Union Square's High-Concept Sukkahs

Sukkahs city in NY

Real sokkah pavilion

Minibar in Ankara

This is a interesting situation happened in Ankara which i have learned from Dr. Can Altay's lecture in AA last night. Young boys and girls gather at some of the semi-public space in residential area such as pavement area in front of housing or between two buildings at night, sitting there, drinking and talking or making friends. Those places are un-defined area in the city,normally have no commercial uses on ground floor,so the sidewalk area is available for those nightlife and socialising.

And some of the minibar site were taken over by the residential owners or some formal bar owners who wanted to keep their private realm or wanted to make commercial use of those potential area. They built higher defence of the pavement area to stop people sitting on the low masonry wall, or turned the space into a normal outdoor sitting place of bar. These has ended the unregulated production of new uses for these unprogrammed space.

From the case we can see how those small-scale everyday activities have influence in urban space. Those unprogrammed space is open to reconfiguration, and were transformed by such self-driven or spontaneous events. The final result is more critical, the external intervention may deprive the possibility of activity's happening , or take advantage of the social invention to

some professional designed production.

a tower made by containers and gardens

Lars Behrendt, Lotto-Turm, Stuttgart, Germany, 2009

'The site “Österreichischer Platz“ is situated on the edge of Stuttgart’s city center.

Its function has not changed a bit in the last 40 years, it is surrounded by and isolated through highways, it is used as a parking lot and also as a meeting point for dubious people. The people have almost forgotten about it somehow after being in a bad state for years.

But now the rhythm as well as the character of the surrounding highway will be interrupted by 55 piled-up
sea containers

For a time frame of five to ten years a temporary tower should revaluate the district, should create an attractive magnet and it should also be a place where different, lively and diverse forms of use will have a home for some time. As the project will only be temporary, it will be build out of shipping containers which will be a construction element as well as it will create new space. In addition, the containers allow a financially interesting and short-term realization of the project and you can also reuse and constrcut on the plaza very fast again.

The building will be divided into two parts. There will be a courtyard that will be isolated from traffic and noise and the high-rise tower which can be scaled by an artificial path around it as well as by stairs that go directly on top. The building is completely open to the public.

There will be many differently designed zones: the green duplex that will host a park, terraces of different sizes, niches and stairways and it will also be the home of various institutions like the capsule hotel, the Bürgerbüro (the local administration) to the lovtainer. With all these different options the lotto-tower as a whole will offer possibilities for all kind of needs. It will be similar to Jacques Tati’s Autoplay or Ali Mitgutsch’s Wimmel Bilder – there will be much to explore.

The tower will be topped by a sphere which will host the drawing of the lotto numbers."

Event Architecture(from http://vacantplots.wordpress.com/2009/03/17/event-architecture/)

Requiring the juxtaposition of all that is fixed, event architecture has developed from an architecture pursuit into a new tactic of spatial determinism. The architect designs the fantastical program as part building, part carnival, part park; its spectacle, uniqueness, and marketability derived from its dense verticality. Whereas a park or carnival exists horizontally, event architecture condenses activity. The architect’s fetish for density played out by event architecture’s forceful interlocking of social interaction and land-use contestation.

HÖHENRAUSCH - Kunst über den Dächern von Linz

a wonderland on the roof of Linz in 2009,shows art between the sky and the city.

house before house by sou fujimoto

A place that is simultaneously a house,a city and a forest.

in this small housing project, the rooms of house were separated and piled up disorderly. the mountain like house became base of trees, which formed a small city like place.

final carnival

The final carnival will take place in Kartal at Asian part.The site is at the edge of the "urban transformation project" designed by Zaha Hadid. When someday the construction begins here, the whole carnival will be demolished and send to different sites throughout the city. The temporary occupied space will be re-occupied by wonders which never happen in this city before.

it is worth to think about __

how the final carnival looks like,

how heterogeneous it will be,

what kind of activities can happened here, why they can happen here

what is the influence on the surrounding environment, both physical and social.

