closer to the Bosporus, they made adjustable folding shutters to have equal protection against sunshine and violent rain showers. “15 13.

“Calling it home” of Zeynep Uygun, 14 March 2010,online vimeo video, accessed February 2011, <http://vimeo.com/10242376>.

14 & 15.

A. Wegner, 1889, Bau des Sommersitzes der Kaiserclich deutschen Botschaft in Therapia, Berlin, Centrablatt der Bauverwaltung, Jahrgang IX, pp. 35-38

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1.4. DAY 4_ FINDINGS

We decided to spend our fourth day trying to organize our thoughts and the material we gathered from Fener in the past three days. We felt lucky that we had met people who were so friendly and willing to have their photograph taken. As a result we had a big amount of images to edit and a lot of scrappy notes to write out.

Going through the images again and again we realized that the actual method the inhabitants use to produce space, to decorate the existing space and to enhance public space is giving different uses and social meanings to local, cheap everyday elements. This seems to be part of the amazing mobility and constant interaction between them and we found quite remarkable that such an informality occurring in the urban space can function so well and satisfy their needs to a great extent.

We printed out some of our photos, used whatever material we could find at that time and we experimented with some collages, trying to show this complexity in the self-organized urban space we saw in Fener. We wanted to show how the local materials are incorporated into their environment and maybe some new spaces that could adapt this characteristic locality incorporating many different elements. This was just an attempt of creating fictional reused space mostly giving a feeling of how the quality of those spaces can be.

The collages made us realize that all this non- organized activity and space production applies perfectly to a DIY attitude. People in Fener are being creative in their own way because they lack other resources. They compose their scenery using whatever means they have direct access to. This is the exact core of DIY which argues the issue of the expertâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s expertise and tends to promote people on being creative and doing things for themselves.

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It was quite obvious that people in Fener use waste materials in the simplest way to make their everyday life easier. So we thought it would be important to indicate this urban vocabulary. At first we used the shots we had from the area and in those, we isolated local elements to have a clearer perspective of them. This helped us to figure out their spatial and social meaning. We thought that we should document those findings in a way they can be easily communicated to others, so we tried to categorize them firstly according to whether they derive from public or private space and then specify the purpose they aim to achieve. This way we documented an urban vocabulary which included public elements which serve purposes such as communication, construction, storage, mobility, privacy, connection or temporality.

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We thought that we should document those findings in a way they can be easily communicated to others, so we tried to categorize them firstly according to whether they derive from public or private space and then specify the purpose they aim to achieve. This way we documented an urban vocabulary which included public elements which serve purposes such as communication, construction, storage, mobility, privacy, connection or temporality.

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ISOLATING DETAIL Isolating theTHE Detail

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PLANS WOODENHouses/ HOUSE/Flooring FLOOR Detail DETAIL Plans OF of Wooden

Another important finding of the past few days was the amazing book Martin Bachmann had suggested during our brief visit in his office. We had contacted him before our trip in Istanbul so to arrange a meeting. He works for the Istanbul German Archaeological Institute and he was the curator of an exhibition called “Wooden Istanbul/ Examples from Housing Architecture” which took place in October 2008 at the Sina and Inan Kirac Foundation Istanbul Research Institute. The homonym book was the exhibitions’ catalogue, illustrating in great architectural detail (in plans and sections) the structural and artistic features of Istanbul’s wooden houses. It also includes an extensive documentation of the important quarter in adjacency with the Zeyrek Mosque, including plans and photographs, showing the quarter’s former and current state.

All the following images are from the book Martin Bachman, M. BahaTanman, 2008, Wooden Istanbul: Examples from Housing Architecture, Istanbul, Arastirmalari Enstitusu

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FACADES SECTIONS Facades andAND sections

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Deriving from this research we decided to do a series of studies based on the basic themes that concerned us during this trip. We started by a social condition we came along frequently in Fener, and made a big impression on us, that is the hanging rope with clothes. An urban element that is distinctive in the area and that also functions as a connection and communication line. Our colorful model gave as an architectural perspective of this element, since were able to see its relation the houses and streets, the impact it has on the color of the area and the multiple shadows it creates in this narrow built condition.

The second study was housing typologies that exist in the area. For that we were based on the catalogue mentioned above. This study basically aimed in understanding the sequence of space in those houses which were built in completely different circumstances. They were residences of wealthy people and were supposed to accommodate just one family. Now the condition has altered tremendously. Each house is separated into flats and in the best cases; every floor hosts one family, which means two to four families per floor.

There is also the case were people are even poorer so the three or four storey building acts somehow as a communal building.

Our third and final study before leaving Istanbul was about the volumes of the timber and concrete buildings and the way they are combined in a number of ways so to create the narrow and cobbled street system of Fener, as well as the polygonal courtyards. Those three studies gave us a quite clear view of Fenerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s urban and social fabric and it would consist our raw material for our further exploration.

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Communication Line

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Built Volumes and In-between Space

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Chapter 2: Gentrifying, preserving or

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2.1. PRESERFICATION”

The disappearance of traditional sources of employment, effects of policies that encouraged re-housing of urban residents, impact of infrastructure and commercial property development and physical decay of the built environment, have all prepared the ground for the urban deprivation in Turkish inner cities.1 The effects of later industrialization and migration made it clear the majority of Turkish urban centers couldn’t adjust their economies, planning policies or political stances to prevent future urban problems.

As in most inner cities of Turkey, in Istanbul historical areas were not protected and lately built-up areas lacked the quality considerations as well; associated with the unexpected urban growth, the emerging residential preferences in alternative and outer city locations and the relocation of job opportunities, Istanbul faced both a physical and socio-economic decline including illegal housing development and squattering.2 Since the scope of problems became quite extensive and uncontrolled for central and local authorities to deal with, regeneration of the inner city and conservation of historical sites have been inevitably put apart for years.

Along with the changes of the urban environment, crucial changes of the socio-spatial structure has come, strengthening urban segregation and social exclusion.

High income groups tend to live in the peripheral area in new luxurious high protected “ghettos”, new middle income groups in co-operative mass housing and low income groups in established gecekondu neighborhoods.

Nalan Yurtmaç, 2011.

1 Gokcen Kilinc, 2008, “Evaluation of urban regeneration practice in Turkey”, 14th international planning History society conference 2 Rusen KELES, 2003, Urban Regeneration in Istanbul, Ankara University and Eastern Mediterranean University.

pp. 46

As for the historic core of the city some areas have been gentrified and inhabited by middle and upper middle class since the late 1980s; The gentrification continues until today and although the recognition of the significance of the historic heritage sites have been growing during the last decade, more and more “urban renewal” projects aim to revitalize those quarters through forcing the local communities to move away, making space for renovated luxurious flats behind preserved facades of the traditional houses for the upper class to live in.

The discussion about preserving the historical peninsula as a world heritage area started back in the 70s; In 1968 a group of architects made a research about several neighborhoods including Zeyrek, Fener, Balat and Ayvansaray. Realizing that the whole historic and cultural environment had started to become a “slum”. The first neighborhood that became a conservation area was Zeyrek in 1975.3

Nalan YUrtmaç, 2011. Slum clearance and gentrification in Istanbul. From the exhithe next 20 years not a single change had hapbition, Lütfen Arkaya DoğruFor İlerleyiniz

3

Uzun, Cemile Nil, 2001, Gentrification in Istanbul: A Diagnostic Study, Faculteit Ruimtelijke Watenschappen, Utrecht

pp. 47

pened in the area although UNESCO had put gradually almost the whole of the historical peninsula to the list of “World Cultural Heritage” and the decision had been approved and theoretically supported by all the responsible bodies and authorities. The Mosques continued their decay, the ottoman water fountains had dried, the konaks (historic houses) were faced with many fire incidents; The structures of modern apartment architecture with facades were placed for the demolished konaks. The avlus (courtyards) of mosques that had almost five hundred years of history have been places of discomfort. The cobbled streets di appeared under several layers of asphalt.4

In 1997, attention started to focus on the neighborhood of Fener-Balat; UNESCO together with the Municipality of Fatih, the French Institute of Anatolian Researches and the NGO “Fener Volunteers” initiated the project named ``Fener and Balat Districts Urban Rehabilitation Project”.

There are many examples of restoration and rehabilitation projects that were carried out in Istanbul in the hands of the project team, which was comprised of municipality members, national and international specialists, non-governmental organizations and institute; all had a similar ending. One of them is in the Sogukcesme Street.

