CounterArchitecture - Cities in Transition

Cities in Transition

Funded by the British Council; PI: Alan Chandler, Co-I: Anastasia Karandinou, Heba Elsharkawy

Urban transformation and mobility is increasingly rapid. The potential loss of identity and ‘sense of place’ in an urban environment is disempowering, with significant consequences to social cohesion. This workshop focuses on issues of public spaces, sense of identity, ‘placelessness’ and wellbeing in the context of global mobility. We situate the conditions of ‘new migrants’ into wider concerns over a lack of ‘belonging’ in the 21st century urban realm, and develop tools and agendas to discuss placelessness not only amongst incomers, but amongst those already resident in the city.

The workshop examines how Syrian refugees and locals perceive and appropriate public space, through methods and processes developed in collaboration with people concerned.

Migrating Proverbs Workshop, Altindag, Ankara, Turkey. Led by: Catalina Pollak Williamson, Reem Charif (UEL/Febrik), Ela Aral (METU), Deniz Altay. 2017.

Part of the Cities in Transition Workshop.

Drawing as Communication

Cities demographics change rapidly. Different ethnic groups, refugees, migrants move between places. Apart from wars and other crises, urban planning and development processes sometimes also force people to leave their neighbourhoods and homes and move to new locations. Within this broader context, a number of conversations took place in the Cities in Transition workshop, in Ankara.

Through the ‘Drawing as communication’ workshop we attempted to develop some communication methods for understanding of the local conditions and the everyday living of the Syrian refugees in Ankara. The workshop was led by a team of researchers from the UK and Turkey, including the UEL colleagues: Dr Anastasia Karandinou, Dr Bridget Snaith, Israel Hurtado and Kyriaki Nasioula, coordinated by Dr Gul Kacmaz.

The workshop was a drawing and playing activity with Syrian children 8-11 years old. The workshop took place in the ASSAM centre, in collaboration with representatives from ASSAM, from METU, a psychologist who works with ASSAM and translators. The aim was to engage in a conversation with the children; by conversation we mean a verbal and non-verbal interaction, through drawing and playing.

The 'Drawing as communication' workshop was led by a team of researchers from the UK and Turkey, including the UEL colleagues: Dr Anastasia Karandinou, Dr Bridget Snaith, Israel Hurtado and Kyriaki Nasioula, Dr Gul Kacmaz. The workshop was a drawing and playing activity with Syrian children 8-11 years old. The workshop took place in the ASAM centre, in collaboration with representatives from ASAM, from METU, a psychologist who works with ASAM and translators.