ECOWEEK 2015 ΙΝ ISTANBUL, TURKEY YEDITEPE UNIVERSITY / APRIL 20-25 2015

With the theme of ‘Contemporary Archaeology’ the Faculty of Architecture at Yeditepe University is hosting the ECOWEEK international conference and sustainable design workshops for the first time in the Asian side of the magical city of Istanbul, and for the second time in Turkey.

 

During the week of ECOWEEK, and within the theme of ‘Contemporary Archaeology’, the participating students and young professionals will be encouraged to work on discarded or underused buildings, infrastructures, and open areas in the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. They will recognize their value and potential as architectural resource. They will be asked to react to urban, social and cultural conditions and put them back into circulation – ‘recycling’ or ‘reclaiming’ – to become again active ingredients in the overall experience of the city.

 

ECOWEEK is an opportunity for students and young professionals – primarily architects, designers, engineers, landscape architects and other disciplines – to spend one week attending inspiring lectures and interactive sustainable design workshops held in real sites within the city fabric, led by local & international professionals, network and learn about sustainable design. 

 

The ECOWEEK organizing team at Yeditepe University, including faculty and students of Architecture, is hosting workshops by W1: Pelin Dursun ÇEBİ and İrem Burcu UMMANSU; W2: Rusen Aktas and Silvia Lupini; W3: PATTU; W4: Paolo Tringali and Emiliano Bugatti; W5: Johannes Peter STEIDL; W6: Superpool-Nikitas Gkavogiannis and Derya Iyikul;  W7: Emanuele Marcotullio; W8: SO? Architecture&Ideas – Sevince Bayrak and Oral Goktas; W9: Arman Akdogan (IND) and Alexandre Sverdlov (Svesmi); and A10: Akos Hutter and Zeynep Halu. 

 

The ECOWEEK workshop experimental projects range in scale and scope and explore a variety of places in the city. From addressing the pavement, the reuse of abandoned buildings, the spaces between buildings, the reconfiguration of public space, creating installations that re-activate the public space,  to recycling blank facades for the needy and vulnerable (people, cats, dogs, etc.).

 

The opening conference held at YEM – Information Center of Turkish Building World (http://www.yem.net/yem07/index-en.html)takes place on Monday April 20. Speakers include Ruşen Aktaş is an independent curator and writer based in London and Istanbul, Anna Heringer award-winning architect and Fellow at Harvard GSD, Marco Navarra architect and professor in urban and architectural design at the university of Catania, Mehmet Kutukcuoglu architect at TEGET Mimarlık, Elisabetta Terragni (Como and New York) who crafted a number of exhibition sites from abandoned infrastructures, and Elias Messinas architect and founding chairman of ECOWEEK. The ECOWEEK opening event is open and free to the public.

 

The closing event held at Studio-X Istanbul – an off-campus event space and urban futures think tank run by the Columbia University GSAPP, part of the Studio-X Global Initiative (http://www.studio-xistanbul.org/en/) takes place on Saturday April 25, 2015, where the workshops projects will be presented and discussed. The ECOWEEK closing event is open and free to the public. 

 

More details at: www.ecoweek-tr.org

Contact: [email protected]

 

 

ECOWEEK is an NGO established in 2005 and based in Greece with the mission to raise environmental awareness and to promote the principles of sustainability. ECOWEEK is active in 15 countries in Europe, Middle East and Australia, and has a network of members in 53 countries. 

 

More on ECOWEEK at: www.ecoweek.org 

Contact: [email protected]  

 

VIDEOS: 

–Video from ECOWEEK in Copenhagen (2013):