The dwellings were bought and the inhabitants were made to move to other places in the city; the fact that social network was at least as valuable as the structures

the short period of 5 years (2003-2008) was limited to a partial improvement of the physical and living conditions of only 14% of the total historic buildings in the whole Quarter of Fener-Balat. It started by targeting 200 buildings for restoration; then they were eliminated to 120 buildings, the majority of which just needed basic repairs. By the end of the project just one street had several houses repaired, generating a visual impact of a regenerated district that had no long-term social or economic output to the locals. While the preservation of the historic heritage and character of the area has inevitably served in the public interest, the Quarter has not only attracted the attention of middle and upper-middle class, national and international investors and real estate companies, but it has also inevitably pushed up house prices and rents. (Kutay, 2008). Thus, it was obvious that gentrification would inevitably occur in response to the increasing historic appeal of the area, while developing a pressure on the local poor inhabitants towards moving out of F&B.5

Relocation: Roma families that have lived in the Sulukule will be relocated to modern suburban TOKI blocks 25 miles away.

Fener. Old building before and after the preservation project of Unesco. After the preservation the bakkal at the ground floor closed as the building is going to be a hotel.

The actual preservation project that UNESCO led for

4 KALKAN, E., “The First Urban Rehabilitation Project Of Turkey””, Hurriyet Newspaper.)

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Before and after image of a street in Tarlabasi according to the renewal project that has started for the neighborhood.

Even before the EU-funded UNESCO regeneration

5 “Balat ve Fener Semtleri’nin Rehabilitasyonu ”, 1998, Ed. A team from Fatih Municipality, EU, UNESCO, French Anatolian Research Institute.

pp. 49

scene had been completed Fener-Balat had already been designated as an “urban renewal site” based on the Law No. 5366 by the Council of Ministries. The renewal project was launched in collaboration with the district municipality and a large scale construction company without financial support of the state agencies.6 The new project in Fener-Balat aims to restore the historic facades as soon as possible, at the expense of gentrifying the area and removing present inhabitants, so that new luxury apartments can be created inside the preserved or look-alike facades addressing the medium and high income citizens of Istanbul.7

It is quite crucial to see how the conservation policy agenda evolved over the last decade to understand how these ”renewal projects can be allowed in such historical areas. In 2004 the Law of Protecting Cultural and Natural Assets (No. 5226) came out which was revolutionary in terms of approaching urban conservation sites.8 The law made extensive studies on the conservation site compulsory prior to plan preparation; these studies included consideration of cultural, social and economical issues. The expected outcomes of such studies were to be conservation plans integrating multi-dimensional aspects of localities, addressing communities needs and providing collaborative planning and financial processes. Unfortunately, in 2005 the law of “Preservation by Renovation and Utilization by Revitalization of Deteriorated Immovable Historical and Cultural Properties” brought the above progressive understanding back to the old state. It basically enabled the Council of Ministers to designate ‘urban renewal sites’, while giving local authorities a great deal of authority on these areas by making them responsible for preparing renewal plans outside the conventional planning system without looking for any reference to vision or strategy plans of cities. This law has caused a dramatic change to the dynamics of the urban land transformation processes within the old city. Following its enactment, a series of historical neighborhoods are declared as renewal areas by the authorities such as Sulukule, Tarlabasi and Fener&Balat.

How the construction companies visualize the future of many poor degrated areas in Istanbul (Fener, Tarlabasi, Zeyrek etc)

6 Uzun, Cemile Nil, 2002/1, “A Urban New Transformation Process and Legal Regulations”, Planlama.

7 http://www.fenerbalat.org

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8 Z. Müge Akkar Ercan, 2010, “How to shape conservation-led regeneration initiatives regarding community needs”, METU.JFA

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2.2. URBAN RENEWAL: A GENTLE WAY

TO EXPRESS GENTRIFICATION?

The phenomenon of “slum clearance” in the form of an urban renewal” where land is made available in degraded neighborhoods is very common and severely criticized in many cities around the world. Urban renewal is like a gentle excuse to gentrify historical centers and inner cities of the advanced capitalist world. Some of this criticism challenges the designation “slum” when it is applied to some neighborhoods in which poor people live, but their way of living is not “physically, socially or emotionally harmful to the residents or to the larger community” (Herbett Gans, The Urban Villagers, New York: Free Press, 1962) The question is to which extent the “clearance” phase of urban renewal uproot and destroy a neighborhood matrix of social life which can provide irreplaceable satisfaction to its inhabitants.9

9

Eleanor P. Wolf and Charles N. Lebeaux, on the destruction of poor neighborhoods by urban renewal, Wayne University

pp. 52

One very characteristic example is the city of Detroit. Between 1950 and 1953 Detroit embarked on one of the nation’s premier postwar urban renewal programs. One particular Detroit renewal project – the Gratiot Area Redevelopment Project – seems as the most significant from the early 1950s. It is an extreme example of one type of urban renewal: an entire neighdorhood was torn down for the simple reason that it looked “run-down”. The reason behind the project was strictly political as it started right after Major Albert E. Cobo was newly elected and wanted to exercise his power to ensure only specific parts of the the Detroit Plan vision would be implemented. He accelerated the slum clearance and highway construction programs, while stopping completely the public component and ignoring the severe housing shortage faced by the African-American community.10 The gentrification and alteration of the city’s social and urban fabric continued for decades with numerous renewalprojects.

Detroit 10

Thomas Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, Princeton University Press, 1996

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When a renewal project happens to a neighborhood that is not only degraded but also with great historical value in terms of the built environment, then the discussion gets more critical and the conflict stronger.

Preservation authorities, government bodies and investors have extremely different interests and intentions. Taking for example the quarter of Kreuzberg, which was a working class area during the 19th century. After the Second World War the area was bombed and seriously ruined; many people left the damaged buildings. A population of artists, foreigners, unemployed and members of sub-cultures remained.

So, there was an urge of reconstruction and regeneration.

Today is a very expensive area, luxury apartments stand next to perfectly preserved historical buildings, restaurants, nightclubs, cinemas and galleries. Property values and rents have risen extremely in the past few years, poor population and immigrates have been relocated since they couldn’t afford the values and the social character of the area has changed completely.

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Wanted Poster at the entrance of the Berlin Biennale at Oranienplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Kathrin Rhomberg, the curator of the BerlinBiennale,according to a poster is a wanted woman for being a “Gentrificator”.

Anonymous protesters fear or claim that the expansion of the Berlin-Biennale from Berlin Mitte to Kreuzberg is accompanied by a gentrification, which will render living costs unattainable for the residents in the mediumterm. The concept associated with gentrification, is applied as argument and catchphrase for political and/or artistic actions in the public space.. (http:// www.usrn.de/)

Even if the renewal-gentrifying- project includes a respectful attitude towards the current population and their lifestyle, at the end the result usually is the same: relocation and social alteration. One example could be the case of Copenhagen’s Inner Vesterbro district.

Apart from physically upgrading the decaying buildings, the municipality’s aim was to include the inhabitants in the urban renewal process and, seemingly, to prevent the dislocation of people from the neighborhood. However, because of the confusing policies, the mechanisms of the property markets and the lack of sufficient defending systems, middle and upper class citizens are now replacing the high concentration of socioeconomically vulnerable people that characterized Vesterbro before the urban renewal. This process may appear `gentle’, but it is nonetheless an example of how state and market interact to produce gentrification with `traumatic’ consequences for individuals and the city as a socially just space.11

The artist Citénoir places a sign “Yuppies Crossing” in a gentrified zone of Kreuzberg in the Bergmanstrasse.

Demonstrations for the upcoming gentrification in Kreuzberg

11 Henric Gutzon Larsen, Gentrification—Gentle or Traumatic?,

University of Aalborg, DmarK

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2.3 PAST VS FUTURE

Do not let us deceive ourselves in this important matter;

it is impossible, as impossible as to raise the dead, to restore anything that has ever been great or beautiful in architecture.” (John Ruskin, 1849)

To restore a building is not to repair it, nor to do main-

tenance or to rebuilt, it is an ultimate state that never existed before” (Eugene Viollet-le-Duc, 1855)

Two conflicting ideologies continue to subject preserva-

tion to a systematic schizophrenia between RUIN

and RESTORA-

TION. Preservation needs an “unfield field” theory to resolve the contradiction. (Oma chronochaos, Bienalle, Venice 2010)

What is really preservation? Is it a matter of inac-

tion, “an architecture that does nothing” as Koolhas has implied?12. Or is it an opposition to two very specific actions: deconstruction and construction? One or the other way it is never about “doing nothing”. It requires researching, documenting, studying, debating and some times

Perhaps its time for architects and urban designers

to take a step forward by generating new critical, innovative and pro vocative approaches to reconstructing the past in order to benefit the future.

Preservation is not only about preserving an important building; it can be about giving a new meaning or use to a building that used to be important or just beautiful back in its era. It can also be about preserving a social character of a building or an area by preserving the population and its culture. If we take as example the neighborhood of Fener, we can see how important is the quality of the wooden buildings hidden behind the debris and ruined walls; but is the solution to recreate the built environment as it was back in the 18th century?

Who is going to benefit an action like that? We would say only the preservators, the tourists and ofcourse the investors.

