Creative Solutions from GTU for Rural Life in Kandıra

January 30, 2024-Office of Press and Public Relations

GTU's Faculty of Architecture academics and students have produced 117 projects on rural life in Kandıra as part of their Architectural Design courses.

Gebze Technical University (GTU) Faculty of Architecture has undertaken a study that sheds light on the potential of the Kandıra district in Kocaeli. Within the scope of the Architectural Design V-VI courses for the Fall Semester of 2023-2024, the project area was determined as the Seferler Türbe Mevkii in the villages of Balcı and Lokmanlı in the Kandıra district. The project was defined under the title of Kandıra Rural Life Platform (Rural Co-Habitation). While Asst. Prof. Dr. İbrahim Türkeri and Asst. Prof. Dr. Funda Tan Bayram from the Faculty of Architecture coordinated the project, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cahide Aydın İpekçi, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Saniye Karaman Öztaş, Master Architect Tarhan Arıkan, Res. Assst. Gizem Aslan, Res. Assst. Esra Arslantürk, Res. Asst. Merve Özdoğan, and Res. Asst. Şeyda Arslan undertook the role of workshop coordinators.

Firstly, in October 2023, a comprehensive technical field trip was organized with faculty members and architecture department students to the project area, conducting on-site research. The potential of the Seferler Türbe location within the boundaries of Lokmanlı and Balcı, where consolidation efforts continue with a presidential decree, was re-evaluated in the region. Following the workshop sessions, 117 projects were developed.

The workshop coordinators emphasized that such a project of this scale in Kandıra was carried out for the first time and provided the following statement about the study:

Issues such as climate crisis, pandemic, increasing population density, irregular urbanization, high cost of living, inadequate infrastructure, and more have become fundamental problems related to urban life. As a result of these issues, the pursuit of an alternative living space for urbanites has inevitably led to a turn towards the "rural," envisioning a new living space in rural areas different from urban organization. This envisioning arises from the question of "how the urbanite can connect to the rural without bringing the city to the rural."

It is possible to bring to the forefront new themes that strain one's mind such as production, product, land, seed, agriculture, re-agriculture, organic farming, and efforts to make life sustainable. Researching the space of a meeting-solidarity phenomenon that pioneers practices of life again in rural areas, attempting to design this space by exploring and reinterpreting the forms of making in rural areas, formed the basic focal point of the workshop. The research subject of the workshop is how the structure/structures of the "rural life platform" as a meeting-solidarity hub will respond to this expectation.

The sharing of the mentioned projects with local authorities and their publication as a book is being planned.