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Urban Archi – Scapes:
To touch upon the alternative approaches to urban transformation process
within the context of housing
Adnan Aksu, Nur Çağlar, İrem Küçük
Gazi University Faculty of
Architecture, Ankara Türkiye
Abstract
Urban Housing related design usually requires a much more systematic
approach than other forms of design because of the quantity and complexity of
the information involved. It is often more of a political exercise and less of
a technical challenge, as urban housing landscapes have to accommodate the
complex, sometimes intangible, diverse and changing needs of a large number of
people. Also, because any urban masterplan, transformation plan, regeneration,
gentrification can affect the quality of life of thousands of people. Within this context in this paper, characterizing an
experimental design studio, an alternative urban housing design developed in the
Archi-Scapes Studio, one of the
WS-RADS 2010 Intensive programme studios, is illustrated and debated through
its non conventional approaches, critical thoughts towards the housing
problematic, cultural design decisions, and ideological choices. Thusly, a touch upon the alternative approaches to urban
transformation process within the context of housing is being discussed.
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The objective of this presentation is to share the story of urban and
architectural design which we call Snake
in professional and disciplinary environments of architecture, produced in Urban-Archi-Scapes Studio in the process of a 2-week workshop on
the theme of Urban Housing: Visions of the Future organized in the
scope of WS-RADS 2010. There are three reasons for the justification of sharing
this.
1- The main field of responsibility of
the architects, maintaining their professional practice in the field of design
training, is to direct architectural design studio to research by design and to
produce contemporary and up-to-date knowledge and develop strategies in this
manner. Sharing the results of research develops the theoretical
and the practical field of architecture and thus architectural design culture.
Adaptibility of new housing concepts and designs
to continuity and change in lifestyle is the fundamental design issue to be
researched in this scope. We share Urban
Archi-Scapes experience with you within the context of urban transformation and
gentrification of existing housing environments.
2- Adopting the design studio as a research field requires encouraging and
directing the studio participants to experimentalism, innovation and experience
sharing. Experimental
design processes allow discussions in
which different approaches concerning change and development is open-ended,
increases variety and multivocality considering possibilities and potentials,
expands potential of creative thinking and studies. In this context, experimental design practices of Urban
Archi-Scapes which provokes thought on the clarification of the unclear
interaction and communication field of theory and practice regarding house and
housing gain importance.
3- Snake design developed in
Urban Archi-Scapes Studio explain the issues concerning house and housing with
architectural landscapes concept rather than producing practical solutions to
such issues. Snake design deals
with the continuity and change of house culture and housing settlement as an
issue of strategy but not as design. It discusses significant issues such as influence of changing demographic,
economic, social, technological, and environmental circumstances, assimilation of changing needs and uses,
ensuring the continuity of past, present and future housing environments,
lessons from traditional housing, adaptibility of new housing concepts and
designs to continuity and change in lifestyle, the spatial planning and
infrastructure considerations for housing continuity in urban areas on strategy
level rather than the design level. Therefore,
Snake Architectural Landscapes is opened to sharing as an experimental architecture
object developing concept and thought and intending to rebuild
architectural knowledge concerning this field.
Organized between January 25 – February 5, 2010, in the intense program of
WS-RADS 2010, main theme of the studios was determined as Urban Housing Visions
of the Future. In the context of this theme, it was planned to
produce design thoughts on the future of the urban housing issue, inquire into
the concepts of transformation and gentrification
multi-directionally and make the design of the Aktepe Squatter Settlement in
Ankara in the process of the studio. It
was expected to discover and develop urban redesign strategies which will be a
consideration in the creation of living environments establishing dialogue of the
urban transformation and gentrification process with the existing
environment, integrating social structure, to make it visible through selected
design methods and to be open to communication over a designed architectural
object. Studio conductors were left free
to determine their educational approaches and design approaches.
In this context, Snake experience of the Urban Archi-Scapes studio was
discussed under the titles of Studio Environment and Profile, Studio Theme,
Design Strategies, Design Practices and Products, Developing Design and
Presentations in line with the objectives of the presentation.
Urban Archi-Scapes Studio Environment and Profile[i]
The studio environment where architectural design experience being
the subject of the presentation was conducted has no spatial and technical equipment other
than conventional tables and chairs/stools and several exhibition boards and
its comfort level is standard. Studio participants attended with their
own laptops and various software. As
preparation, a well-equipped desktop computer, printer, video camera, cameras,
video projector, paper, pen, various model materials were provided by the
organization committee organizing the event.