But what about the values that the area has gained through its social transformation. Is it something that should be considered valuable enough to be preserved and enhanced further? Does seldom the historical value of the built volumes creates the character of the area or the existing social fabric and local culture defines Fener as it is today? We believe that the solution is somewhere inbetween. We can preserve the historical built environment in a way that can support the existing social matrix of the area. Maybe the way to take advantage of this kind of places is to simply imitate nature. In nature, the word “waste” doesn’t exists, because every single element is part of a cycle. What if we see architecture just as part of this cycle, instead of simply looking at all the archruins that surround us and preserve them in their current state?

fighting; it is always about various forms of Reconstruction either it refers to the actual buildings or to their history, briefs or contexts.13 . But how we choose what to keep and what to throw away? How we declare which is the monument

which area should be a “World Heritage Site”?

Is the obsession with the past driving architecture backwards and lead ing to perfectly preserved and protected buildings or neighbourhoods?

12 Preservation is Overtaking us, Rem Koolhas 13 Nou Urbanisme, Mario Ballesteros

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A.

2.4. YES... BUT HOW???

When there is a need for change in a city, there are specific tested actions that can take place, like some of the examples mentioned above. There are many things written and said about preservation. But at this day and age, things are constantly changing in an excessive speed, so this is the point to stand back and re- think what we know and evaluate. It is the time to experiment and take risks in order to allow evolution to come. This of course means that failure is a possibility, but being in the position to reject something because it has proven that it does not work, is still a progress.

Conventional architecture and urbanism acts in such ways in which local actors have little influence on their outcome. In contradiction to that, self-organized practices provide an alternative structure for producing space.

Political activism, cultural production and other ways of habitation can be an origin for this kind of space production. All of the above demonstrate a need and a desire to develop independent approaches, so architects consider self-organization as a tool within their practice, in addition to informal activities. So there a number of alternative practices to be explored and be inspired and influenced from.

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USE UNWANTED LAND?

This brings in mind Gordon’s Matta Clarks project, called “Fake Estates”. It was a site specific project that took place in New York in the early 1970’s. Matta Clark places “Fake Estates” among his so called “an-architecture” projects. He bought 3,500 square feet of property, which was at the time about the size of an average artist’s loft in downtown Manhattan. The property was not in one place; instead it was dispersed in fifteen different sites: fourteen of them in Queens and one in Staten Island. He considered those lots left overs and antiproperties, rather than properties, because they were not coherent with the rest of the city’s grid. Their shape, size and placement were such that one couldn’t use them for almost anything (storage, gardening or residing). So Matta Clark started working on those lots applying his famous “building cuts” in which he variously removed sections of floors, ceilings and walls altering this way the perception of the building and its surrounding. He aimed at turning exploded objects into something filled with “hope and fantasy”. Derelict buildings and urban communities were issues that concerned Matta Clark throughout his work. He said that he focused on buildings because they represent both a “miniature cultural evolution” and also a model for dominating social structures, “what I do to buildings is what some do with languages and others with groups of people: I organize them in order to explain and defend the need for change.”14

14. Donald Goddard, New York Art World, “Odd Lots Revisiting Gordon Matta-Clark’s Fake Estates”,2006, available at <http:// www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/matta-clark.html>, accessed: 25 August 2011

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The case of the Five Fellows: Full Scale action in Detroit, speaks in even clearer architectural terms.

There are thousands of abandoned, derelict, distained and burned- out houses in Detroit, and the city is more than eager to tear them down. Five Fellows are teachers from the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning and they have the exact opposite vision for the city. As a result they decided to use one of those dilapidated buildings to construct something new. Each of them contributed the amount of $100 and bought one of Detroit’s unfortunate houses. The house was a complete ruin; it had no front door, no windows, electricity or plumbing, it actually constituted everything a homeowner would repress, but for them it was a great opportunity. According to one of the Fellow’s the challenge was truly inviting: “Instantly, we had a site, materials, and something extraordinary to respond to.”15 So they added some windows and started working, each of them in a different part of the house. The outcome is five surprisingly bright, interesting and impressive architectural experiments. Five Fellows: Full Scale project distinguishes from the rest of the ruined houses on Detroit’s east side They have not turned the house into an inhabitable place, there is still no electricity or running water but they have managed to make this dilapidated site, a research project, a living laboratory full of design ideas. They actually managed to take their vision of what the future of the city could look like and materialize it so that anyone could see.

30.

The architect’s newspaper, “Domestic Intervention” March 2010, <http://archpaper.com/news/articles.asp?id=4537>, accessed: 02 September 2011

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B.

MAYBE DO IT MYSELF?

Renew Newcastle project, also deals with abandoned, vacant buildings but it is more social based and can be considered more feasible due to the emphasis it gives to the developing mechanism in which the project works.

Newcastle has 150 empty buildings in its main streets. Local creative communities want to take on to these spaces but there is no economical viable way of doing so. The company was founded by Marcus Westbury and it all started by creating an online Facebook group. The mechanism behind Renew Newcastle basically begins by contacting the property owners of the vacant spaces, and “borrowing” them on a rolling 30 day basis. This means that the owner only grants his property for this one month and he renews this agreement if he wishes every 30 days unless a renter comes up. The next step is to find cast audience, cultural enterprises, community groups, creative projects who would be happy to take on to those buildings. By putting people back in to those spaces, not only viable enterprises grow both profit and non- profit, but also life, activity, interest and a sense of community gets back into the city. Renew Newcastle has been set up to clean up these buildings and get the city active and used again.

Renew Newcastle aims to find artists, cultural projects and community groups to use and maintain these buildings until they become commercially viable or are redeveloped.

The project is not set up to manage long term uses, own properties or permanently develop sites but to generate activity in buildings until that future long term activity happens. 16It was actually founded to help solve the problem of Newcastle’s empty CBD. While the long term prospects for the redevelopment of Newcastle’s CBD are good, in the meantime many sites are boarded up, falling apart, vandalized or decaying because they are is no short term use for them and no one takes responsibility.

When the company started the area was in major decline and therefore it was considered to be a dangerous part of the city. At the moment up to 60 spaces have been filled creating a new catalyst for people to re connect, also the CBD is safer and cleaner. Marcus Westbury believes that this project is just the beginning and that this type of DIY approach can also be applied in many cities of his country.

16.

About Renew New Castle, <http://renewnewcastle.org/>, accessed July 2011

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C.

EMBRACE A COLLECTIVE ROLE?

The speculation when it comes to self-organized urban or architectural systems is to define the role of the architect. His role is not static anymore and he definitely cannot be considered as just a designer. In the case of the French architect Patrick Bouchain, his roles vary from being a developer, political advisor or site manager, to being a fundraiser or a performer. 17He begins with establishing a network of people interested in being involved and then he socially activates his site, usually by opening a small place which functions as a restaurant, site office and consultation area. Those spaces are basically a key point in his projects because passersby or people interested can find out about the project and give their views. So during this initial phase relationships are being created between the architects, builders and local people and also uses are being placed to the site before anything permanent is built. Such an approach is really sustainable in the real sense of the word, ensuring that finally is being constructed is appropriate and useful for the site and makes good use of resources.

D.

CREATE “MICRO PUBLIC SPACE”?

The Canadian Centre for Architecture is an extensive archive and research center that aims to promote the importance of architecture to the general public. It was founded in1979 by Phyllis Lambert and it is now housed in a building that Lambert prevented from being demolished.18 CCA mainly aims to build public awareness of what the role of architecture should be in the society. CCA holds an accompanying website which aims to inspire and promote actions in the city, through a toolkit. The elements of the toolkit can combined in a number of ways allowing people to participate in those actions even online. The website’s purpose is challenge users to respond by posting their thoughts or initiatives on how to improve the city through individual action.

Pet architecture and Made in Tokyo are Bow Wow’s work and both include buildings, research and art practice. They are based on creating easy to read guidebooks so that their work would be accessible to all types of audiences. Atelier Bow- Wow started by documenting the unique urban quality of Tokyo and then produced a number of those guidebook formed publications which aimed to introduce the reader to the unplanned nature of the urban landscape. They used the term “micro public space” in order to communicate the theme of their research in which they try to recreate urban social behaviors and meetings inside building and gallery installations.19

17.

Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till, 2011, “Spatial Agency: Other Ways Of Doing Architecture”, New York, Routledge, pp.111-112

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18.

Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till, 2011, “Spatial Agency: Other Ways Of Doing Architecture”, New York, Routledge, pp.113-114 19.

Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till, 2011, “Spatial Agency: Other Ways Of Doing Architecture”, New York, Routledge, pp.105

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E.

ALL THE ABOVE....

