GAU Friday Seminars VI: David Harvey: Rebel Cities & Urban Commons

By: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jakob Rigi (Central European University)

Abstract:

Since 2009, cities such as Teheran , Cairo, Madrid, Barcelona and New York, to mention just a few, have witnessed majoruprisings against the established orders. David Harvey in his recent book Rebel Cities discusses the role of urbanin fomenting rebellious and revolutionary social movements. This talk willexplore major pillar of Harvey`s arguments. While approving his main arguments,I will also show that a major shortcoming of Harvey`s approach is the absenceof  attention to the role of knowledgeand knowledge workers in  the urban struggle.

Bio-Statement:

Jakob Rigi, Born in Iran, Baluchistan, has a BSc from Stockholm University and a PhD from London University (SOAS). He has been associate professor at Central European University, Budapest, since 2008. He was an assistant professor at Cornell University 2002-2008. He also taught at SOAS (London University). He has hold research fellowships from Edinburg University (2000-2001), New York University (2004). He has widely published on Kazakhstan and Russia. His major publication on Kazakhstan is Post-Soviet Chaos: Violence and the Dispossession in Kazakhstan (London: Pluto Press), translated into Turkish and published by İletişim. His current research focuses on the role of knowledge and internet in the transformation of space, time, society and culture.  

GAU Friday Seminars V: Computare | Architecture, Technology and Education

By: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şebnem Yalınay Çinici (Istanbul Bilgi University)

Abstract:

In contemporary world of design and education computation becomes one of the very hot topics of architectural debate. Computation is mostly understood with its affinity with mathematical understanding of world and numeric logic. But when we trace the meaning of the word to its etymological origin, there appears another way of thinking related with the word through 'settling things together'. If we further the word trace on mathematics, another layer of meaning on learning and teaching at the same time encounters us. And, when we try to understand computation in its relation with architecture and design, there emerges another body of knowledge that extends into the British avantgarde movement and discussions on "third culture". So, this lecture is an endeavor to further the discussion on computation and design through its hidden meanings and its misunderstandings by illustrating an approach on first year design education.

Bio-Statement:

Şebnem Yalınay Çinici graduated from Middle East Technical University (METU) Department of Architecture as B.Arch in 1989, where she took her M.Arch degree in 1991 and Ph.D. in 1999. She completed her Post-Doctorate Study at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, in 2001. She pursued her academic career at METU, Department of Architecture, from 1992 to 2006 and at Yildiz Technical University from 2006-2011. In 2003 she founded and initiated Digital Design Studio in the Undergraduate Program of METU, Department of Architecture. Her major field of research is architectural design, design education and design+production technologies. She has numerous national and international publications. She has been working as an Associate Professor and Head of Department in the Department of Architecture at Istanbul Bilgi University since 2011.

GAU Friday Seminars IV: Praxis: Can Architecture be Socially Responsible?

By: Prof. Dr. Güven Arif Sargın (METU)

Abstract:

Urban and architectural utopias since the turn of the nineteenth century proves that "Praxis" is a purposeful act, in other words, it requires a certain degree of focused expectations for the sole purpose of securing long-term objectives. Second, contrary to the notion of "mediocrity", praxis calls for a creative act and sets forth the active participation of social agents as a must. Third, the primary factor in such processes is "reasoning" and the capacity to "reason". As such, our primary question should then revolve around if a new political  praxis is now possible within the verge of the twenty-first century; and in which capacity architecture can be socially responsible?

Bio-Statement:

Guven Arif Sargin is Professor of Architecture at the Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University (METU). Specialized on Urban and Environmental History and Theory (University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1990-1996) he currently teaches architectural and urban design and courses on “Politics and Space” and “Critical Urban Theories”. Sargin has been the recipient of METU Academic Excellence Award (2000 to 20011) and Mustafa Parlar Foundation Academic Excellence Award (2004). Among other extensive publications he is the editor of Nature as Space: (re)Understanding of Nature and Natural Environments (2000); Şevki Vanlı: Ideas and Designs (2001); Public Faces of Ankara: Theses on the Spatio-politics of the Capital City (2002); Hybrid Spaces (2004); and the author of The Environmental History of Turkish Modernism (forthcoming).

GAU - Friday Seminars III: URBAN RECONSTRUCTION IN POST-CONFLICT CITIES: THE CASE OF MOSTAR

By: Francesco Mazzucchelli (NIAS, Netherlands)

Abstract:

Since the last century, cities have become, more and more often, targets of acts of war, terrorism and political violence. The recently coined notion of “urbicide” has been used by many scholars (Bogdanovic, Coward, Graham, Shaw) to refer to such deliberate actions of destruction against the city's inhabited space. But what happens inside the city when war and terror are over?

