11th EAEA Envisioning Architecture: Design, Evaluation, Communication Conference in 2013

Track 2 | Experiential Simulation | The sensory perception of the built environment

Merging boundaries, techniques and experiences

ABSTRACT

An international urban design workshop was conducted with students from a US and a Turkish Universities for 15 days in a waterfront village on Bosporus, Istanbul Bosphorus, a crooked and curved strait dividing the city into two, has traditionally been used mostly for enjoying scenery and nature with its location away from the main trade docks and industrial areas concentrated around the old city center, namely historic peninsula. The strait housed small settlements until the 18th century, during when the royal family started populating the coast with palaces and summer mansions and private gardens and celebrated various festivities. It was a special ritual (Hamadeh, 2009) to experience mansions (yali’s, which are perched on the very edge of the bank with boat houses and access) and palaces, mostly timber-frame ornamental structures, and gardens while sailing on the Bosphorus. Later, public spaces, coffee houses, fountains and parks were added to the waterfront development, improving the public’s participation in the pastoral culture and transforming these small settlements into connected villages. The pleasure of experiencing the Bosphorus was shared with the whole public through songs, poems, novels and paintings. There were even traditional evening excursions and singing on the boats –caiques- on Bosphorus. Hence, for centuries, Bosphorus has been a socializing space and a sensual experience for many. Despite the fact the quality of the built environment and the way of living has dramatically changed due to the spatial and social transformation in the following centuries, the yalı’s and some other contemporary buildings added have continued the dwelling tradition of close proximity to the water. On the other hand, Bosphorus, where used to be a meditative place in the past, has become a natural part of the hectic urban life and architecture. Focusing on spatial experience, the students attempted to understand and propose solutions to urban disconnect in the urban fabric especially between historic waterfront and inland village. The workshop provided an opportunity for each student to formalize his/her opinion of the place based on individual filters and sensual experiences. This method helped to identify a rich set of perceptual characteristics of the site and resulted in diverse and unique exploration and representation techniques.
The workshop included a guided tour of the historic peninsula and a trip to various waterfront villages on the both sides of the strait, listening to historic and contemporary Turkish music, discussions, and readings such as Tschumi’s (1995) ideas on program, movement, and contradiction as well as Sancar’s article (2001) on the people’s attachment to place through lyrics. This paper consists of a brief description of the place in question, its changing daily life and architecture, and how the students responded to all of these through design and representation.

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AUTHORS

Mine Hashas-Degertekin

Architecture Department, Southern Polytechnic State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Mine H Hashas-Degertekin is an assistant professor at the Architecture Department of Southern Polytechnic Sate University, teaching urban design, design fundamentals, and research methods. Her expertise is in community and urban design with a focus on social, psychological and experiential aspects. She coordinated first year design studios in the past and is currently coordinating urban design course. She is Southeastern Regional Director for Design Communication Association. She earned her Ph.D at North Carolina State University, M.Arch. and B.Arch. at Istanbul and Yildiz Technical Universities of Turkey. She had practical and academic experience in the UK, The Netherlands, Germany and Turkey.

Murat Sahin

School of Architecture and Design, Ozyegin University, Istanbul, Turkeyd

Dr. Sahin has been teaching at Ozyegin University (OzU) School of Architecture and Design. He obtained his Ph.D. in Architectural Design from Yildiz Technical University in 1997. Besides teaching, Dr. Sahin has been practicing for over 20 years. His research interests and architectural studies include integrated design, architecture education, regional/ vernacular architecture, architectural representation, urban design, children and architecture.

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