Arne Quinze-Brussels, The sequence

There are a lot of potentials to explore and a lot of alternatives with which someone can treat a city. Sometimes architects are trapped to what they know and fail to deal with the informal aspects of urban life. In the book Informal City it is argued that “Architects lack a professional vocabulary for describing informal urban life. Their vision is shaped and, therefore, also limited by their theories, which […] fail to confront critically real world- issues.”20 In our project we tried to compose our own urban vocabulary based on the social and spatial character we found on the site. The social aspect was crucial for us, because in the case of Fener in particular the spatial object could not be detached from its social meaning.

Henry Lefebvre in his book The Production of Space argues that space is a social product. ”Social space is dynamic space; its production continues over time and is not fixed to a single moment of completion. […]The dynamic and yet temporal, nature of space means that spatial production must be understood as part of an evolving sequence, with no fixed start or finish, and that multiple actors contribute at various stages.” 21

However, introducing a social factor into an architectural or urban project, means taking a greater responsibility, since it is no longer just a matter of shape and geometry but also a matter of politics. So when it comes to production of social space, architects and designers have to recognize and face up “the responsibility of affecting the social dynamics of others in ways beyond the delivery of beauty”. “The key political responsibility of the architect lies not in the refinement of the building as static visual commodity, but as a contributor to the creation of empowering spatial, and hence social, relationships in the name of others.” 22

20.

Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till, 2011, “Spatial Agency: Other Ways Of Doing Architecture”, New York, Routledge, pp.38 36.

Henri Lefebvre, 1991, The production of space, Oxford, Blacakwell 22.

Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till, 2011, “Spatial Agency: Other Ways Of Doing Architecture”, New York, Routledge, pp.28

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pp. 69

Chapter 3

curative parasite

pp. 70

pp. 71

The choices... REJECTED

The alternative...

to be continued...

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pp. 74

pp. 75

3.1 IT IS A MATTER OF CHOICE...

Given the current situation in Fener, with the complex social network, the historical timber building stock and the strong opposition of the inhabitants to the proposed regeneration plans, we intend to propose an alternative.

Our project is deeply social based and it relies to a process of reusing local material and curating the built environment. The main idea is that local people can produce their space and economy using their site itself as a resource. Elements that are considered as trash or debris can consist their raw material to construct their own identical space. Using the local material, enhancing the timber buildings and involving the people will gradually result in adding a new layer to the area in the form of a temporal parasitic condition, which will find its way to evolve through time providing an answer to the various scenarios of gentrification that are on the way for the area.

This project is about decisions and empowerment. It is a vision about alternative ways of handling urban design; about redefining the role of the designer and making him a tool that can prepare the grounds for a grassroots revival of a neighborhood that is at the edge of gentrification. During the implementation of this project we were constantly dealing with the question of “who we are”, where does our involvement start and stop within the design process. Are we “activists” doing propaganda, are we designers proving guidelines or are we ourselves a local that wants to bring the change? We tried to put ourselves in all of these three positions and see the different perspectives: the political, the practical and the social. We ended up that we will try through this project to integrate all these positions in our proposal and aim in “guiding” the re-establishment of the relation between the art of building and the sustaining of the community, through citizen-based participatory design methods.

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pp. 79

3.2. CO-EXISTING lAYERS

To understand how the area of Fener-Balat has came to take its current identity and urban form we have to see through its history; it is a quarter that underwent various natural disasters, social and political transformations as well as population alterations.

Back in the 18th century Fener and Balat were divided and had both wider boarders. They were also very rich areas.

Fener was inhabited mainly by Greeks; who were holding the main construction activity in Istanbul and were excellent timber craftsmen. This is the reason why the neighbourhood had a huge amount of beautiful timber buildings.

Balat was mainly inhabited by Jewish who were active in sea commerce and so really connected to the golden horn.

During the 1890’s an earthquake and several fires destroyed a lot of the timber buildings, thus a law came out allowing only concrete houses to be built. The settlement structure changed: Prominent families of Fener left the neighbourhood and moved to villages along the Bosphorus, such as Tarabya, Kurucesme and Arnavutkoy. Only officials, artisans, craftsmen and small traders were left behind and they started to build on the plots reclaimed from the fire. During this period, the colourful concrete row houses with the unique bay windows were mostly constructed.

In the 1960’s the Greeks were forced to abandoned the area due to political issues and the majority of Jews went to Israel after it’s establishment. The result was again another transformation but this time mainly socioeconomical due to the heavy influx of incoming immigrants who inhabited illegally the abandoned historical houses. Today, Fener and Balat districts look like dilapidated areas and face the danger of total ruin; however it is characterized by its unique social identity and bonding between the inhabitants. UNESCO started a preservation project in 2003, which had potential but ended 5 years later with only some fragmental buildings preserved and no social or economical impact to the area.

create a diverse environment that have kept identity hints of every period the area went through. We strongly believe that this identity should not be kept by recreating a perfectly preserved environment that resembles the old image of the area. Instead, a new layer of intervention should be added, one that can fulfil the current needs of the inhabitants and reflect the existing social conditions.

18th century

1980s

1980s

1980s

The traces of different “layers” are obvious, layers of time and various social and spatial conditions that have evolved through years. Different qualities are dispersed around the streets showing the rich social fabric that existed and continues to exist until today. Old workshops that are now closed, shops that have changed uses, houses that are now separated into flats and accommo date many families acting somehow as communal buildings, abandoned houses that are occupied by homeless people,

pp. 80

1990s

Unesco’s fragmental proposal, 2003

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3.3 EXPANSION THROUGH CORES

In opposition to UNESCO’S fragmented proposal, we have a different vision about how our interventions can function in the area. We believe that the best way is to create cores which will radiate and expand over time. We think that a four to five year plan is a good amount of time to test our project. We start by establishing two cores at the site. One at the center of Fener and one at Ballat’s. The first step is to identify the quantity of the available spaces within those two cores. We base our initial predictions on the most recent statistics for the area. We believe that such a practice can be effective in a small scale basis, so each core includes four to five blocks. It is important that every cluster of blocks has a meeting center, an info point, a space where people can learn about the project, ask for guidance if needed and give their opinion in terms of criticism on the project as well as providing new ideas. Also it is essential that every “core” must have at least one collecting point where the unused material and debris will be collected and categorized.

Once this stage is completed, the identified spaces will start to gain uses depending on their place in the map and the current needs of the inhabitants. Some of the uses that can take place are workshops and workspaces, community gardens, meeting points, public markets, mobile houses or kiosks, all deriving from a number of smaller structures. We believe that gradually those cores will begin to radiate in the site and that by the end of the year 2015 those cores will have expanded so to cover the whole area of Fener- Balat. This process can continue acting perpetually, due to the temporality of most of the curated spaces. Materials and constructions will be recycled every time a new need makes its appearance. Our timeframe constitutes an experimental period but it does not necessarily suggest the ending of the project. After this experimental period, providing the project turns out to be successful and beneficial for the site and the local people, it can also “radiate” to other areas of Istanbul which share resembling characteristics to Fener- Balat.

Tarlabasi, Sultanahmed and Zeyrek are also poor areas with a strong social network and a remarkable historic built stock which is under decline. There the project will function in a similar way also adjusting to the specific special conditions of each site.

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3.4 MATERIAL SPECIFIC PLAN

Having a strategic plan is very helpful, however the level of detail we need, in order to specify our practice premises a gradual zooming in. First we have to specify and identify the spaces that are suitable for our interventions. We are mainly interested in the specific built conditions of the houses, as well as their level of decay. Therefore, we create a 1:1000 map, which mainly shows the materiality of the site. In this map, we are able to see that almost 60% of the built stock is made of timber whereas, 40% is made of concrete.

To make our research easier we categorized the houses we find in the site to habitable and uninhabitable. We considered habitable those buildings that have a good or average built condition as well as the ones that are in semi-ruined condition, meaning that the damages can be easily repaired or they have abandoned interiors. Those can be found in the site in the percentage of 68%, from which the 25% are the semi- ruined ones. The buildings that cannot be inhabited are the ones that we call framed constructions or completely ruined buildings, which we consider urban gaps, since there is just a wall left or some other traces identifying their prior existence. Those hold a percentage of 15% of the site’s built stock. The percentage of those uninhabitable houses in total is almost 32%, which means that we have a quite dense network to work on. So in the “materiality” map we illustrate the materiality and the decay conditions mentioned above. It is also important to note that 15.1% of the buildings are currently empty or partially empty and 3% is occupied by squatters. Our intervention operates in the network of the semi ruined houses, the frame buildings and the urban gaps, which means that we are dealing with the 57% of the total building stock.

Furthermore, it is quite obvious that the neighborhood of Fener has a serious lack in public open space and green space. The only green area nearby is the coastal park between the historical neighborhoods and the inactive seafront. The park was constructed to give life to the seafront and provide an open space for the inhabitants of Fener and Balat but unfortunately the construction of the four-lane highway circulates the park and isolate it from the citizens. One of the aims of our strategy is to use the interventions proposed to bridge the neighborhoods with the park and extend the urban life until the

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seafront where various leisure activities can take place.

