Project . Urban Vision Social @ Social Housing National Student Idea Project Competition
Client . Ankara Chamber of Architects
Site: Ankara Year . 2012 Award . Equivalent Prize
Project Team . Ali Sinan, Dicle Taşkın
SOCIAL FABRIC-EMPTINESS
We think that the structures of roads, parcels and lots of todays cities based on the breakdown of property limit the everyday practices of life based on rationalized monotypes. This practie of city building has two main issues. First issue is that many units are derived vertically from one unit. New permits for higher “floors” aimed only to generate income fort he traces of property spread over the region make the cities grow uncontrollably in the vertical and the horizontal directions without taking the needs of the people into account. The second issue is that the housing units grow continously in the vertical and horizontal directions. This issue causes the horizontal travel to be trapped in vehicles and vertical travel to be trapped in elevators, limiting the interaction of people in time.
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Social Fabric
The project aims to maximize the interaction in the region by tapping into the social potential readily found in slums. A solidarity against the city filled with buildings out of the human scale exists there much like the solidarity against natural forces found in prehistoric times. In this manner, the project stems from the need of humans to live together since Çatalhöyük. It is evident that slums have much in common with prehistoric settlements in aspects like from and social fabric. Investigating slums, which are seen as problematic parts of cities in the light of these ideas will change the idea of urbanization and will impose questions on social housing projects. The main element in social housing projects must stem from the social fabric underlying the slums. The configuration suggests one that spreads concentrated in the vertical and horizontal direction contrary to todays practices. It first puts emphasis on the horizonral spread to increase interaction. The horizontal spread evolves spontaneously much like the spontaneous evolution of slums. In time it resembles a uniform structure spread over the topography.
Social Circulation
The vertical configuration however aims to have a capillary structure of circulation found in the horizonral in contrary to singular block structures found in social housing projects. Housing units will evolve with respect to their own dynamics much like the slums in this rational structure holding the units together. The capillary circulation scheme created in the third dimension forms the main element of this dynamics and emphasizes the independence in circulation and the social character of the diversity of alternatives.
Social Settlement
This relation and the dialectic layout creates a critical look on the process of city planning and suggest the possibility of superposition instead of the cycle of demolish/build. The integrative and diverse approach made possible with the idea of superposition destroys the problem of relocation found in urban renewal projects and holds against gentrification due to the changing socioeconomic balance. This suggested new structure is in search of solutions to the problems of unearned income caused by plot ownership and constant evolution to apartment blocks with ideas like three dimensional definiteness and “ownership of emptiness”. Aiming to break the vicious cycle of creating unearned income by transforming a property in the plane to multiple units in the third dimension, this new notion of property suggests that the units of property should be defined by vacancies. In contrast to our reality of dividing all the space that the eye can see with lines of property and then building lone towers, the aforementioned project takes strenght from solidarity and creates a viable alternative not only for Mamak but but also for our general idea of urbanization.