Know-how component, in other words the secret of the designing
principles of the studio was obtained through converting the disciplinary
knowledge into common knowledge, which were provided to the environment by conductors[ii],
students[iii] and
four post graduate students were volunteer assistants[iv] of the conductors and roving critics[v]
who aimed to bring new expansions to studio productions by visiting the
studio at the end of day.
9 students from different architecture schools of 5 European countries
attended the studio. The students are generally 4th – 5th
year students[vi]. Know-how
contribution of the students to the studio environment was to a large extent
over the background information they obtained from theoretical, technical,
implementation content components of the institution where they receive
education[vii].
Not limited to this, their cultural backgrounds,
special fields of interest and their abilities also contributed. Therefore, it was the student group who supported
academics’ experience concerning intense program training and thus ascending
the achievement level of the studio environment.
Participant students are in fact selected randomly but carefully by
academics attending the Winter School program. Therefore, they are
the students with occupational enthusiasm and may not have the highest grade
average at their schools. The creativity
and efficiency level of this student group is also quite high. They incorporate all the considerations required of a creative
personality. The individuals forming the
group contribute cognitive variables such as intelligence, knowledge, talent,
specific ability, environmental variables such as politic, cultural,
socio-economic, education considerations, individual variables such as
incentive, self-confidence, creativity with different qualities and at
different levels. The creative synergy of the studio environment stems from
the interaction of these components. Therefore,
the studio environment becomes an environment of experimenting with the
architectural design covering all components and sharing existing experiences,
but not an environment of teaching and learning, whereas design becomes the
product of the experimentation process.
Thematic, contextual, methodologic
and pedagogical structures of Urban Archi-Scapes being the subject
of the presentation are experimental. Dewey’s approach which
states that “We have an
experience when the material experienced runs its course to fulfillment. Then and
then only is it integrated within and demarcated in the general stream of
experience from other experiences… According to this definition only those
actions that have been brought to their preestablished conclusion… can be
considered experiences. To bring two
events together by means of an unusual connection demands critical reflection
and implies an ideological choice, as well as a cultural decision…” is adopted in defining studio process experimentally.[viii]
Studio Theme
Urban Archi-Scapes content was produced by those who
conducted the studio, in order to describe thematic and content structure of
the studio. Urban design approaches of the 21st
century are opened to discussion within the landscape concept. Firstly Landscape Architecture later on Landscape Urbanism
definitions and concepts have developed. Landscape
concept cover many sub-concepts from topographical building to fractal town,
landscape ecology to civil infrastructure, from cellular automat to urban
agriculture.
Landscape Architecture is a critical
point of view developed against the conventional understanding ongoing in the design
of urban and natural open and green spaces. Landscape Urbanism is
a strategic point of view adopting landscape with its simple definition as the principal
content and means of urban designing. Water
systems, planted ecological fields, plant corridors; bio-diversity and
infrastructure corridors are included in the scope of landscape urbanism.
Both approaches ignore architecture while
determining design contents regarding urban landscape. However, architecture is an integral and complementary
element of urban landscape. Therefore, the
hybrid concept of the archi-scape made from architecture
and landscape words was determined as design theme of the studio in order to
describe the concept of Architectural landscapes.
Urban Archi-Scapes Studio is not about
transmitting architectural knowledge but is about thinking, creating and producing on
the subject, place, issue and theme given towards the know-how of the studio. It was aimed that the studio
should become the environment for the organizing of the practices of compiling,
interpreting, transmitting, converting into design, presenting to the environment
by expressing via design, opening up discussion and gaining feedback from these
discussions of architectural landscape thought. Therefore, landscape, known conventionally as the art of organizing,
designing horizontal levels was matched with architecture and it was adopted to
put in place the objective of making landscape that will cover the vertical
surfaces, into focus of studio studies and thus make use of concepts and
expansions concerning architectural landscapes in setting
the design contents of the studio.
In Urban archi-scapes, it is aimed to
visualize rural-urban, natural-built contrasts of landscape by developing strategies
liable to deal with issue of metropols which extend by spreading at each scale
and manage spatial and social transformations of towns rather than designing
the same by handling as an architectural object. Therefore, it gains importance
to re-form the town aggregately with big designs in scale and/or scope.
Landscape becomes a metaphor liable to define this whole. While it is an image
recalling nature, it turns into an architectural concept used to interpret the
contemporary town when used with Archi prefix. In this case, it integrates
settled vision forms concerning both landscape and town with architecture.
However, it provides an extraordinary richness in rebuilding these vision forms
with an innovative approach.