what is the relation between the final carnival and those small site development in the city,

how to operate at the time of demolishment, where can those segments go and how to recycle

what is the emphasis of the series of carnival activities on the city.what kind of new relation it could form among different groups

...

urban carnival network- potential spaces in the city

emphasis of carnival

What happening in a carnival always came from real life.It includes a lot of spontaneous activities and always takes place in different places,such as public squares, streets, the ceremony extends into every corner of the city. It is a perfect heterotopia within the city,while it is moveable and instant, it reflect people's pure desire and finally have to back to reality.Carnival always represent the happiness and pleasure of urban life in the city,and leave those beautiful memories to people who participated. It is worth to rethink the relations between carnival and the location's urban context.

By means of urban carnival, my initial idea is recreating some urban pattern based on those creative human activities in Istanbul,concerning both ecological and social sustainability. Istanbul is suffering the process of gentrification in recent years,which shows the government's ambitions when facing the trend of globalisation.

(This is my question for government guild for the city's public space and the answer from IMP

Is there any policy or rules to administrate the city public space from the government, such as for streets, squares which are filled with all kinds of informal activities. Is the government encourage such phenomenon or want to get it into control? (Kamusal alanların yönetimi nasıl? Yerel yönetim bunu control altına almak istiyor mu?)

There is a specific and very comprehensive study currently being carried out for Developing the principles for the management of the UNESCO World Heritage Listed area of Historic Peninsula. This study is to shape a set of specific policy or rules to administrate, preserve and maintain the historic city public spaces. The management of the rest of the public spaces are subject to the İstanbul’s “Urban Development” Guidelines. İstanbul metropolitan government and the district municipalities shares the responsibilities to apply the rules for managing and controlling the public spaces and all the informalities in public spaces. )

It seems obviously the new development or "urban transformation"process will take place mostly in a top-down way, as more administration on social activities, demolishing and rebuilding of old residential area, the extreme sample should be the new CBD project in Kartal designed by Zaha Hadid,which may be the symbol project of the city's development. Although it said the design process has concerned a lot about the city's real situation,it will definitely become something never happened in this city before.we can't image how serious the impact it will have on the city's environment and social relation.

These eight positions in Istanbul are picked out from the places i visited in the field trip. each of them has some particular characters of unprogrammed space and has potential to be transformed .I think they could be part of the urban carnival network, where people can explore life wonders, have interaction with city memories, and form new relationship with each other. By analysing the existing urban context of surroundings, we can recreate spaces which can continue some life characters of istanbul or let the future users have the memory of what ever happened in the city during the leisure time spend here.

choreography of occupations in unprogrammed urban spaces

i have learned the definition of "unprogrammed public space in Istanbul"from Hülya Ertas 's writing on AD magazine. "unprogrammed urban space doesn't mean that a function has not already been attributed to it,but rather that it can be transformed by other external influences,especially users.the space is just there waiting to be discovered and improved. it is self-organising, unstable and variable." when walking in city of Istanbul, it was easy to feel the atmosphere of life not only from the activity scene but also from all kinds of footprints remained in the city spaces. Some of them are physical elements which are touchable, for example the various of creations in a street space. Some of them maybe phenomenon existed for short period of time, then the mental influence and memory may remain in audience's mind, which may affect on people's attitude towards the space. To me, every city has its own particular impression in my memory. I always prefer to catch the feeling from the sense,what i really see,hear,smell,feel. Istanbul is a city full of public life, various of groups existed in such a high density space living differently.

Walking in the street of Nisantasi, my left hand side is shopfront of LV, it is not so much different from a high-end street in Paris. Maybe this is final format of all world cities. but,where is life?

social group_network and occupation of urban space

My project started from the curiosity of the characters of urban life in Istanbul. As learn from last term's research, istanbul is a city full of live wonders created by its citizens.The city is transformed in all kinds of aspects by its large population of migrants and those who came to this old metropolis to seek their dreams. This extremely mixture of old and new, local and adventive, permanent and temporary, traditional and modern brings the city countless possibilities. During the field trip in Istanbul,i was aim at exploring occupation and recreation by different social group's life in the city. For example, the farmers, street vendors, and amateur fishers. Different social groups have their own way to perform life in the city, and have its particular activities to occupy the urban space,which create interactions between people,place and the city. The whole life scenery of city is full of heterogeneous segments of life, here all kinds of man-made inventions coexist with natural features, the urban spaces are fully occupied and transformed by those wonders and have been redefined gradually.

