Fictional space

A first attempt of creating fictional reused space, mostly giving a feeling of how the quality of those empty or unused spaces can be designed.

Spatial analysis_Fener-Tarlabasi

We analyzed both areas at a large scale so that we can define the urban and social grid, the housing patterns and the different kind of building stock as well as where the ruins and the urban gaps are located. Through this process we concluded in identifying networks of free space, which are consisted by in-between spaces, ruined buildings, rooftops and empty sites. We noticed that the majority of those unused empty spaces are spotted along a main route in both areas. So we decided to focus on each of those routes. We started with Fener and made some models to explore the most dense part in wooden and ruined buildings of the route, we tried different scales to get varied feedback both about the relation of public space and built volumes. And then be able to practice our urban experiment.

Network of uses_initial propositions

Our aim is to revive those areas, in such a way so to sustain their historical and social identity as well as the current population. Our proposal is about reusing local material and also involving the inhabitants to a revitalizing process of the regions. The new constructions and public space will be influenced by the typologies of the old timber houses, which represent the heritage of the area. There are quite a few houses in both the sites that are almost completely demolished, retaining just some parts of their skeleton, in those relic places, we see a free space network that can be reused and turn into new key spaces of the regions that will provide the opportunity to a gradual revival.   Those spaces can be reused either as urban public space, new housing mobile units and various local activities that can enhance the local economy. The material we are willing to use is mainly timber, because wood exists in abundance in Istanbul and also is a rather “smart” material to use for this geographic area since it experiences frequent earthquakes.

We want to involve the inhabitants to a reviving process, which will hold its own rules but also have a great flexibility. Temporal- mobile houses will be provided to the immigrants which will be placed on some of those in between spaces (ruins) or even on rooftops. The immigrants won’t be able to live in those shells indefinitely; they will have a specific timeline in which they should vacate the space. During this period, the immigrant will have the opportunity to gain some knowledge on specific crafts and especially to the timber construction so that he will be able to work on the maintenance of the area’s building stock. In exchange of his work, an existing derelict house will be granted to him. He will be able to make this house viable again, since he will by then have gained both knowledge and experience. Apart from housing, our project has a clear urban purpose, so in our detected free/derelict spaces, we will place vegetable gardens promoting the local production and economy, playgrounds for children, public mingle spaces and thematic sheds on the rooftops boosting the areas identity. In that way we are hoping that a gradual and mild “regeneration” will take place in the regions, sustaining its current population and identity and in the same time provide certain skills to people who have the need and will to know but lack the opportunity.

Studying the typologies

As the existence of timber houses is very identical for the area, we want our design proposal to be influenced by their typologies and construction methods. Our concept is based on the reuse of locality, but not only in terms of the materials and social identity, but also in terms of the actual structure of the old houses in Fener and Tarlabasi and the volumes out of which they are comprised.

We selected some usual typologies that can be found in both areas and made an analysis of them in order to understand the way they are constructed and also the differences between the houses that at a first glance really look alike. Also we catecorized the different volumes of the bay windows as we noticed there is a great variety of those elements which initialy seems to be quite repetitive and similar.
We have noticed the importance of both physical and conceptual connection between the windows and the urban space. This is either by material (rope, basket) as mentioned above, or by people’s communication. So we made a quick diagram indicating the connections between our free space and the surrounding windows as an additional urban layer. 

"Glossary"

Through our documentations and initial propositions we are dealing with finding ways to boost this informal urbanism while upgrading their standards of living. We want to use this patchwork identity in our design proposal defining specific uses in new public or private spaces located as a network that derive from the derelict spaces we have detected in both sites. We started by creating a glossary containing all those elements found within the urban space of the two sites and categorize them by their meaning spatially and socially. The main reason for this action is that we want to have a main “vocabulary” to use in our design proposal, each element, based on its meaning, will be translated in a new architectural or urban element and incorporated into our proposal so that the locality of the place can be kept alive and even enhanced.

The first table is about the elements that can be found within the urban public space of Fener and Tarlabasi and the second one is about the ones concerning the private space. (housing)

TYPOLOGIES (2)

TYPOLOGIES

We selected some usual typologies that can be found in both ares Fener and Tarlabasi, and made an analysis of them in order to understand the way they are constructed and also the differences between the houses that at a first glance really look alike.

Then, we made small models of some of the volumes and experimented with how they can be combined, creating each time different relations between them, and different urban space.

This is a try to show the complexity of those areas in terms of this self-organized urban space through some collages. Firstly, experimenting with the existing situation and how the local materials are incorporated into their environment and after with which way we can propose some new spaces that adapt the characteristic locality and incorporate more elements depending on their meaning as it has been defined at our glossary. This was just a first attempt of creating fictional reused space mostly giving a feeling of how the quality of those spaces can be.

cashboard sheltering+constructing