MArch UDUnit 05Peter Feldmann - Sarah Manning

Force of Imagination. We have used “Scenario planning”, a method used by global organizations to make flexible long term plans, which combines different factors such as demographics, geography, politics, and natural resources, with plausible alternative social, technical, economic, environmental, political and aesthetic trends, to model potential future scenarios for a city that “could be”.

We have used urban fictions to create a unique pattern of unfolding events within the city of Istanbul. The nature of the event was left to the student and used to reveal underlying relationships

STUDENTS

Woong HeoJia Ji

Alejandro LairetXiaoqing Qian

Yu SuzukiQunqun Tang

Wei WangTing Ting Wu

Evgeniya Yatsyuk

between the political, social, economic and technological domains within it.

Within the prism of scenarios, this unit has identified and researched the vital structures that comprise the city: transport, open space and public realm strategies, density, built morphology, land use, urban agriculture, water supply, energy distribution, communication. We have viewed the city as an agglomeration of interconnected systems, even if some these structures have no materiality, but exist only in our hearts, minds and virtual space. Hands-on research and observation were employed to

analyse and understand how these structures work and how they fluctuate at different times.

Reinvention of Community.Student teams proposed alternative solutions for future inhabitation which negotiate the systems studied and fundamentally rethink the way we live together and how we create sustainable forms of community. We investigated associated social and political implications as well as technical solutions. As the trend toward urbanization intensifies around the world, our objective is to find inventive solutions to both imminent and long-term challenges.

PHOENIX RISING

Woong Heo

The integration through the cultural consensus

Reconciliation and communication in our society is one of the most important virtues. In Istanbul and other cities many areas are segregated from another by topographic or natural features such as rivers, mountains and valleys. Additionally, man-made interventions such as factories, highways and city walls further segregate different areas. This leads to different social, cultural, economic and even religious developments. Overcoming these boundaries, without making everything homogeneous, is one of the key challenges modern cities face to avoid alienation and eventually friction between areas.

This proposal focuses on the area surrounding Levent. It proposes a new route network and catalyst between the two distinct areas on either side of the motorway. Additionally to creating a physical connection, a programmatic and functional catalyst that appeals to both sides is provided. This enables both social groups to meet, communicate and mingle. The route network has been designed to match social and spatial desire lines and depends on the local culture, tastes, urban morphology, and on the natural environment, rather than simple connections between two points.

UD5

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Jia Ji

Connection and TransitionGolden Horn Waterfront Regeneration

The waterfront is one of the most complicated and challenging areas in cities as it provides an interface between a city and water. Istanbul, a city defined by water and its relationship to it, is naturally closely connected to it with multiple waterfronts. However, conventional approaches to urban planning and design have failed to provide the city with functional and accessible waterfronts. On the contrary, the city has largely turned its back onto the waterfront and failed to provide attractive spaces along it. Similar to other cities around the world, it is dominated by traffic, train tracks and other large scale infrastructures which cut the waterfront off from the rest of the city.

Therefore, this proposal focuses on reconnecting the waterfront to the city, enhancing its local and citywide accessibility and emphasising the uniqueness of the waterfront as the transition between nature and a man-made environment. It is considered and examined in the wider context of history, local culture, religion and sustainable development principles. The project regenerates the waterfront as a connection and transition zone between the city and water and it provides the city with an accessible and valuable waterfront.

UD5

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Alejandro Lairet

UD5

Merging the city

Human settlements around the world have, with accelerating pace, been depleting natural resources and farm lands surrounding them. At the same time, an increasing proportion of the population is living in a suburban typology. This proposal develops a compact city model to help to stop this trend.

The project merges different urban functions and integrates new ones into a self-sustained settlement. It integrates an industrial area with the surrounding communities, creating synergies and urban frictions. Additionally, vertical farms will be used to incorporate food production within the city, helping to reduce the strain on the surrounding farm land and improving the sustainability of the city.

Different concepts are used for merging both; green corridors are instrumental to reduce spatial segregation between different functions. They also provide a space for social interaction, attracting people from different backgrounds and promoting communal life and exchange. Functions are interlocked vertically and horizontally, to create a compact and integrated community.

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UD5

Xiaoqing Qian & Tingting Wu

CITY WALL

The Theodosian Wall is unique in the city of Istanbul as a historic landmark. However, today the wall is abandoned, leaking, rotting and cracking. On one side it is bordered by a lifeless periphery and large scale vehicular infrastructure, on the other side, the expanding city is squeezing against it. Both the highway and the Wall itself act as linear barrier in the city, making it difficult to access and to cross.

The aim of our project is to transform the wall from a derelict ancient divider into an asset and “connector” for the city. On the city wide scale, the Wall will connect the two waterfronts and provide a continuous pedestrian route between them. As the Wall passes through different neighbourhoods, it reacts to the local character and complements the needs of that area, bringing together local communities and strategic city-wide considerations. The Wall will become a cultural attractor and local identifier as well as a catalyst for social reintegration. The project unfolds in a series of sections and develops three strategic cross connections that draw their character from the local neighbourhood: A cultural one, a religious one and a leisure and sport orientated one. This new system of routes will help to activate the Wall, expose it and emphasize its importance, change its perception and gradually blend into the neighbourhood.