For example, in Oda projesi's garden project, the traditional local courtyard with plants was occupied by picnic carpets and dinning groups,people put chairs inside and then with the process going on, the garden lost its original face and meaning. Until now, there are not so much policy to administrate the informal activities in such unprogrammed urban spaces, that means, those public spaces are waiting for transformation and recreation.

fragments

a few suggestions for the carnival network in the city

mobile chaplet

design by Moorhead & Moorhead

Mobile Chaplet
Fargo, North Dakota

Designed in collaboration with North Dakota architect Richard Moorhead, Mobile Chaplet is one of six portable spaces for reflection commissioned to travel to rural communities around the state of North Dakota as part of the Roberts Street Chaplet Project.

urban carnival

Carnival is a festive season which occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February. Carnival typically involves a public celebration orparade combining some elements of a circus, mask and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations, which mark an overturning of daily life.(from wikipedia)

sketches of all kinds of urban life aspects in istanbul. those vivid scenes always seem exciting to me, i can see their playful heart,their desires to express, their struggles of survival, and their dreams of better life. Istanbul people have the talent to celebrate their life with unlimited creativity.those activities' happening sometimes redefine the places, filling the unprogrammed public spaces, or represent a kind of relation between human and physical environment.

It is interesting to see those spontaneous life aspects in the tradition of carnival in cities.

Kegworth carnival ——drawing made by F.R. Shaw in 1988.“ The scene depicted is in Hallstone Meadow with boats moored at the river bank, and a lady at the extreme right apparently about to take a swim! The ox roast is taking place in the centre of the picture, on the purpose-built hearth described in this chapter, while on the left a high wire artist seems to run the risk of being roasted by the traction engine in the arena below. Perhaps the fuchsia Kegworth Carnival, raised by Harold Smith is on show in one of the exhibition marquees in the middle distance. Side shows, a roundabout, steam organ, two bands, dancing girls, donkey rides, and yet more traction engines, full size and miniature, are all included, set off by the characteristic Soar Valley backdrop of cooling towers, power lines and pylons.”

“In art Beryl Cook's perspective is anticipated by Brueghel's The Battle between Carnival and Lent in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. It shows emaciated grey churchgoers leaving their place of worship and entering a town square where the unchurched eat, drink and make merry.”

space occupation analysis

recording how unprogrammed activities/structures occupy space of a street in istanbul

mobile vendors alway attract flows and the space can be changed by different type of informal selling behaviours. try to recording how mobile vendors and human flows occupy eminonu square in different time of a day.

ceremony of dancing_whirling dervishes

whirling dervishes is a kind of islamic ceremony to remember the god. By whirling ,the dancer can feel more close to the god. The ceremony represents a mystical journey of man's spiritual ascent through mind and love to the " Perfect" .Turning towards the truth, the follower grows through love, deserts his ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the "Perfect". He then returns from this spiritual journey as a man who has reached maturity and a greater perfection, able to love and to be of service to the whole of creation.

my experience of watching whirling dervishes performance was begin in an museum hall,with some old leader's portraits hanging on the wall.

the traditional musical ceremony was opening show.

the dancers were wearing white clothes with long wide skirts, before whirling, they stand still as a process of pray.

the continuing whirling process let the dancer's long skirts flying in the hall space. they move smoothly and change the positions. though the music's rhythm changed a lot, the dancing process was calm and peaceful.Dancing slowly from still to whirling, with the skirts and hands fully occupying the hall space. the museum lobby changed into a spiritual hall in this moment.

i try to record the status of how the dancing activity occupy the space by sketches in a choreographic way. the process of whirling became a mental memory. No doubt, the ceremony has given the hall space another character,and create new relation here between performer and audience.