The project “Agents of Transformation” is a part of a DAAD funded project IVAC International Virtual Academic Collaboration 2021-2022 "Hybrid Teaching in Participatory Urban Planning". (Link: https://www.uni-kassel.de/fb06/institute/institut-fuer-urbane-entwicklungen/fachgebiete/sustainable-cities-and-communities/forschung). The Project entails several components:

A joint seminar with University of Mersin implementing hybrid methods on the topic of participatory urban development in WiSe 2021/22

An excursion in Kassel in November 2021 with site visits and workshops

An excursion to Çiğli/İzmir (Turkey) in March 2022 with site visits and interactions with local actors

A joint project with University of Mersin implementing hybrid methods for the transformation of an inner-city small-scale industrial area in Çiğli/İzmir in Summer Semester 2022.

 

Çiğli is located on the northern edge of the Izmir Metropolitan Region, Turkey's third largest city. The city has several ecologically valuable sites and coastal areas that are under protection.The high growth pressure from the south and the spatial isolation due to the natural boundaries lead to a very dynamic spatial transformation in the city centre of Çiğli.

 

The transformation of former inner-city commercial areas, urbanisation of rural zones, emergence of higher density housing estates for high and middle income groups, emergence and transformation of informal residential areas, development of large-scale campus facilities of schools and universities, hospitals, gated communities, etc. are the central themes of urban planning and development.  

 

Project Site & Topics

 

Together with cooperation partners in Turkey a small-scale industrial site is chosen as the study area: “Ata Sanayi “– The topic of the study is the transformation of industrial area, incl. the integration thereof into urban fabric. 

 

The project will serve to analyse various transformation scenarios together with project partners based on an in-depth information and knowledge on the site, city and actors. Students from universities of Kassel and Mersin will jointly develop transformation strategies, incl. stakeholder management, participation and communication plans during the Summer Semester in 2022. 

 

Project partners

 

University of Kassel, Department of Sustainable Cities and Communities, Faculty of Architecture City Planning Landscape Planning

University of Mersin City and Regional Planning Department

İzmir Institute of Technology (IYTE), Department of City and Regional Planning

Çiğli Municipality 

 


Title: Creative Ecologies

The understanding of the changing nature and ecological conditions in the Mediterranean region is considered as a territory of investigation that explores the scenario of the uncertainty of the next future. The interpretation of natural flows and their influences on various scales on the urban and natural environment, calls for a multidisciplinary approach that is able to respond to future challenges. 

The studio will investigate the role of hybrid blue and green infrastructure into a strategic territory, and the constructed ecological network as an economical, social environmental space of relations. 

The main questions we would raise and explore are related to rethinking these areas starting from ecological patterns and sustainable common possibilities.  

The studio is focused on the Mediterranean cases of the city of Taranto and its strong relation with the waterscape. Important commercial port, the industrial city with an ancient historical background is a paradox and extreme example of coexistence between nature and human. Here, the industrial and post-industrial character strongly merges with a multifaceted natural green and blue system that defines a fragile but unique landscape.

The future establishment of the “Regional Park of Mar Piccolo” is considered a great opportunity to rethink the whole city, starting from a regional natural infrastructure as a new trigger to define new symbioses between communities and nature.  

The studio begins mapping larger-scale systems such as hydrology, infrastructure mobility, topography, natural patterns and built structures. During this semester the project will focus on a specific area in Taranto, defining experimental and ecological strategies that will lead to a final phase of design implementation.

During the whole course, online critics will be joined by theoretical and case studies lectures. 

(If there would be the opportunity a workshop in Taranto will be organized during the Exkursionswoche)

 

. date and time of your first meeting: 13 April 14.00 – 18.00 

. preferred weekday of your course: Wednesday afternoon (sometime Thursday afternoon)


The seminar is a collaboration among Departments of Sustainable Cities and Communities and Landscape Planning of the University of Kassel and Dep. of City and Regional Planning of the Karadeniz Technical University in Turkey. It is an international and interdisciplinary collaboration between city and landscape planners both from Turkey and Germany. 

The purpose of the seminar is to explore the convergence of Urban and Regional Planning and Landscape Planning tools in a comparative study of two cases in Kastamonu/Turkey and Kassel/Germany.

During the seminar, both urban planning and landscape planning regulatory framework in both countries will be analyzed and discussed in order to identify gaps and potentials for transdisciplinary solutions in climate change adaptation strategies and disaster risk management. 

Bozkurt/Kastamonu is one of the small towns in Black Sea Region, which is experiencing ill-effects of global climate change, local sea-temperature rise in Black Sea and following extreme weather events, such as the heavy rains 7-14thAugust 2021. The whole region -incl. towns such as Ordu, GiresunBartin, Sinop etc.- is prone to natural disasters, which are caused by global climate change and man-made urbanization decisions. 

In Germany, as well, catastrophic food disasters -100 year flooding events- are happening in a short time span, such as those in 2002, 2013 and 2021. 

During the seminar, a special focus will be on the management of waterways and river systems in selected cities. Students will acquire knowledge and technical skills to evaluate and implement the eco-system services approach to urban and environmental policy as well as management in the context of Kastamonu and Kassel. They will compare spatial planning processes in Turkey and Germany, incl. regulations, key actors, data-base step-up and smart city solutions in respective case studies. In addition, students will actively participate in organizing and conducting online open dialog meetings with experts. So, they will gain organizational and language skills.

 The seminar will be composed of by 3 sections:

Theoretical input, literature research and discussions on sustainable urban development; eco-system services approach; spatial planning and environmental management (April 2022)

Organization, implementation and evaluation of 4 successive online open dialog meetings with invited experts from academia and praxis on the topics of urbanization, environmental management, disaster risk analysis and management, water management from Turkey and Germany and respective case study cities (Mai 2022):

Further research and academic writing on selected case studies with urban and environmental policy development recommendations to local and central governmental institutions to improve transdisciplinary urban and environmental planning and management (June 2022)

The end-product will be presented during the Uni-Kassel presentation week. 


Planning Future Cities: Governance and Contemporary Politics of Urban and Infrastructure Development

Infrastructures, such as waste, water, energy and transport, facilitate urban life in a multitude of ways by mediating and enabling flows of materials, resources, labour, capital and knowledge. Despite the simultaneously political, economic, spatial, material and technological nature, infrastructures are dominantly considered a problem of engineering and effective management. 

This course aims to challenge the mainstream discourse focusing on functional infrastructural technologies within the scope of technocratic notions of decision-making and point to the social and political nature of urbanization, infrastructure transitions, and technological change.

The course will not only focus on the conceptual-theoretical foundations of urban studies but it will also present the students with new ideas and trends shaping the cities of the future, such as green new deal and climate change, migration, circular cities, digitization, nature-based solutions, Agenda 2030 and the localization of the SDGs, water and food security, degrowth, localized alternative technologies and just cities.

Throughout the course selected concepts and cases will covered in collective, interactive and participatory workshop sessions with a critical lens.

 On completion of this course students should:

 Develop a critical insight regarding the concepts of urbanization and infrastructure, and understand how various infrastructures (including people) help facilitate urban life

Raise awareness concerning the political nature of the infrastructure and the role of the social relations of power in shaping technological change.

Raise awareness concerning informal infrastructures and their relation to the formal ones.

Conduct case studies and critically reflect and discuss the place-specific characteristics and distinct problems of urban infrastructure through the use of relevant theoretical concepts.

 Grading will be based on class-participation (presence in class and active participation in class discussions), two thought papers to be submitted (one 1 mid-term, 1 end-term), and 2 group presentations (1 mid-term, 1 end-term).