The materiality map is also followed by two indicatory sections, which aim to illustrate the site’s inclination as well as the building heights and their relation to the quite narrow street system. Balat is more inclined that Fener and it has a more defined grid. The gridded streets in general identify the borders of the area that is preserved by UNESCO. Through our strategy we aim in creating gradually more cores outside the strict Unesco boarder and unify the different neighborhoods that has similar social characteristics and degraded built environment.

section b-b

section a-a

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3.5.FROM A SOCIAL POINT OF VIEW

Since the beginning we aimed on focusing on the social pattern of Fener. Trying to motivate local people to protect their neighbourhood and act against gentrification means that the alternative solution that will be promoted should assimilate their social identity and enhance their current way of living as well as their local micro economy. So, it is vital for the “curator” to fully comprehend how this community works. One of the basic characteristics is the strong social network that has been developed between the residents over the years.

A second one is the identical informality of the area, which gives vibrancy and heterogeneity to various unprogrammed spaces and activities, creating a blank canvas tor the locals and their “performances” within the urban space.

To investigate all these qualities in depth, it is essential to zoom in a smaller part of Fener choosing 4 blocks located at the part we had documented during our wondering” walk in the area. (1st chapter). We want to identify in more detail the different families that live in each house and how they are connected with each other; the commercial uses and street activities; the active craftsmanship operating in the area as well as the closed workshops; finally the specific built condition of each house and the available open space.

Some of the uses that we find in the area are: timber, metal, copper, knitting and other workshops, temporary open street markets selling vegetables, meat, flowers, old clothing and used furniture, coffee shops, restaurants, bakals and mini markets, vendors selling almost everything one can imagine, and other shops serving every day needs.

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We notice that there are still some active craftsmen in the area but we know from the locals that traditional crafts have declined dramatically through the last decades; the knowledge stopped passing from generation to generation and craftsmen doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the money to maintain their workshops in degraded areas such as Fener. Traditional handicrafts in Istanbul include carpentry, woodworking, stonemasonry, metal crafts, coppersmith, basketry, felting, kilim making, ceramics, pottery, tile arts, embroidery, musical instruments, doll and puppet making, etc. (www.mastersofistanbul.com) A big amount of the project relies on the various skills the localhave in traditional crafts which will enable them to get involved into the process.

We finally decided to focus on those 3 specific blocks and their surroundings. We also made a section to get inside the houses literally and practically. We tried to identify the urban fabric as detailed as we could according to our findings, observations and interviews on site.

local craftsmen in the area

Current situation of the three blocks, Year 2011

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3.6. THE “CURATING PROCESS 1.

The actual starting point of the process is the clearing of the spaces that are available within the area. Local people collect the debris and all the unwanted or unused material of the area in some storage points, so they can be available for reuse further on. The point of this step is to involve everyone actively into the project and also to persuade the locals that they have everything they need to start construct their own “micro-city”. The main materials that are for collection are: timber, metal, individual elements (small-large scale), fabric, abandoned vehicles.

2.

The documentation phase starts through the info centers where every inhabitant can go and state needs, damages at buildings, free space or flats, job vacancies, ownerships etc

3. People are guided to start making constructions through detailed manual handouts.

4.

Mobile housing starts being constructed out of the abandoned vehicles found in the area. This type of sheltering is only for urgent accommodation need and can fit up to 6 persons. The mobile “houses” can park only nearby an active house or roof and they can remain at the same spot for the maximum time of 1 month.

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5.

The infrastructure starts to take place. This takes the form of scaffolds in various sizes and shapes that are attached to the ruined and semi-ruined buildings allowing the new constructions to be attached on them.

6.

Workshops begin to take place giving the opportunity to unemployed people to learn a local skill and then be able to help in the construction process. Craftsmen are in charge of the large scale and most complicated constructions such as extensions of floors, bat windows or roofs.

7.

The construction phase starts: informal public space also starts to develop inside the blocks giving life to the empty spaces and creating an extra layer of pedestrian roads; street life expands to the courtyards of the blocks providing more space to the local activities; roofs begin to be used either as semi-public or private space depending on the ownership and usage of the building; greenery is added and vegetable gardens are developed; interiors are being refurbished; also vertical connections are being developed where needed.

8.

Commerce activity becomes denser and new uses and workshops are sheltered in the new spaces that have been constructed. The local economy starts to gain power.

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Future condition of the three bocks, Year 2014

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3.7 DO IT YOURSELF

Setting up our timeline process and defining the local waste or reused materials we are going to introducing to our intervention, made us realize that a D.I.Y attitude is ideal for this project since it premises a strong social network and also that the designer and the inhabitants will work closely together. D.I.Y. constructions are from definition low cost, non- standard and low energy.

They are flexible in terms of temporality, since they can either be permanent or ephemeral, both in urban and rural level.

The DIY attitude was first noticed in the US and can be linked to many of “The Arts and Crafts” movement philosophies of the 1900s which was directly opposing industrialization, modernization and mass production. On the contrary the “Arts and Crafts” were trying to reconnect people with hand- on activities. The DYI culture started to mainly evolve in the US during 1940s and 1950s, standing against the trends of conspicuous consumerism and mass production. These days, DIY can relate to Craftivism, which clearly derives from the combination of the two words crafts and activism, a term establish in 2003 by activist Betsy Greer.1

Carla Sinclair, Editor in Chief of “Craft” attempts to describe the DIY community: “This DIY renaissance embraces crafts while pushing them beyond traditional boundaries, either through technology, irony, irreverence, and creative recycling, or by using innovating materials and processes...the new craft movement encourages people to make things themselves rather than buy what thousands of others already own. It provides new venues for crafters to show and sell their wares, and it offers original, unusual, alternative, and better-made goods to consumers who choose not to fall in step with mainstream commerce.2

Ellen Lupton analyzes some of her thoughts about the DIY culture, in her book “D.I.Y. Design It Yourself”.

She characteristically notes “Around the world, people are making things themselves in order to save money, to customize goods to suit their exact needs and interests, and to feel less dependent on the corporations that manufacture and distribute most of the products and media we consume. On top of these practical and political 1.

Ayala Zapata, Fernando, September 2007, 21st century D.I.Y Architecture, Barcelona, Spain, Virtual Conference on Sustainable Architectural Design and Urban Planning 2.

O’ Reilly Media, 2006, Craft Magazine, Vol.1, Issue1

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motivations is the pleasure that comes from developing an idea, making it physically real, and sharing it with other people.”3 The point Lupton aims to make is that DIY activities and culture promote individuality because each piece is unique and one of a kind in a modern world of mass production and consumerism. Also they can give pleasure to the participants simply due to the lack of corporate control or thoughts of profit and marketability which often concludes in pieces that can be considered sophisticated, curated or arty.

Amy Spencer’s book, called “DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture” sums up the juxtaposition of DIY culture’s aspects by pointing out that “the DIY movement is about using anything you can get your hands on to shape your own cultural entity: your own version of whatever you think is missing in mainstream culture. You can produce your own zine, record an album, publish your own book - the enduring appeal of this movement is that anyone can be an artist or creator. The point is to get involved. 4

Do it yourself lands

by Andy Warhol, 1962

42.

Lupton Ellen, 2006, D.I.Y. Design It Yourself, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, pp. 18 4.

Spencer Amy, 2008, DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture, London, Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, pp. 11

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3.8 TOOLKIT

During our curating process we strongly aim to fulfill peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs on one hand and to involve them actively in whatever will take place on the other. After clearing the spaces we aim to work on and collecting all the unwanted and unused materials of the area in storage points, so that they can be reused, people are provided with handouts. This way they are guided to make their own constructions through detailed manuals, which include sketches and images of all the material they will need, the tools they will use as well as simple and clear instructions on how to make those constructions themselves, step by step. In case of a complicated structure or a large scaled intervention, local craftsmen take over.

Indications on where in the site they will find the materials are also provided. Examples of such DIY constructions are tire flowerpots, crate stage, pipe shell, vegetable walls, crate mobile house, lightening wicker tile, interior facing and floating platform. All the constructions mentioned above are characterized by their level of mobility and so most of them can be quite temporal. Also the ones that are attached to existing houses or derelicts can be removed and be placed somewhere else if the conditions of the block change. As a result the existing buildings have not been changed in a permanent way. Exceptions to this are the buildings in a very bad condition which need to be reinforced in order to avoid collapsing. The rules and tools are simple as it is a participatory project and the result aims to resemble the existing urban culture but in a more efficient way.

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In order to be more productive, we thought of creating a sort of data base in which we will organize all our interventions, and we believe it will turn out to be very useful. So, we made a toolkit of constructions with which our process can begin. All of the constructions included are made of reused local materials that have been gathered in storage points so far, such as rope, fabric, old tires, wooden or plastic crates, wicker and metal pipes.

