2014-12-22 00:00:00
THE FUTURE OF SARACOGLU NEIGHBOURHOOD IS DISCUSSED IN ELEPHANT CAGE WORKSHOP
The elephant cage workshop had been taken place at TSMD Architectural Centre.

The new strategies about the future of the Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood are developed by Turkish and Dutch architects, city planners and developers within the context of Elephant Cage Internatıonal Workshop which is organized with the collaboration of TSMD and Creative Initiative ve Architectuur Lokaal at 11-13 December 2014.

Aty the workshop which is organized by the sponsorship of Seranit  Group and Mesa Mesken, and contribution and Minister of Economy, Turkish and Dutch young professionals and mentors Enis Öncüoğlu (Öncüoğlu Mimarlık), Hande Obuz (Servotel), Didem Muslu (Servotel), Prof.Dr. Hugo Premius (Delft University), Harm Wassink (UNStudio) ve Herman Kok (Multi Development) came together and discuss the Ankara’s first mass housing project: Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood.

Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood had been experienced on site. The first day of the workshop a trip had been arranged to the site and the value of the neighborhood inside of the urban tissue. The necessary information about the site had been delivered to the participants from Prof. Dr. Elvan Altan from METU Architectural Faculty and Doç. Dr. Bülent Batuman from Chamber of Architecture Ankara.

After a trip to the Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood, The Next Level Shopping Mall which is a project that triggered the development on Eskişehir Road. Later Gordion Shopping Mall and new development areas nearby had been shown to the participants.

5 group had been created in the workshop

Group 1: Durstudio, Basic City, Tamirci Architects
Group 2: SMALL, Agnes van der Meij, AS Architecture, Sinem Kaya Akçay
Group 3: FREA, Aboutblank, Inspire Real Estate, APTO
Group 4: İkikerebir Mimarlık, Salon Architects, Uğur Sütçü, Dechnology
Group 5: B.C. Tasarım, Menno Kooistra Architects, 351 Design Studio, Meltem Şentürk Asıldeveci

The groups are coming up with new ideas about the Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood, by making brainstorming. The groups who considered the given information with the help of the mentors, improve their ideas with sketches, schemes and 3d models

There were 5 different interesting propels had been presented.

At the last day of the workshop, all presentations of all groups had been publicly exhibited.  At 13 December, Saturday evening, before the presentation, TSMD head of chamber Yeşim Hatırlı, project coordinator Ekin Çoban Turhan(TSMD Architectural center), Onat Öktem(Creative Inıtiative) and  Indira van't Klooster (Architectuur Lokaal)made their opening speeches. Indira van't Klooster mentioned about the emerging process of Elephant Cage, its purposes, and other examples of this workshop in other countries. Klooser who defines this workshop as an opportunity to bring architects and developers together stated that they are planning to organize the next workshop with Turkish participğants in Rotterdam, Holland

After opening speeches, groups are begun to the presentation of the works.

Group 1 stated that they aimed to increase the attraction by defining different function spaces by reconsidering the values of the Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood.

Group 2 proposed cultural and art activities which would attract people by preserving the Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood’s value.

Group 3 asked the question that what is the cost of the preserving the site as a social investment, by comparing the economical approach and maximizing the preservation. They proposed to transform the Saraçoğlu culture village with different functions such as residential uses, offices, recreation areas by inspiring from Greenwich London.

Group 4 defined the potentials by utilizing the dynamics and investments of the city. It is stated that it is desired to create public spaces which integrated with the greenery by focusing the subject of scale.

Group 5 emphasized the potentials of the site as an event area of 18 universities in Ankara for cultural, art exhibitions events. Therefore, they give priority to the technical infrastructure and transportation issues.

“A designer should design by considering the future.”

After Presentations, mentors have evaluated the works. The first speech from Enis Öncüoğlu, mentioned about how to create an added value from such renovation projects and he said that he states the importance of social value compared to the financial value.  Öncüoğlu, who emphasized the sensitiveness and the attendance of the society, underline the future potentials of a competition about the neighborhood.

Multi Development assistant director Herman Kok Said that “ As an expert on shopping mall I can easily say that shopping malls are short-term system and it is easy to make mistake in short-term systems. So, we should think about long-term visions and targets. There should be a larger scale vision of the subject just like the participants did on their proposals.

Prof. Dr. Hugo Priemus said,” It would be unregretible decision to plant a seed on the hearth of the city in a long term.” By mentioning the opportunity costs, system obstacle and target groups.

Director of UN studio Harm Wassink said that as a designer we should think future and refer more to a larger scale. Moreover, he states the importance of social sustainability in Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood and “My own suggestion is to let the Saraçoğlu to its own and observe the how it will evolve?

After evaluations of the mentors, Ekin Çoban Turhan, project coordinator, mentioned that all of the groups are preserving the site and adding functions as an intervention which is quite normal.

Turkish and Dutch Young Professionals will come together at Holland this time.

The part of the workshop at Holland is planned to organized in Rotterdam in March 2015. The details of the programs and the presentations of the groups about the Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood will be shared with you following days.

 
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FREA | News | The Future of Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood Is Discussed in Elephant Cage Workshop, The elephant cage workshop had been taken place at TSMD Architectural Centre. The new strategies about the future of the Saraçoğlu Neighbourhood are developed by Turkish and Dutch architects, city planners and developers within the context of Elephant Cage Internatıonal Workshop which is organized with the collaboration of TSMD and Creative Initiative ve Architectuur Lokaal at 11-13 December 2014., Mimarlık, Tasarım, Mühendislik, Kentsel Tasarım, Fatih Yavuz, Emre Şavural