Thirteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

As part of the workshop series for architecture students, “Urban Dreams” in Istanbul, the undefined urban gaps emerging from abandoned spaces and habits were discussed with the theme of “memory and space.” This paper represents the missing parts in historical spaces, as they are the basic components of public memory. Additionally, the representations further discuss: interaction through designs, gaps in the urban memory, and reinforcing the relationship with the historical environment. Within the scope of the study, three focal places were identified: physically and socially non-existent-seabath, partially existent with low level of interaction-Byzantium Cistern, and, despite being physically existent, currently not used true to its origin-Turkish Bath. Historical environment and life were used as data while comparing with current conditions, especially factors affecting social memory and evaluations made in this specific part of Istanbul. The study has two phases to evaluate the effects of material, context, and collective work patterns. First, tools and methods, used in representations of tangible and abstract values, were presented to participants. In the second phase, participants were divided into groups through sites. They analyzed problems within the given context and then designed representations with the glass-plaster-intensive material workshop. In the end, six criteria were set: form, material, scale, solid-void, density, and joint. All group projects were than evaluated based on their affordances regarding these criteria over contexts. Results show that abstract and concrete expressions were used to emphasize the significance of historical context and place.