IN-PERSON: Prague – Section B
Abstract
The changes in Istanbul’s coastline since the 1950s have drastically altered the relationship of the built environment and residents of the Bosphorus neighborhoods with the sea. The most poignant point is the 1200-meter elevated road project launched in 1988 in front of the mansions in Kuruçeşme-Arnavutköy, which severely damaged the relationship of these structures with water. This paper presents a distinct approach by suggesting that coastal transformation is a conflictual phenomenon, where the political aim of the coastal vehicle road to increase mobility for modernization purposes led to homogenizing the relationship with the Bosphorus by extending land, resulting in a shift from experiencing to merely observing the sea. The best way to witness this is not only looking at the coast from a distance, but also looking out from inside the buildings that have ceased to be on the waterfront but turned into roadside apartments. Building on the seminal work of Bruno Latour and moving from matters of fact to matters of concern, this paper looks through the windows of the waterfront house that was owned by Makbule Atadan, sister of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk – founder of the Republic of Turkey, to illustrate the evolution of the coastline. The house’s former state of being literally “butchered” on the eye level by the road, serves as an evidence of this dramatic urban transformation. This paper aims to observe this transformation through the glance of one prominent building, a cultural heritage, to unfold the myriad consequences of Turkey’s 1980s urban modernization policies.
Hande Atmaca graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture in 2010. In the fall of 2009, she took part in the Erasmus Exchange Program in Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza”, Faculty of Architecture. She took her master’s degrees in Design Studies, Izmir University of Economics and in Interior Design, Università degli studi di Firenze, Italy. She completed her PhD in Istanbul Technical University, Department of History of Architecture in 2019.
Tuba Doğu holds a Bachelor degree in Architecture from Middle East Technical University; with one-year educational experience at The University of Bologna. Following her undergraduate studies, she completed the degree of Master of Design Science at The University of Sydney where she specialized on sustainable housing strategies in low-income settlements. Between her studies, she has worked at various NGOs and involved in action-research projects in Australia, Brazil and India respectively, and lectured at universities in Izmir. She was a Fulbright PhD visiting research fellow at Columbia GSAPP (2017-2018), a fellow at Design Trust Hong Kong (2018), and selected cultural manager under Tandem Turkey Program (2018-2019/2015-2016). In 2020, she completed her doctorate studies at IzTech. Her research interests include social interventions as a form of alternative spatial practices, centering on questions of human and material agency. She continues her research at UrbanTank (www.urban-tank.org), which she is a founding partner of since 2013, developing research and intervention projects for human-oriented and participatory urban environments.
2:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Wednesday 28th June, 2023