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UD5

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Yu Suzuki

Emphasize it...Connect it...

In many of the large cities, especially those that experience rapid economic and population growth, there are huge gaps in the economy between undeveloped and developed areas, which have been caused by links to public transport. While some transportation systems deliver a lot of people to one area, the other areas receive far less people than needed to stimulate them economically. At the same time, it is almost impossible to spread efficient transportation systems to an entire city, as those systems would be unaffordable.

There are numerous differences that characterize different areas and make places unique. It is this uniqueness that provides potential to attract people even though the areas are not recognized as attractive places. The proximity of areas with distinct characters is considered one of the key qualities of a city. As a case study, this proposal examines the areas around Levent and focuses on emphasizing local character, exposing them and making them accessible. These “Articulated Character areas” will help the area economically while leaving enough room for neighbouring character areas to grow.

Therefore, there is in need to emphasize the character of places and to create a new low-cost transportation system to promoted travel and exchange between the character areas. At the same time, this whole system, including emphasizing character, should sustain itself so the system would not rely on external funding in the future.

UD5

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Qunqun Tang

UD5

Nature Penetrates City

This urban design project primarily aims at dealing with deficiency of public space in Istanbul. This is seen as one of the pivotal issues to regenerate deprived neighbourhoods in the centre of Istanbul. Rigorous research has been carried out to understand the history as well as the spatial and social problems of the Talabashi neighbourhood. Key to the spatial issues is a lack of green and public space, while the social problems centre on poor education, high unemployment and the lack of opportunities. The proposed strategy is based on a thorough survey of the age and condition of the neighbourhood’s built environment, which forms the basis of how the project unfolds over time.

This proposal puts forward a strategy which forms an integrated system between social and spatial regeneration: temporary pavilions will be constructed on vacated and decaying urban plots, constructed by training locals. These will provide the much needed public and green space and act as showpieces of what “could be”. They will become “sparking points” to re-stimulate the dilapidated neighbourhood and over time form new social centres. Rather than a purely physical upgrading process, the key to this proposal is a series of social and learning activities that enable residents to acquire a living skill, communicate with others and take ownership of their neighbourhood.

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Integrated Urban Settlement

This proposal is based on thorough research and investigation into social problems associated to a particular neighbourhood in Istanbul: Sulukule. This area had a famous and well-grounded, integrated Romani community, with hundreds of years of history. Under the previous government’s “urban renewal” programme, this community was uprooted and relocated into tower blocks outside of the city, in Tasoluke.

The key objective of this project is to mediate the conflicts between different social and ethnic groups, by increasing integration of understanding each other as well as providing a sustainable system to help disadvantaged groups to overcome poverty, prejudice, inequality and the high rate of illiteracy; all of which are important building blocks to foster urban regeneration and prosperity.

This project proposes a unique but integrated urban settlement for the people who lived in Sulukule. Rather than imposing a top-down way of life, this proposal just sets a frame work that takes on board the established ways of living of the Romani community and blends this with the wider Istanbul way of living. It leaves sufficient space to be appropriated and adopted by the local community. This is based on exploring the urban grain and typology evident in Sulukule’s culture, lifestyle and social characteristics. It will help these characteristics to become engrained within the whole society of Istanbul, while improving the actual living environment, reputation, education, social position and living conditions.

UD5

Wei Wang

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Evgeniya Ytasyuk

UD1

SPACE SYNTAX ANALYSIS

From Interface To Interaction

By their very nature, cities have emergent structures, which change constantly due to permanent movement, migration and other factors. Analysis and exposure of the main algorithms and ruling drivers behind the movement can be helpful in terms of predicting the development of the city and can be used as a working tool to form new urban interventions.

Walking is a sustainable form of local transport, promoting balanced and sustainable living conditions. Self-organisation guides the formation of urban space and is partly based on this movement. It organises public and private spaces, isolated and overcrowded areas, and can make development chaotic or regular.

Each city has unseen boundaries, which prevent smooth communication and make it less sustainable. This project focuses on the area surrounding Levent and acts as a case study of how to overcome these invisible boundaries within the city using pedestrian movement as a tool and main parameter. It puts forwards possible solutions for improving areas with high levels of social and economic isolation. These are based on careful research, analysis and interpretation of the hidden patterns, and boundaries of movement in the area.

The proposed concept is one possible scenario for the area’s development, showing the flexibility of self-organisation and emergence of urban development. The Code allows the system to grow spatially in three dimensions and provides more possibilities for proliferation around the city. The urban Algorithm is an output of certain urban parameters which are specific to a certain location, hence the output can is specific to the same location as well.

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