On the other hand, determining a sub-theme from
scratch suggests researching, discovering, discussing and associating design
contents required by this theme with the general theme of the workshops in the studio
environment. Thus, developing design strategies by concentrating on a common
and thematic approach rather than random and dispersed design approaches
increases the synergy and makes the works efficient.
Determining Design Strategies of
Urban Archi-Scapes Studio
Design strategies principally suggest rendering the
results of the investigative study, which will be made on place and subject
that are basis for designing, available for use as input for design by
converting it into a critical language. In this context, analysis studies
conducted enabled turning the information gathered by visiting the field,
talking to those living on it, listening to their presentations concerning the
subject into design data through the discussions performed with conductors,
assistants, roving critics and themselves.
The place subject of the studio study is the Aktepe
Squatter Settlement in Ankara. The
architecture, like in this settlement, produced when it is obligatory to meet the
complicated, sometimes abstract, different and changing requirements of many
people becomes rather a political practice rather than a technological one. In
this case, the experimental studies requiring critical thought, cultural
decisions and ideological options become an appropriate method to be able to
present design strategies concerning issues which is the the subject of the
study. As expressed in detail in Umberto Eco’s “Open Work”, the productions
formed with this understanding allow “to bring two events together by means of
an unusual connection”. Moving from this
understanding, the design process was discussed in the context of students'
approaches moving beyond the traditional/conventional, their critical thoughts
concerning housing problematic, their cultural decisions and ideological
options. Thus, it was desired to bring together
the design field and Ankara city by a unusual/extraordinary connection. Findings and design strategies were
determined as follows.
Design field is an organic lively settlement area
compliant with the topography of the hill where it is located and comprised of slum
houses piled up on it. It is clearly seen that it doesn’t bear the
unusual properties of today’s archi-scape. Its social and spatial organization
is specific and explicit like all slum houses. However, it doesn’t become
integrated and merge with Ankara’s remaining urban landscape. Aktepe Squatter Settlement is a
settlement field leading to overcrowding and insanitary conditions, the social
and physical infrastructures of which are insufficient and can't comply with daily
life of the town. The area has been added to town randomly but which has never
become a part of it, and rural properties of which are clear to see.
Squatter settlements form a fundamental implementation
field of urban transformation. İn almost all cities including Ankara, there is a
wide range of lost spaces from historical urban centres to evacuated industrial
facilities which wait to be converted by making use of the circumstances of
contemporary daily life. Squatter settlement might be given priority in urban
transformation operations. In recent years, intense construction activities are
performed in almost all slum settlements in Ankara under the name of urban
transformation. However, lack of quality of the new
archi-scape which emerges with the repetition of uniform house structures which
have no design or quality of architectural imaginary requires the questioning of
these transformation processes.
In
Archi-scape studio, urban transformation was defined as recycling processes of
urban landscape which becomes lacking in quality by resisting urban
developments, incurs physical, social, spatial collapse and breaks off from
daily life of the town and thus becomes disidentified. Repairing, improving,
healing, gentrifying and similar conventional themes become insufficient in
defining this process. Therefore, the urban transformation process
is handled as the whole of strategies developed for reviving lost identity of
urban archi-scape through existing local properties, specific values, and
symbolic qualities. These strategies are
explained with the concepts of implantation, re-animation and polymerization.
Continuity and transformation dialectic is
determinant in transformation of towns. In this transformation, those living in
the town, political and local authorities, investors, urban planners,
architects, engineers and many other similar actors take role. These actors are
experts expected to produce models and visions concerning future of the town
making use of knowledge, theory, technology and data from other disciplines
either, which are directly determinant in production of urban archi-scape. Therefore, their success in
transmitting knowledge and experiences become determinant on the design qualities
of the urban archi-scape. The
fundamental issue in urban transformations is viewed as the acceptance or
rejection by surrounding urban archi-scape of implementations carried out.
However, the
Aktepe
Squatter Settlement is stated to be insufficient in structuring urban
architectural design qualities required by the architectural landscape of
conventional construction plans and design approaches. The strategies required
to obtain qualified contemporary archi-scapes are produced by ensuring that
local residents of the settlement who are the subject of the design are
the most active actors of this process.
The researches on housing problematic continue
worldwide, various theoretical and practical studies are conducted, models are
produced and applied, and alternatives are sought by making development plans.
It is a short sighted view to continue making designs with low quality housing
blocks by ignoring these experiences. Alternative
models, thoughts for qualified transformation of urban archi-scape housings
develop and are updated to the extent that strategies can be developed.
As a result
of the same conventional approaches, the Aktepe Squatter Settlement lose the
challenge supported by long standing spatial, physical, social, cultural,
economic factors and different life style.
