Herkes için Mimarlık (Architecture for All)
The Kurgu Mahali (Site of Fiction) workshops were realised on 6 October and 20 October 2018, with the collaboration of Architecture for All Association and Design Atelier Kadıköy. The aim of this workshop series was to turn the Kadıköy fabrics into patterns and to create drawings after experiencing the current spaces, in order to trace the environment of residence. Within the research-based, sensual and experiential working atmosphere, the attempt was to discover the city through visualisation. These exercises, which were under the public programme of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, were realised with the support of Edding.
Throughout the preliminary meetings before the workshops, the focus was on content and materials to be used. Content-wise, the thought was to build collage and drawings as tools that enable a reconsideration of the city. Production was made by copying photo collages for the first workshop, and map drawing for the second one. For the materials to be used within the workshops, the potentials of pens used on paper, plastic, metal, ceramic and fabric was discovered, the techniques and application surfaces they would be best used on were determined. These pens were provided by the workshop sponsor, Edding.
The first workshop, which was realised in Tasarım Atölyesi Kadıköy (Design Atelier Kadıköy) on 6 October, aimed to rethink about the formation and the life course of the texture that can be observed throughout the streets of the city. Following a section that discusses the content of the workshop, the participants were given façade photographs from the Kadıköy Yeldeğirmeni Neighbourhood. Based on these photographs, they were asked to build stories in order to trace the life within the buildings and their interior. The photo and the paper on which the story was written was passed on to the next person, enabling the creation of collective stories for each photograph. These served as a basis for participants to setup their own stories and textures. The workshop continued with everyone creating their own texture collages by copying the photographs on the table with acetate paper. After the final part where the participants told their production in detail and received feedback, the acetates were hung on the board to be exhibited until the next workshop. 20 people participated in the first workshop, which set an intellectual foundation prior to the second workshop with its products that focused on grasping the city from the scale of the street and transform it.
The second Kurgu Mahali workshop was realised on 20 October, again at Tasarım Atölyesi Kadıköy. The aim of this workshop was to take a look at the city from an upper scale and to evaluate the areas with regards to their relationship with each other, their boundaries and passages, and to find a way to rebuild them. As the small scale outputs of the ready-made maps of Kadıköy were distributed on to the tables before the workshop, a bigger scale map was rolled out on the floor. The workshop began with a discussion on the development of the city through the textures that can be read on these maps. Then the participants copied the city texture samples from the maps using acetate paper, just like in the first workshop. This section of copying and assembling acted as a preparation for the drawing to be made on various material, which constituted the second part of the workshop. Edding markers that are specialised on surfaces such as transparent plexi, white ceramic, American cloth, and sheet plate were used on these surfaces, resulting in products that enabled participant to comment on what the city texture represents and expressed their opinion on how it can be rebuilt. The products of the workshop were placed on the vehicle, which was produced by Herkes İçin Mimarlık (Architecture for All) as a mobile urban transformation office, in order to be displayed.
While encouraging participants to take a fresh look at the city through drawing, the Kurgu Mahali workshops also enabled experiential attempts with pens on various surfaces. As Herkes İçin Mimarlık and Tasarım Atölyesi Kadıköy, we would like to thank Istanbul Design Biennial, Edding, and workshop participants, who made these workshops possible.
