Project

IABR–Atelier Istanbul

The municipality of Arnavutköy, located in the northwest of Istanbul, harbours the ambition to design a sustainable development plan and define pilot projects that can be elaborated in the short term. In association with the municipality, Architecture Workroom Brussels and the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam set up an atelier to guide this process.

 

 

 

Arnavutköy is a region of great ecological value due to its many drinking water basins, forests and agricultural areas. However, since the Nineties, these valuable areas have been under threat from explosive population growth of no less than 400%. Turkey's President Erdogan also launched a number of grand plans that could transform Arnavutköy into an important urban centre on the European side of Istanbul. The new planned urbanisation within the existing overarching plan makes it difficult for the local municipality to reconcile further growth with the ecologically valuable areas. The region faces a huge challenge to develop a strategic vision within the master plan that introduces new principles for managing urban growth.

Atelier Istanbul was coordinated by Joachim Declerck, co-curator of the 5th IABR, and local curator Asu Aksoy. They also worked closely with the other members of the Curator Team. The Brussels architecture firm 51N4E and Dutch landscape architects H+N+S were invited to perform the research by design for the atelier, and a local team was put together in the municipality to work on the related questions. By linking the expertise of these local actors to that of foreign studies the atelier was able to take the first steps towards a Strategic Vision and Spatial Development and Action Plan for Arnavutköy.

Architecture Workroom Brussels led the different phases of the atelier. A strategic development plan was compiled (an integrated vision that provided an idea of the future development of the municipality of Arnavutköy), an action plan was formulated (a guide that helps transform this vision into specific projects), and a mission description was drafted for pilot projects.

 

 

Type: research and exhibition

 

 

Related Projects
2012: IABR–2012–Making City
Related Transformations
All Transformations

Operation Open Space 2.0

Open space is vitally important. We need open space to safeguard our food supply and biodiversity. The open space also provides our urban society with many other services. It mitigates the effects of climate change, has a cooling function, offers buffer capacity for water shortages or excesses and is needed to generate renewable energy. What’s more, the open space affords us moments of calm, silence and experiential aspects that serve as an essential counterweight to hectic urban living. Over the course of the past century, the open space has been under pressure. We are increasingly eroding the open space for additional urbanisation, for living and working, for recreation or infrastructure. Open space has become a scarce commodity. In Flanders, seven hectares (or ten football pitches) of open space disappear every day. Despite the ‘concrete stop’ – or ‘construction shift’ – announced in the Spatial Policy Plan for Flanders, we continue to swiftly devour the open space.  → more

EN FR NL
WORKROOM

Since 2010, Architecture Workroom Brussels has focused on the future of our living environment. The organisation began as a safe haven to address the link between space and societal transitions, aimed at fostering a futureproof design practice, commissioning and building culture.

It has now become evident that the transformation of our streets, neighbourhoods, and landscapes is both a prerequisite and a lever for achieving societal goals in synergy. Yet we observe that these transformations remain difficult to imagine and implement. They span so many sectors and involve so many actors that responsibility falls on everyone, and therefore, ultimately, on no one.

That is why we make it our mission to create the space that connects them. And with this refined mission comes a new name: WORKROOM, House for transformation. WORKROOM is the shared space where the future of our living environment is not only imagined but also organised.

We are currently taking the lead on three mission-driven transformations:

  • SOCIETAL INCUBATORS - By 2030, stakeholders from the youth, culture, sports, care and education sectors will join forces to create renewed societal spaces that tackle loneliness and counteract the fragmentation and pressure on public infrastructure.
  • FOSSIL-FREE NEIGHBOURHOODS - By 2030, at least ten neighbourhoods will be underway with the transition to fossil-free energy in an inclusive and affordable way, with a view to completely phase-out fossil fuels by 2040.
  • SPONGE LANDSCAPES - By 2030, we will have achieved our water, agriculture and nature goals through a single, coherent approach at catchment area level, in which strong regional coalitions collectively enhance the landscape's sponge capacity.

To make these transformations a reality, WORKROOM works shoulder to shoulder with pioneering designers, local authorities, organisations and businesses, governments, knowledge institutions and impact investors.

Through co-creative design, we imagine shared pathways to the future in exhibitions, publications, innovation programmes and public programmes. These are the workrooms where we connect the actors capable of realising these transformations. From there, we design shared ownership and the organisational, funding and policy models that lead to real change.

The name is simpler. The stakes are higher. WORKROOM is the shared space where we tackle the social and spatial transformations that no one can achieve alone. In an era of polarisation, compartmentalisation and instability, that is perhaps the most radical thing we can do.