migrants at outskirt of istanbul and sketches of mobile vending machine

2 kinds of migrant settlements in Beyoglu

2 kinds of migrant settlements in city

squatter settlement

bostan

bridge fisher

nargile cafe

picnic - moveable dinner

social network of migrant

type of migrant

migrant's life footprint in Istanbul

A ROUTE OF MIGRANT IN ISTANBUL FROM "DISTANT"

patchwork city

Migrating Market

Periodic markets,a basic type of informal exchange mechanism supported by continuous rural migration into Istanbul.The availability of fresh produce and inexpensive goods combined with the locational convenience and enjoyable atmosphere make periodic market widely attractive. In the book" A neighbourhood in Ottoman Istanbul" it talked about the change of Anatolia migrants' life,from"informal"to legal, from farmer to seller,from vendor to shop owner. The market is a way for those agricultural migrants find their way to integrate into urban life, but at the same time, compared with the covered,great bazzar or modern supermarket, those cheap,crowed, sometimes dirty and noisy markets still are borderland in many persons' eyes.

traditional periodic markets in Basiktas ,Istanbul

A new practise of food market in Basiktas. Totally open, but with fixed structure and furnitures. As normal periodic market, at night the land just becomes empty with some temporary framed pavilion, but what should this be at night? shelter for homeless or place of crime?

"I can not realize that, how architects can still design useless rooftops in a city like istanbul, where 13 million people lives. There is not enough space left, on the ground in city centers. For new functions, for social life, for recreation etc, rooftops have to be used. I like the design, but that great rooftop has to be used for public space, dear GAD architects"

---one of free comments in archidaily

Migrating house

In Turkish,Gecekondus means "landed at night".It is a specific housing and settlement typology of self-service urbanization. It is a kind of life style,and a result of the rural migration in Istanbul during 1945 to 1985. It is said for the local government Gecekondus used to be an endless nightmare, they come to city like a disaster ,occupying the natural mountains, integrate into the old city patterns, but finally turned into the official urbanism of the city.It is quite weird,when this informal settlements become an important memory of the city history.As a way of survival, Gecekondus was dream of migrants.

Some points i got from research of Gecekondus today:
- ramshackle exterior, but "comfortable"interior
- a identification of "urban citizen"which means from rural to metropolis.
- illegal expanding in an informal but organic way.
- some are settled on the hill where can have a nice view of the whole city
- have the memory of 70% citizen in the city
- were replaced by modern style high-rise residential recently
- 10% of house in center Istanbul today are Gecekondus.
- were accepted by society during the time," compare with the new apartment, at least they have a garden"
- family-feeling neighborhood relationship ,have own lifestyle,for the day-labor workers and women stay in house.
- though integrate into urban,but still exist as a border-land


I don't know if it is really a good way to get rid of all the informal settlements and choose the normal residential as alternation. But there must be an another way to give the city better identification.

7 curiosities of architecture

Dynamic
Dynamic character is what i am interested in for both architecture and urban design. It might exist throughout the whole period from design concept to use of the building. It maybe a shape or form which can afford the feeling or possibility of change, or a system which is self-efficient or sustainable,or an emerge process like parameter design. My concern this time will be more larger scale as how to achive dynamic in the operation of urban systems,which can self-adjust or self-develop according to different influence.


Informalism/Chaos

"not done or made according to a recognized or prescribed form;not according to order;unofficial,disorderly" ."Like the scientists who study chaos theory,we rejected the notion of infinite randomness and assumed that there is a discoverable,as yet unidentified ,logic".
---"informal city"
I have traveled in several countries and area where we can understand the reality of chaos theory in a visible way.There might be over-crowded with physical or mental information ,such as HongKong,shinjuku and Bangkok, or be lack of order due to the economic reality and multi-culture,such as Phnom Penh. Instead of some new-planed artificial satellite cities in china, i think sometimes the patterns emerged from the informal growth of city are more attractive and may be more reasonable to sustain.
and looking forward to see what is happening in Istanbul in near future.

informal or international

Recombinant/redefinition
Get to know this word after the research project with Mr.Graham Shane. There do exist some areas or buildings or activities called "heterotopia"in today's city,which have their particular character. There are already too much rules and regulations in today's city, if we want to survive,we may need to change the way of thinking.

Material

which is the constant concern that i have in previous practice. Interesting in materials which form a building,or a settlement, a city. How people handle with different materials in various customs. I always believe that the world won't be built only by brick,concrete,glass and metal.

quite interested in different use of traditional material.

lifestyle

particularly looking into different kinds of lifestyle among different groups in various scale of areas in the city, or do comparative research among different cities. Why a certain lifestyle can emerge, develop or vanish,and what is the interaction between lifestyle and physical environment.

emotion/expression

changeable expression of the city, the architecture and life due to different kinds of emotion inside. Maybe phenomenological, or technological, or subjective.

experience
As a stranger to a new destination, i want to explore my experience to these things come to me.Rather than a designer ,i 'd like to be a wanderer, a consumer or a a user.Definitely i am all the time. It is also interesting to get to know others' experience for the same thing ,sometimes will give much inspiration to design.

the Galata tower

The Galata tower in Beyoglu is a famous landmark in Istanbul which is similar as Hagia Sophia mosque. It is also a symbol of Jewish culture in Istanbul,which began in Byzantine times.It is said today most of Istanbul's Jews live in more desirable residential quarters, though the synagogues in Galata is still of great importance to the city's Jewish community.