Unjust, unfair, insufficient, unqualified means of the urban
transformation surround and capture this specific urban archi-scape. The low
quality housing blocks to which a standard has ruthlessly been given without
regard to the geographical properties, topography and morphology,
socio-cultural dynamics prevent the Aktepe Squatter Settlement’s ability
to form, transform and maintain its own physical and social field of existence
and revoke its right to revive its own identity. Then, it is aimed to produce urban landscapes
which will serve as an example in various settlement fields of the town by
increasing its potential concerning qualified transformation of entire the town
and to form the spatial networks which will bring these fields together through
different means.
Design Practices and Products
In line with the determined strategies, upon the consensus
of the studio environment, it was aimed to create an urban life environment in
which the Aktepe Squatter Settlement and the city of Ankara accept and
tolerate each other, respect each other’s living values and abstain from
excluding each other.
All urban public space and facilities required by parts
of the town should be design tools. Set tools take the image of the hill on
which design field is located into consideration, rebuild the identity of the design
field and should be used to develop a sustainability in Ankara's urban
archiscape.
In line with the objective and targets, various design
practices were performed.
Archi-Scapes studio used any type of thinking,
designing and environmental expression and tools in its design practice and
experiments.
Design practices and experiments in the studio were developed in general by using
analog and digital environments together; however the studio can’t be defined
as a paperless design studio, visual studio or digital studio. The conductors
define this studio methodology as a hybrid design studio.
Different design
practices were performed in the studio process. These are the practices
performed with conventional tools, with digital tools, with physical
modellings, with artistic methods.
The practices performed with
conventional tools are generally the sketches produced with paper and pencil.
The practices performed with physical modellings are study models. The
practices performed with artistic methods are practices such as settlement,
performance, animation and movie. Artistic methods made the studio 4
dimensional, kept interest and excitement high.
The products obtained in all
these practices were transmitted into digital environment by photographing,
scanning and the making of video records. They were used to carry out design
experiments by processing with various digital software.
A new squatter
settlement was designed by transforming the studio environment with the materials
in the studio every morning and were applied and experimented with by working on
it.
The
expressions by making and remaking of the model, the expressions by drawing and
deleting on the board, body language used during discussions are evaluated as
performances. The products obtained in all these practices were transmitted
into a digital environment by photographing, scanning and making video records.
They were used to produce sketches for various expressions by processing with
various software. The process of design practices can be described as
incubation time in the context of creativity. When practices reach a certain
satisfaction and maturity, suddenly a design concept is reached. This concept
is Snake.
Developing
Design and Presentations
The subsequent phase is to determine, deepen, detail
and present design contents of the snake, in other words to realize the
design. It was progressed by discussing the
natural properties of the snake and the urban landscape it belongs to.
Formal properties:
It is nearly a circular form but doesn’t have a proper
geometry; it changes slightly by associating specific form and movement of the
snake along the line it proceeds.
Skin:
The snake naturally has the ability to change skin. It
sheds its skin at certain intervals and develops new skin. The pattern of the
skin was derived from the pattern and texture of the existing settlement. Thus, a
bio-physical skin which is a live organism was obtained. At the same time, the
change and developments in urban landscape and on snake interact with each
other. The snake produces new parts from its own body in order to maintain its
formal and functional transformation by throwing its old, worthless and bad
parts.
Tortuous road:
Moving from the starting point towards the summit of
the hill, the Snake is able to find its own path by itself. At the same time,
depending on general urban stimulants, it is also able to maintain building
itself.
Programme:
Any type of facility to serve the whole town was used
in programming the snake. Size, scale and intensities were decided depending on
this.
With its high design quality, the Snake was thought to form attraction power for the use of crowds
from the entire town.
Design details:
Reception facilities, Summit facilities, Intermediate
facilities, Carrier system and related facilities
Presentation:
The
presentations made with conventional tools in studio process, oral presentation
and exhibition, presentations made with digital tools, presentations made with
physical modellings, presentations made with artistic methods such as
settlement and performance took place. In the final, all products were
presented by making a film format. [ix]
Discussing
Obtained Experience
When the design
process of Urban Archi-Scapes and product developed during the process is
evaluated, it is seen that a specific and qualified experience was obtained for
many reasons. It is the only studio example executed with a different/alternative
approach among the other studios. This difference was clarified during the
presentations made by studios at the end of the 2-week study.