My seminar will explore the role of reconstruction strategies in the processes of transformation which characterize the cities in post-conflict periods. In particular I will focus on architectonic restoration and reconstructions of damaged buildings, seen as practices of re-writing the palimpsest of the city that can determine in which way (and if) the past should be remembered. Semiotics (Greimas, Lotman, Eco) – with its attention to social meanings and its narrative conception of the meaning organisation – will be used as a tool to explain and analyse the way in which social meanings of a place are shared and change.

The proposed case study is Mostar and its post-conflict transformation and reconstruction. 

Bio-statement:

Francesco Mazzucchelli holds a PhD from the University of Bologna (Italy) and is a Research Fellow in the Department of Philosophy and Disciplines of Communication of the University of Bologna of the same university. He is also currently a Fellow at NIAS (Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences in Wassenaar), where he contributes to the research project “Terrorscapes: Transnational Memories of Violence in Europe”. He is the author of the book Urbicidio. Il senso dei luoghi tra distruzioni e ricostruzioni in ex Jugoslavia, Bologna: Bononia University Press, 2010.

GAU - Friday Seminars II: Micro-World & Macro World

Title: Micro World - Macro World

By: Asst. Prof. Dr. Shahin Keynoush

Abstract:

The need for bridge laws to bridge the definitional gap between macro-quantities and micro-quantities is kind of inter-theory relation between various fields of study. It is a very simple example of Interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary nature of science. Gap of laws in-between very Inhabitants of the micro-world and inhabitants of the macro-world seems to be as a serious manner of human civilization.

It is no more about size and number the crises are showing up in the content of reading, understanding, recognizing and interpreting data’s and information. The human illusion of geocentric world is changing to the far worse world of scale less. Ignoring scale and abstracting away from the messy details are common story to be told around the world; the world which has suffered enough from human “either-or” abstraction  and is looking forward to the very point of “both-and”….

Now where we are standing through this as an architect? It is a simple question!

Bio-Statement:

Assist. Prof. Dr. Shahin Keynoush received his M.Sc. & Ph.D. degree concerning the cognitive approach to architecture and urbanism; and in the same time he was participating to the Constructive Realism school of Philosophy. He is the member of WORLDCOMP (World Academy of Science) and IKE committee member, chair and associate editor since 2006.

2012-2013 Friday Seminars I: EDIFICE AS ‘XENIA’ AND ARCHITECT AS A PUZZLED FIGURE AGAINST GLOBAL PROBLEMS

TITLE : EDIFICE AS ‘XENIA’ AND ARCHITECT AS A PUZZLED FIGURE AGAINST GLOBAL PROBLEMS

By : Murat ÇETİN (Assoc.Prof.Dr., Kadir Has University, Istanbul)

ABSTRACT :

Tackling the discipline of architecture as a phenomenon responding to the problems of the world, the study looks into the architecture in association with the notion of ‘hosting’. The ‘act of building’ is associated with the idea of ‘hospitality’ particularly considering its relationship with the nature and topography or with loci in general. The talk primarily questions the position of architecture in relation to the global problems that the world has been facing, such as accomodation, hunger, poverty, inequality, pollution etc.. Along the same path, the talk criticially analyzes the role and attitude of the architect (as a madiating figure) in regard to these major problems in a historical perspective. Thus, the study aims to reveal the hypocracies and inconsistencies of the profession and its ‘so-called’ ethics. The economic and social aspects of the activity of building (as the basis of aedificium edificium) are discussed in regard to the intrinsic dilemma of architecture, that is to say public versus individual.

BIO-STATEMENT :

Murat ÇETiN has studied architecture both at Middle East Technical University where he received his B.Arch and M.Arch degrees as well as Sheffield University where he conducted his PhD studies. He has been involved in architectural practice as well as in architectural research and education. His research areas focus on urban form, urban space, urban morphology, urban transformation, urban design, and urban conservation. He worked at various universities such as Balıkesir University, Yeditepe University, King Fahd University, Doğuş University. He published his various researches in form of book chapters, journal articles and conference papers. He condusted various international workshops. He received his Associate Professorship form the Higher Education Council of Turkish Republic. He is currently teaching at Kadir Has University, Faculty of Arts & Design.