"If the world was a state, Istanbul would be the capital of it". Four and a half intense days filled with lectures, debates, and tours, Cities Programme students believing the words of Napoleon. The focus of the trip was to investigate the regeneration of the Haydarpasa Site. The historic terminus for trains from Ankara, Eastern Provinces of Turkey and Middle Eastern countries, Haydarpasa Station has a rich and important history. A shipping port, growing residential neighbourhoods and important military training grounds add to the complexity of this prime water front site. Urban Age arranged for the group to meet with university scholars, key city officials, local architects and technical experts to explain not only urban issues confronting Haydarpasa but Istanbul as a whole.
We met an eclectic, impassioned, and inspiring group of experts each determined to convey the importance of their city's history and Istanbul's role in the emerging new world order. Our group of students prepared concise questions but quickly learned there are no short or simple answers in Turkey. Most inquiries regardless of how straight forward we assumed them to be were met with "to really understand that issue you have to go back to 1923...".
We did learn that Istanbul is grappling with at times a conflicting agenda of its external image as a world city and equally complex local issues such as improving housing conditions, preservation of heritage structures and expanding public transportation. For a city with so much history, Istanbullus are new at mobilising power and effectively participating in democratic process. Through intense discourse, our diverse group of students and tutors representing 10 countries and multiple disciplinary backgrounds, explored ways in which the physical, social, and economic conditions facing Europe's largest city might be reconciled holistically rather than in isolation.
Over the course of the term, Cities Programme students continued their discourse to develop a design brief for the Haydarpasa site that might inform Istanbul's regeneration policy".
Jeff Risom (MSc City Design and Social Science 2008-09)
Images of Istanbul © Jeff Risom 2009