Studio participants both achieved an improved awareness of their own design process and
obtained architectural products with high level of creativity by inquiring and
discussing in an unbiased and multi-voiced environment. Consensus was reached
over design during the design process; it was developed by making use of any
type of tool and method so as to express a thought in the most effective
manner. This consensus and harmony among studio conductors, assistants and
students seems to make the process quite efficient and creative. The product
obtained in the end is specific for it includes different knowledge and
experience elements. The studio conductors concentrated on
hidden/invisible fiction of the design process and how this fiction could be
managed skillfully rather than focusing on the design of the product during
this intense program of study. The unforseen product, Snake was obtained with a
dynamic method, without directing to a determined design target, by following a
layered process rather than a linear process.
It was seen
that the concrete data of this product and presentations were discussed, which
was thought not to overlap with daily life practices. It is seen that refined
knowledge was produced with respect to the sharing of experience obtained in
the process with Urban Archi-scape, town and town-dweller. Thus, the studio
experience was not limited to disciplinary extensions and developed extensions
regarding architecture practice. Therefore, experiences concerning the theory
and practice of architecture were obtained.
These
experiences are generally on the perimeter of the city of Ankara and relate to
the relationship between the city and its outskirts, particularly the Aktepe
Squatter Settlement. Strategies alternative to conventional urban
transformation approaches were developed. It might constitute inspiration for
the studies to be performed in the same settlement or settlements with similar
status.
One of the fundamental reasons for failure of urban
transformation processes of the Aktepe Squatter Settlement is considered
to be ignoring local properties and values. On the other hand, landscape
becomes a means for glorifying local attractions and collective sense of place
and creating a sense of being permanent and rooted and thus resisting speed
rate of contemporary life.
The Snake updates the Aktepe
Squatter Settlement in terms of re-capturing physical, social, economic, vital and cultural specifities of place, adding
new utilization and activities by means of a social program and facilities and
ecologic diversity and achievement. Forward-looking providence of the Snake is the recognition of freedom to
transform their own living spaces for local residents. In a few decades, local landscape will
internalize and embrace the snake which is considered to be strange for
now.
Acknowledgments
We thank the students from the WS-RADS 2010 intensive program
for accepting the challenge of this Urban Archi-Scapes experimental studio. We
thank Ezgi Başar for the video-recording, Nur Durmaz for augmenting the studio
with her dijital design skills and Elif Zilan for her inspiring performance
ideas.
[i] Gazi University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture,
Scientific Research Project, 06/2003 titled “A
Research concerning Updating in Design Studio in Architecture Training" carried
out by Atelier 1 conductor of which was Prof. Dr. Nur Caglar.
[ii] Dr. Adnan AKSU and Prof. Dr. Nur ÇAĞLAR (Gazi University
Faculty of Architecture Dept. of Architecture TURKEY )
[iii] Anne Brudelmeyer (FH Bochum University of
Applied Sciences Dept. of Architecture-GERMANY), Diana Cunha (Lusofona
University of Humanity and Technology Dept. of Architecture Urbanism Geography
and Arts-PORTUGAL), Jonathan Hanny (University of Innsbruck Faculty of Architecture, Institute of
Design-AUSTRIA), Arno Hofer (University of Innsbruck Faculty of Architecture, Institute of
Design-AUSTRIA), Hanna Kastell(The SRH University of Applied Sciences
Heidelberg School of Engineering and
Architecture GERMANY ), Karolina Kodrzycka (West Pomerian University of
Technology Szczecin Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture-POLAND),
Pieter Lambrechts (Higher Institute of Architectural Sciences Henry van de
Velde-BELGIUM ), Tomasz Ryba (West Pomerian University of Technology Szczecin
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture-POLAND), Pia Sadner (University
of Innsbruck Faculty of Architecture,
Institute of Design-AUSTRIA)
[iv] Nur Durmaz (METU Faculty of Architecture
Dept. of Architecture-TURKEY ), Ezgi Başar (Gazi University Faculty of
Architecture Dept. of Architecture-TURKEY ), İrem Küçük (Gazi University
Faculty of Architecture Dept. of Architecture-TURKEY ), Elif Zilan (Universidad
de Alcala Henares-SPAIN)
[v] Maintaining architecture practice in their
special office ... the architects coming to their department part-time support
winter school in this way.
[vi] Therefore, they are post graduate students
according to 3+2 structure of European Architecture Schools.
[vii] Gazi
University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture, Scientific
Research Project, 06/2003 titled “A Research concerning Updating in Design
Studio in Architecture Training" carried out by Atelier 1 conductor of
which was Prof. Dr. Nur Caglar.
[viii] Eco,U. 1989. “Open Work”, Harvard University Press
[ix] All the figures included in this presentation were taken from the movie
presentation prepared for the final.
Therefore,
it was paid attention to making it in the view of filmstrips.
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