Like many other symbols of colonial or immigrant history, the Galata tower today seems more like a symbol of Istanbul,because of its discriminable height and location which can be viewed from the surrounding or from far away of the city. I found some photos which contain the tower inside, each gives different feeling. Though the informal flows change the city day by day, as a historical city, the urban pattern still have something remain. It is interesting to find out the influence from different type of migrants in different period to the same neighbourhood and the potential relation of those phenomenons.

Sometimes city needs something visible to remember itself during the rapid daily changes.

Today in my eyes London is full of migrants too, even the Gherkin.

Migrating Gardens

I am quite interested in the informal neighbourhood/lifestyle/activities and behaviours which related to migrant flows in Istanbul. During the research, I found this collaborative project by turkish artists group Oda Projesi and Nis Romer(Denmark)from internet,which reflecting on the relation of micro-scale farming and migration in Istanbul. The background of the story can be described as following.

Environmental migrants

Istanbul is a city which influent by migrants deeply, there are over 15million immigrate people living there today,and large amount of them are from the rural suburb area where agriculture is the main way to earn their life such as Anatolia in the asian part of turkey . Due to the effect of climate change or more attractive life in big city,those farmers immigrated to Istanbul ,some of them may change the occupation to fit the urban life style, but there are still lots of immigrants who prefer to continue their old way of living.

Bostan

It is said it's a kind of old vegetable garden of istanbul,which situated along the old walls of the city,there people treated the land as the origin way such as green plants garden in the urban city. The "bostan tradition"exists in the city of istanbul since the Byzantian Period and was run by different of people mentioned to be "minority"and is now run by the immigrants mostly. Now there are still many of bostan area remained in istanbul but some of them will be developed into other kind of modern function in the near future due to the process of urbanisation.

(you can see the green belt of bostan gardens along the ancient wall of city)

"Mint smell in the middle of the city"

In the project there are plenty of research about the migrants' real life in Bostan area,where they feel comfortable to be as a farmer in modern city's fresh air. It is an investigation of why people move from an environment to another and how they manifest themselves in the city with their practices professions from where they come from.

(mint garden in Taksim by a bostan gardener who devoted himself to clean and purify the city center of Istanbul)

As showed in this international project by both istanbul's and danish authors, the Bostans,which were known as Istanbul's tranditional market gardens, will be a characteristic feature in the city's landscape and an important memory of urban agriculture,commercial network and migrants' life which will try to be revived by the society. It is interesting that the story of Bostan is a informal way of survival,no matter from the climate or from the hard city life. The beginning of Bostan was a kind of informal agricultural behaviour and this tradition was carry forward by the informal citizens as migrants,but finally it forms the real tradition of this city which is promoted to be conserved. What is the future for those bostans, how about the life of those bostanci(gardener) if they lost their paradise land in this city, how will the city change according different cases such as conserving, developing or demolishing those migranting gardens.

distant

I found this turkish film on a chinese video website fortunately. It maybe the first turkish movie i ever watch,compared with the previous impression of istanbul in my mind,which was colourful- decorated by shining walls and red roofs of settlements, was active and enthusiastic - like the blue sky with flying seagulls or exciting fireworks and beautiful lights of Bosphorus bridge , this movie presents another face of istanbul.

The story is simple, a divorced husband who was living in such a metropolis worked as commercial photographer, a brother who came from rural suburb after lost job, the distance between these 2 characters was obvious. The city, act as the whole background, maybe let audience feel far more.

the first is the Bosphorous shore,the important feature of the city. I realised from the film that in istanbul it will have snow. when the both side of shore covered by snow, everything seems so faraway. The Bosphorous appeared several times in the movie, no matter from seaside or through window, the opposite bank was always in the distant,especially in the lonely eyes.

Another fact of the city is the phenomenon of migration. The young brother, who came from rural countryside was just one symbol of those millions of migrants in istanbul today. As a city full of opportunities, it is not so difficult for them to settle down temporarily. The newcomers can be one part of urban component, but they still couldn't integrate into urban life due to the distinct difference of customs, lifestyle,norms and personal economic status. Such invisible distance might be most distant between urbanite and migrant.

The streets in the movie all look wider than reality. Lack of passengers, occupied by parking cars, the streets in istanbul which are famous as communicate activities only have loneliness remaining.