The criteria for this categorization are the specific purposes each construction corresponds to. We believe that this way the process is being simplified further and also it helps us built up a useful archive which will be enriched gradually. We begin our toolkit by setting up eight basic categories: bridging-platforms, infrastructure, elevation, extension, shedding-lodge, mobile housing, greenery and lightening. Each category contains a number of structures which are also placed according to their level of difficulty and so the number of people needed to actualize it. It appears to be a number of alternatives to fulfill each of the purposes mentioned above. Therefore, if there is a need to bridge two houses, compose a shed, begin a community garden, set up a temporal stage, replace an old shabby bay window, or even create vertical connection, there a variety of choices to do so. All those tools are different units that can stand and function on their own, one by one but they can also be combined in numerous ways to create a more complex construction with multiple uses.

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3.6 SETTING UP OUR SCENERY

Having created our initial archive of constructions, we proceed in our project by applying them in the environment. The best illustrative way to test those constructions, is to illustrate sections. We decided to create a conceptual one, which will consist our exaggerative vision of an altered environment. We need a big amount of detail to illustrate this section; as a result we choose one of the blocks we have already documented in depth previously. So along our section, on the left edge of the block we see a two storey concrete house, where the ground floor operates as a restaurant and the first floor is accommodating a five member family, whereas on the right there is three storey timber building. Bottom to top, this building functions for housing purposes where three different families occupy each of the floors. Attached to this building on its left side is some ruined walls which are the left overs of another three storey house that was demolished during the earthquake. The in-between space, the one we previously stated as urban gap, has a length of almost ten meters. So if we want to state the sequence of the types of spaces we see from left to right according to our prior categorization it would be as follows: semi-ruined concrete house, urban gap, framed building, and semi-ruined wooden house. This means that along this section a variety of types of spaces occur, therefore it is an ideal scene to perform our experiments. Also the background of the section contains (from left to right again) a three storey concrete house and a framed house which we see from a perspective view.

The shed is depended on glides, which makes it completely adaptable since it can move around the empty space at any time and any occasion. Having in mind the restaurant that is hosted on the ground floor of the concrete house, we add a construction that can be utile for it. This could be a sort of bleacher structure, which allows people to attend a possible local concert hosted in front of the restaurant, but it can also function on its own as seating space during the day. To make use of the framed building and also begin the process of its gradual reinforcement we adjust the wooden bleacher on one of those remaining walls. This way not only the houses are being altered and enhanced but also the empty space of the block starts to be activated.

Our performance â&#x20AC;&#x153;beginsâ&#x20AC;? by attaching scaffolds to both of the semi-ruined houses. This way the process of fixing some of the damages can begin. We notice that one of the windows of the concrete building is in poor condition so we add an alternative of what would previously consist a bay window. It is a construction based on wood, with a metal sheet acting as a ceiling. On the opposite side of the building, we extend the upper floor with a composition of wooden crates, so to provide more room for the five member family. We also add a covered bridge made of wood and fabric, to merge two terraces at the background of the section. The terraces develop small vegetable gardens from where the vegetable store that lies underneath can be supplied from. We also add a mobile shed which is constructed from wooden crates.

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The section helps us visualize our interventions into the context of the site, and it also makes us stress our ideas and our toolkit constructions to a further stage. It also constitutes a base we can work on, however we want to bring this context into a greater level of materiality and detail. So we begin to build a 1:50 model, which relies on our section. We want to show textures, colours, depth, height, different materials, decay and relation between built volumes and open space. This model is even more accurate as scenery. After building a number of constructions out of cheap materials, such as coffee stirrers, wicker from old seats and baskets, pieces of leftover fabric and some metal wire, we begin to perform different narratives. Each time we set up different needs for the block, so the constructions appear in different places and in different timeframes. We documented one of the narratives in sequence so to see the gradual change step by step.

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We also stressed out further two of our narratives.

The first one is about the filling up of the space that is in between the semi ruined concrete building and framed one. As mentioned above we construct bleachers which can have different functions during the day; workers can use them to reach the upper floor of the semi-ruined building and repair it during daytime, and during night time they can be used as seats while people are watching a local festival or a celebration that takes place. In this case, the open space takes the form of a square and is being used by the restaurant as an extra space for outdoor tables. A temporal stage can also be placed there to host events. The stage during the day can be covered and used either as a market place for public use or again the restaurant can make use of it so that the streets can be freed for cars.

The second narrative is about the connection of two blocks. The narrow street is turned into a pedestrian road so that the free space of the two opposite blocks will be merged and will function as a whole. The framed house in the right block is gradually being altered, and a vertical connection is being placed so to reach the upper levels. The exterior walls are being reinforced with metal pipes and wicker while in the interior a large scale shed is being placed. The shed has the height of two stories so it also functions as a floor for the upper level. This way a bridge also connects the two blocks on this height through its two framed buildings. A lodge is being added on the three storey timber building, which will function as a shed but will also be a sort of vegetable wall. Also the beginning of a new construction is being notified in the left block.

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3.10. UNFOLDING PARASITE

Supposing that the starting year of the implementation of the project is 2011, we start a journey in time to predict or propose how this network of constructions, public space and activities can evolve through time. To achieve describing how we vision the future of the area we use fictional snap shots of various dates within a 5-year period and also in different time of day. In this way we can see how temporal are some uses and how some others can construct informal public space or be used as permanent for some years until the conditions of the block change and they become useless. We see this process as a cycle of â&#x20AC;&#x153;eventsâ&#x20AC;? that can be recycled and reconstructed from the very beginning. Nothing is absolutely permanent except if it works very well with its surroundings after a period of testing.

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15 December 2011. 09:30 am The process is at its very beginning. The first scaffolding structures have been attached to the buildings.

People are moving as usual through the streets. The initial works and fixings have started but we cannot see a visualized change as the ground is being prepared for the next stage. Some workshops are taking place with the most experienced craftsmen training other inhabitants and newcomers who are interested in learning a skill. The workshops are mainly focused on traditional construction methods, timber, metal and knitting.

26 March 2012. 11:00 am Three months have passed and we start see things get activated. People are still a little suspicious and hesitant but many of them has started using the manual handouts with the help of the craftsmen and our guidance. The NGOs are doing a great job promoting the DIY methods and persuading more people to get involved. A couple of abandoned interiors have been refurbished and a small association of local women doing crafts occupy the space.

Some temporal houses has been located in the courtyards of the blocks, one of them is mobile. Also we see a great progress in clearing up the courtyards and framed buildings so they can be available for the constructions to take place. Finally we can see some small initial interventions such as the “flowerpot”, the “vegetable garden” and the lightening baskets”

29 September 2012. 10:20 am Its morning and the usual image of the neighbourhood would be streets occupied by local markets and cars struggling their way through shoppers and sellers. Now we see something different; street market is located along a corridor that used to be the abandoned courtyards of the block.

The corridor is sheltered with sheds made out of timber and reused fabric. Two or three roofs are being used, and some extensions have now been completed merging houses and shops.

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07 June 2012. 6:45pm New spaces have been constructed and new uses are being added in the urban fabric. The neighbourhood is changing; some framed buildings have been enforced and cleared up operating as spice gardens, shelter for mobile housing and meeting places. Pedestrian movement finds its way into the brocks creating the background for more uses.

Some extensions and bridges start to develop. More and more people use the manuals and build small interventions for public or private use.

18 April 2013.

8:45 am

The fabric keeps changing. Some constructions has remained the same, some have been developed further and some have been removed or recycled. Its almost night and we can see how the new «informal» public space that connect the blocks is hosting events and celebrations. The coffe shops and tea houses are full and place their tables at the pedestrians that have been recreated. A stage is placed and people watch local dancers and singers perform; At the next block big tables are placed for people to celebrate a wedding. We can see the space acting like a square to host the everyday activities of the inhabitants; and its actually space they created by themselves.

23 July 2014. 2.15 pm ¬¬

The process continues to evolve. The difference is obvious in many different ways. Now we have two layers added to the initial urban environment. The upper layer which includes roofs, bridges and extensions and the ground layer which introduces new pedestrians and connection of the blocks. Also we can see now how the streets that were from asphalt turn into pedestrians gradually. Intervantions can form temporary public space in many ways such as closing a street with vans for2-3 hours and making this part of the street part of the public space inside the block.

