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.