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3.11. POSTCARDS FROM FUTURE

Fener December 2013 Asin and Adelaida “One year ago I was afraid of losing my restaurant. Now I think I must do an extension, as I haven’t seen it so crowded since my father run it. In front of my restaurant a whole square has been constructed and many local events take place every week. I participate myself in the process by organizing workshops. I am very happy to provide to others the knowledge and heritage my father and grandfather gave to me.” Alkis

“The neighbourhood has changed a lot, we our now more united and have more opportunities. After our wedding we were very worried that we wouldn’t afford to have a big family as we wanted. After participating at one of the workshops that my friend Alkis organized I was able to be employed and work for the project. Now I rent a flat with my wife. We extended our space to the roof beside and grow our own vegetables. Life is still hard but at least we have started taking things on our own hands.”

Asin and Adelaida

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“I am currently working on the extension of a basement so that it will become a metal workshop. My wife Rabia finally found space to shelter her crafting activities with four of her friends and created an association. They have started selling their products already..” Gediz and Rabia

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“I was able to refurbish my spice shop with the help of my neighbours and moreover extent it to a nearby derelict building. I am very excited. We started by adding greenery and growing some of the spices and ended up in constructing a vertical garden with spices and vegetables. The smell of the growing spices covers the whole block.”

Kaspar.

“I am a shoemaker and I have a big family. I have 6 young children. I was worried that they will not be interested in learning my skill or another Turkish traditional skill. Now with this project we can all see that we have the tools to preserve our neighbourhood, as we want, we only needed the guidance. Tree of my sons has started working with timber and metal and we just finished an exterior extension of our flat through the roof.

Its unbelievable what you can do with things you considered as trash.”

Yusuf

“I live with my 9-member-family in a 65sq.m. flat. At the same building there was one empty flat, abandoned and in an uninhabitable condition. It took us 3 months to fully refurbish it but now we have more space. At first I thought the whole concept of craftsmanship and reused materials was another deceiving way to take our houses. Now I am persuaded that we can resist to gentrification with our hands and crafts.”

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Luftu

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3.12 ON COMING #SNAP-SHOTS#

We have already tested our project in many ways and in various levels. We tried to place it in a context with a high level of detail, in various scales and illustrating methods as well as in both pragmatic and fictional scenery. We keep in mind the five year plan we stated in the begging of our project and since we have seen the change our interventions can have in a 1:50 scale, we think it is equally important to also see its effect in an urban scale.

As a result we jump to 1:500 by building a model which will consist our work base. Even though the scale of the model is urban, we still want to communicate the specific material condition of our site. So, the timber and concrete buildings can be easily identified as well as their decay condition, the urban gaps and the narrow street system.

Taking that this model represents the current situation, meaning the year 2011, we aim to take â&#x20AC;&#x153;snap shotsâ&#x20AC;? of the five years to come.

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#Snap shot 1# 2011

#Snap shot 2# 2012

Fener is dominated by wooden buildings in poor condition, concrete is also present in abundance. The streets are very condensed and they compose an almost orthogonal grid system. We can see many urban gaps and unoccupied spaces from above and the greenery is in general terms absent. The blocks are usually squared shaped whereas the shape of the courtyards in between them is undefinable.

The initial infrastructures begin to make their appearance in form of scaffolds and flooring frameworks. Those two consist the basic element of this first period. Although, we can also see some sheds taking place as well as some spots of greenery which appear sparsely.

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#Snap shot 3# 2013 Fener’s urban fabric seems different by this time. Greenery is being notified in the upper level of the site as well, meaning that the terraces have started to be used.

Some covered bridges connect the roofs or terraces of two neighboring houses, merging this way the blocks in the first or second floor level. Scaffolds and infrastructure are still present and quite obvious. Some of the streets are being tentatively occupied by shedding tents, implying this way the pedestrianization of certain asphalt streets. Also some mobile houses make their appearance.

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#Snap shot 4# 2014 At this stage many of the urban gaps have been filled with greenery or temporal constructions. The infrastructure system gradually starts to dissolve. This means that many of the decayed houses have been repaired by now. The various constructions begin to appear more complex since they are either combined, composing a finer result, or even new constructions are being added to the project’s “archive”. Many streets are turning into pedestrian giving a new meaning to the social life and the terraces are being used extensively.

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#Snap shot 5# 2015 This is the final year of the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s testing process.

In 2015 the greenery is no longer fragmental, on the contrary it almost consists a new network of spaces. Many blocks have been unified and many terraces have been merged through bridges. The infrastructure system has almost accomplished its initial purpose, so very few scaffolds can be spotted in the site. In an overall basis, the decay is no longer obvious, although it still exists but in a smaller amount. Almost half of the street system has turned into pedestrian roads. The temporal houses have taken over some wide urban gaps and compose a new temporal type of housing blocks.

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Stepping back and observing those five frames as a sequence, we realize that this process indicates a gradual spread, a rise in density, a change in the color of the area and finally an overall alteration of the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fabric. It is obvious that over time many blocks are being joined, the upper level is being used in many cases, greenery appears increasingly, gaps are being filled and the park in front which is currently a waste land is being used and evoked. This way a new layer is being added to the site which started from some small cores, and gradually found its way to the whole site. This layer however has the characteristic feature that it can function in combination with the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s stock while it is hard to stand on its own in an urban scale. Also the site benefits from the presence of this new layer, almost like a parasite. If this four year plan works well in our site, then it can begin to expand further in Istanbul, curating other sites of similar identity. Finally, having always in mind that our project is a response to the current regeneration plans which will either harm the historical identity of Fener or will not actually have an overall beneficial result for the site, we state that the layer we aim to add will not degrade the existing layers of Fener and if needed it can be removed at any stage of our process.

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3.13 TO BE CONTINUED...

To conclude, our project, our “curative parasite”, is a vision of how a city could be. It is a vision of a city that sustains itself through a progression of events and processes. It is a city that creates a self-managed system which will function for its own benefit. We want to experiment in the temporary reuse of left over urban space through the setting up of an enabling infrastructure that is slowly taken over by local inhabitants and turned into self-managed spaces. Those spaces will gradually become productive following a participative process with a minimum cost, using recycled and waste materials collected by the residents themselves. Our project reinforces the idea that public space does not mean to culminate in the idea of the physical construction of a designed object but it is continuously developed as a social, cultural and political production.

As for us, have we managed to provide the answer to the question “who we are in this process?” We think that our role is multiple and we should embrace that. We certainly know who we are not. We are not stiff designers, architects trapped in the strict rules of lines and geometry. Our role is to diffuse our vision and our ideas to the people, to make them understand that they can and they should take matters into their own hands and act for themselves, to illustrate their potentials so to convince them that such a process is feasible. Our role is to provide the alternative to what is already said and done.

To guide and organize people or to promote the introduction of new associations. Our role is to believe that the need for change will actually take place only if we provide those alternatives. So maybe we are site managers, or maybe we are site curators, or even activists. Maybe we are whatever we need to be in order to make our vision happen.

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Constructions_”how to do”

Our project has its core on DIY attitude, which argues the issue of the expert's expertise and tends to promote people on being creative and doing things for themselves. It loosens the border between creator and consumer but it strongly premises that those two work close together. This means a strong social network has to be exploited. DIY also implies low cost but non- standard and low energy construction, permanent or ephemeral, both in urban and rural level. In order to communicate this attitude graphically, manuals of "How to do" and "readymade" elements are being produced.

A question that arises is how much a designer, architect does interfere? So the issue of finding a new balance between the creator and the consumer is a critical and crucial issue.

The DIY attitude was first noticed in the US and can be linked to many of The Arts and Crafts movement philosophies of the 1900s which was directly opposing industrialization, modernization and mass production. On the contrary the Arts and Crafts were trying to reconnect people with hand- on activities. The DYI culture started to mainly evolve in the US during 1940s and 1950s, standing against the trends of conspicuous consumerism and mass production. These days DIY can relate to Craftivism, a term establish in 2003 by activist Betsy Greer.

The first lines of Amy Spencer’s ‘DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture’ sum up the juxtaposition of DIY culture’s aspects by pointing out “the DIY movement is about using anything you can get your hands on to shape your own cultural entity: your own version of whatever you think is missing in mainstream culture. You can produce your own zine, record an album, publish your own book - the enduring appeal of this movement is that anyone can be an artist or creator. The point is to get involved.”

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Tools and materials used rope hammer +pins pipes fabric tire crattes

basket

metal sheet

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"Glossary"

Through our documentations and initial propositions we are dealing with finding ways to boost this informal urbanism while upgrading their standards of living. We want to use this patchwork identity in our design proposal defining specific uses in new public or private spaces located as a network that derive from the derelict spaces we have detected in both sites. We started by creating a glossary containing all those elements found within the urban space of the two sites and categorize them by their meaning spatially and socially. The main reason for this action is that we want to have a main 'vocabulary' to use in our design proposal, each element, based on its meaning, will be translated in a new architectural or urban element and incorporated into our proposal so that the locality of the place can be kept alive and even enhanced.

The first table is about the elements that can be found within the urban public space of Fener and Tarlabasi and the second one is about the ones concerning the private space. (housing)

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C.O1_tire flowerpot

C.O2_vegetable wall

use old tires

find a metal net and 4 screws remove metal disk

fill with local soil pp. 136

paint in different colours

place one on top of the other

find plant in the area

enroot them in soil

find wooden+plastic crates and fill them with soil

dib into each crate a plant or flower

apply the net on a derelict wall and put underneath the plastic crates so that they can grow on the wall pp. 137

C.O4_interior facing

C.O3_lightening wicker tile

spot the framed houses

find metal and wooden pannels find 10 baskets

cut the lower part of each basket

make or find an old rattan then apply the hanging baskets at it pp. 138

connect the basket with the chain and apply the bolb through the hole

use the wooden pannels to construct a new shell

construct the roof using metal sheets

use a crane to place the shell

interior space is ready to us pp. 139

C.O6_floatimg platform

C.O5_mobile info center

find old boats use them to make a platform gather wooden boards find 2 olf tires

find an old abandoned car or truck

cut the wooden pannelsinto pieces place boats upside down for base

make shelves out of the pieces pp. 140

apply all the elements on the old truck, cut through it to make windows and clean the interior so to work as the mobile information center

add plants and flowers

place the platform and connect to the pier

floating deck is ready! pp. 141

C.O7_pipe shell

start connecting the pipes to create the shell use PVC or metal pipes (no need to be of the same size)

built the base for the structurewith the crates

find rope and old pieces of textile

make connections where needed

gather crates or boxes to create the flooring of the structure pp. 142

brace rope and fabric to vertical pipes to create the shell pp. 143

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

C.O8_crate stage

C.09_treehouse

find some unused wooden panels

cut them into different sized pieces

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

find a couple of old rounded ladders

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

fix together find an old metal stair the wooden panels so to create a platform PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

find some unused wooden panels and pipes

make a platform out of the wood pieces and elevate it up to 2.5 m, put greenery on it

Attach the ladder to create vertical access and then make more platforms to have the tree house

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

fix the old stair to the wooden platform and place the construction into a derelict house or a public space pp. 144

pp. 145

C.10_mobile house

use fruit boxes from local market

find metal panels in empty lots

start buildind up the facades gather old pipes

connect the pipes to brace the metal panels

start connecting wooden boxes and surfaces pp. 146

place pipe net and metal sheet on top of the structure

use studs and hammer to connect

make pipe nets

temporal construction is ready to use! pp. 147

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

gather old pipes

find old pipes

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

C.11_crate extension construction

use studs and hammer to connect

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

start building individual facades

connect the facades with the flooring

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

crate constuction is ready to be adjusted on a house that needs to be extended

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

pp. 148

connect the crates

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

use the piepes to make the flooring

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

pp. 149

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

connect the pipe frame with the wooden surface

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

pp. 150

connect them to create a shell

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

use thin pipes to built a frame for the balcony

gather a pile of wooden pieces

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

attach this constuction to a house with a ruined bay window so to replace it

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

connect the planks

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

use studs and hammer to connect

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

use wooden planks

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

C.12_shell with balcony

pp. 151

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

C.14_covered shed

you will need at least 4 screws for each crate

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

built up the planks

find many pieces connect the pieces with each other in various of wood (from furniture, combinations and attach debris, crates etc) them to a frame made out of reused pipes or other metal elements

use old fabric

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

find 15-30 wooden crates

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

C.13_crate bleachers

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

connect the crates in the form of a bleacher

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

pp. 152

Then apply the wooden construction on a wall and use some pieces of fabric to cover the rest of the area

pp. 153

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

gather wooden pieces

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

C.15_mobile shed

use wicker to make it less penetratable

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

built surfaces

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

use table wheels from old furniture

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

pp. 154

connect them crates

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find rectangular pipes

attach the wheels to the shed to make it movable.

Mobile shed is ready!

pp. 155

use old pipes

connect them

start constructing verticaly

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

C.16_scaffold infrastructure

C.17

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

Gediz

Kaspar attach wooden surfaces to the pipe frame

scaffold is ready

PRODUCED BY AN AUTODESK EDUCATIONAL PRODUCT

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pp. 157

C.18

C.19 Here you can draw your idea

pp. 158

Here you can draw your idea

pp. 159

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS AND MAGAZINES • Ayala Zapata, Fernando, September 2007, 21st century D.I.Y Architecture, Barcelona, Spain, Virtual Conference on Sustainable Architectural Design and Urban Planning

Gokcen Kilinc, 2008, “Evaluation of urban regeneration practice in Turkey”, 14th international planning History society conference

• Lupton Ellen, 2006, D.I.Y. Design It Yourself, New York, Princeton Architectural Press

Ruben KELEN, 2003, Urban Regeneration in Istanbul, Ankara University and Eastern Mediterranean University

• Spencer Amy, 2008, DIY: The Rise of Lo-Fi Culture, London, Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd • Martin Bachman, M. Baha Tanman, 2008, Wooden Istanbul: Examples from Housing Architecture, Istanbul, Arastirmalari Enstitusu • Eli Shaoul, 1999, “From Balat to Batyam”, Istanbul, Iletisim baski • A. Wegner, 1889, Bau des Sommersitzes der Kaiserclich deutschen Botschaft in Therapia, Berlin, Centrablatt der Bauverwaltung, Jahrgang IX • Le Corbusier, 1987,”Journey to the East”, Ed. Ivan Zaknic, Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press • Nilay Kayaalp, 2009, “Comparative Analysis of Urban Transformation Projects: Suleymaniye and TarlabaSI Districts”, Bahcejehir University • Svetlana Boym., 2001, “The Future of Nostalgia”, Basic Books • Neuwirth, Robert (2006): “Shadow Cities. A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World”, Routledge • Nishat Awan, Tatjana Schneider and Jeremy Till, 2011, “Spatial Agency: Other Ways Of Doing Architecture”, New York, Routledge

Henri Lefebvre, 1991, The production of space, Oxford, Blacakwell

•

O’ Reilly Media, 2006, Craft Magazine, Vol.1, Issue1

pp. 160

Uzun, Cemile Nil, 2001, Gentrification in Istanbul: A Diagnostic Study, Faculteit Ruimtelijke Watenschappen, Utrecht

Uzun, Cemile Nil, 2002/1, “A Urban New Transformation Process and Legal Regulations”, Planlama.

Balat ve Fener Semtleri’nin Rehabilitasyonul”, 1998, Ed. A team from Fatih Municipality, EU, UNESCO, French Anatolian Research Institute.

Z. Muge Akkar Ercan, 2010, “How to shape conservation-led regeneration initiatives regarding community needs”, METU.JFA

Herbett Gans, 1962, The Urban Villagers, New York: Free Press

Eleanor P. Wolf and Charles N. Lebeaux, on the destruction of poor neighborhoods by urban renewal, Wayne University

Thomas Sugrue, 1996, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit, Princeton University Press.

Henric Gutzon Larsen, Gentrification—Gentle Traumatic?, University of Aalborg, Denmark

or

Preservation is Overtaking us, Rem Koolhas Nou Urbanisme, Mario Ballesteros

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WEB SOURCES • Diyarbarkir, wiki article, September 2010, accessed August 2011, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyarbak%C4%B1r> • Today’s Zaman, 2010, “Istanbul’s street vendors on same stage as master jazz musicians” [online]. Available from <http://www.todayszaman.com/> [accessed: 15 August 2011] • “Calling it home” of Zeynep Uygun, 14 March 2010,online vimeo video, accessed February 2011, <http://vimeo. com/10242376>.

• Blogspot, Building and Urban Design in Development, UCL, 2007, “Diaries of Sulukule” [online]. Available from http://diariesfromsulukule.blogspot.com[accessed: 14 August 2011] • About Renew New org/>, accessed July 201

Castle,

<http://renewnewcastle.

• The architect’s newspaper, “Domestic Intervention” March 2010, <http://archpaper.com/news/articles. asp?id=4537>, accessed: 02 September 2011 • The Detroit blog, “Bringing a dead house back to life”.

Available at <http://detroit.blogs.time.com/2010/04/26/ brining-a-dead-house-back-to-life/>, accessed 02 September 2011

Many thanks to our tutors for their inspiring guidance throught-out the year to the exterior critics for the productive comments to Prof. Colin Fournier for all the beneficial advices and to Graciela Moreno We would also like to thank all the people we met in Istanbul and provided us with valuable information and sources Lastly we would like to thank each other for the creative team work as well as all of the UD group!

• Donald Goddard, New York Art World, “Odd Lots Revisiting Gordon Matta-Clark’s Fake Estates”,2006, available at <http://www.newyorkartworld.com/reviews/matta-clark. html>, accessed: 25 August 2011 • The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, “Urban Alchemy / Gordon Matta-Clark”, 2009, available at <http://arttattler.com/archivemattaclark.html>, accessed: 23 August 2011

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