Saturday 5th May, 2007
Today was our day off, or at least it was supposed to be.
After a late start at 10:30 a.m. (for the first time in a whole week!! Oh THANK GOD) we set off for the Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sofia (typical tourists for the first time).
Off to the Blue Mosque first: with its lovely gardens. Unfortunately we couldn't go past the inner courtyard, because prayers had begun so we decided to go across to the Hagia Sofia, which is just about 500m away from the Blue Mosque (actually it's directly opposite, in a straight line!!!).
Just enough space to get a group of 6 architects, an engineer, surveyor and geographer separated for over 30 minutes (people, the fact that there was a crowd there doesn't count).
The Hagia Sofia was just as lovely and quite grand, with one chandelier as big as my room back in London. Exquisite mosaics, intricately worked marble and brass fittings I could go on and on.
After this the group split up and Michael, Iyad, Tony, Renata, Natalia, Ioannis, Mi and I left for the Topkapi Palace while Sara, Meghna and Suzaini went to the bazaar.
For about two hours we went on tour of the palace and dined in style on the Konyali Restaurant balconey overlooking the Bosphorus.
No rest for the development practitioner, indeed. We reconvened at 8:30 for more work and:
refined our project objective and methodology, assigned tasks to different members and made a timeline for the proposed activities.
photos will come on later
Lantana
Monday, May 7, 2007
Friday, May 4, 2007
5th Day - Mapping Sulukule
A really exhausting but productive day.
At the cafe, with the help of the man with a broken arm, we defined the boundaries of Sulukule, which is much more focusing than that of the municipality project. Later, our walk and observation around this area proved that it is so different inside and outside Sulukule boundaries in terms of built morphology, street pattern and sense of community, etc: the streets are the core of their communal life full of interaction of the neighbourhood, which on the other hand does not exist outside the boundaries.
At 13:00 when the pray was beginning, we set out from the cafe walking round and observing this area. Several layers including built area, open spaces, circultation and activities taking place on the stages, etc, were allocated to us five respectively. Some of the buildings have been sold to the municipality; some looked fairly derelict and dangerous; and others, both houses and low-rise flats, were occupied by local Roma residents who conveys a strong sense of community as well as anti-demolition. Open spaces are for their communal life such as playing football. The big open space with some Romani squatters on the edge outside of Sulukule boundaries, which is always empty but used as their market, is now partly parked by the trucks of the municipality. Basic infrastructures are provided in Sulukule, and schools and hospitals are located near the area. The pedestrian communicative environment is never destroyed by cars. Everything here looks natural.
Back to the hotel, we gave each other feedback of our group works. Firstly, the panel discussion told us, "for some people music is part of life; but for Roma people music is life". Though the experience in Balat showed a negative perspective, there are great potential to be imprived and to be taken advantage of in Sulukule. And our group also shared our mapping field work with others.
- mi
On arriving at the cafe in Sulukule with Ahmet (our colleague in ITU) at around 12:30, we just came across a band of well-dressed local musicians who were about to play music on TV Station.
Another activity taking place then was that men were expected to go to the mosque to pray at 13:00 every Friday, when everything takes time out. But it is not necessary for women to go.
At the cafe, with the help of the man with a broken arm, we defined the boundaries of Sulukule, which is much more focusing than that of the municipality project. Later, our walk and observation around this area proved that it is so different inside and outside Sulukule boundaries in terms of built morphology, street pattern and sense of community, etc: the streets are the core of their communal life full of interaction of the neighbourhood, which on the other hand does not exist outside the boundaries.
At 13:00 when the pray was beginning, we set out from the cafe walking round and observing this area. Several layers including built area, open spaces, circultation and activities taking place on the stages, etc, were allocated to us five respectively. Some of the buildings have been sold to the municipality; some looked fairly derelict and dangerous; and others, both houses and low-rise flats, were occupied by local Roma residents who conveys a strong sense of community as well as anti-demolition. Open spaces are for their communal life such as playing football. The big open space with some Romani squatters on the edge outside of Sulukule boundaries, which is always empty but used as their market, is now partly parked by the trucks of the municipality. Basic infrastructures are provided in Sulukule, and schools and hospitals are located near the area. The pedestrian communicative environment is never destroyed by cars. Everything here looks natural.
Our lunch was very delicious, which is a traditional Turkish food called Kofti, at the cafe. After that, we continued to complete mapping other parts of Sulukule and then turned to the wall. The man with a broken arm was really kind, who chatted with us like old friends very freely. We got to know more uniqueness about Sulukule and picked up more Turkish words from him. At the highway side of the wall, we found there was no interaction on the other side of the wall, although on Sulukule side there were lots. A man was keeping horses on the wall; a woman was picking grasses; and boys were flying kites...But the horses we saw were really thin...sigh...
Back to the hotel, we gave each other feedback of our group works. Firstly, the panel discussion told us, "for some people music is part of life; but for Roma people music is life". Though the experience in Balat showed a negative perspective, there are great potential to be imprived and to be taken advantage of in Sulukule. And our group also shared our mapping field work with others.
After almost one-week struggle, a master framework with detailed infillings are on the way, as well as a series of unsolved problems, methodologies, priorites, and particular tasks...
Just before the coming of the work, tomorrow will be off for rest and fun. Expecting...
- mi
Thursday, May 3, 2007
4th day-Exploring the areas Fener & Balat and visit at mpc
morning 9.30, we met at Istanbul Technical University and we had discussion with an Ngo's representative about our plans to develop some workshops that can promote a participatory process.
10.30, meeting as a group with a Phd student (Mehmet) of ITU and visits at the areas of Fener and Balat. We found out that few Gypsies live in these areas. They have been pushed out as the could not afford the high prizes of the houses after many restorations projects that have taken place there. There are actually many interestings historical buildings in both of these areas and they are of the most beautiful areas in Istanbul. Some dpu students stayed in ITU developing the process and the objectives in depth based on the information we collected during the 3 days before.
14.15, preparation of questionnaire for the Instabul Metropolitan Unit.
16.oo, visit at Instabul Metropolitan Unit that is responsible for the masterplan and the urban design projects in historical city of Instabul. There were 15 different departments promoting different activities and plans.
18.00, dinner at Gunez Restauran on Istikal Street. Discussing and sharing information.
10.30, meeting as a group with a Phd student (Mehmet) of ITU and visits at the areas of Fener and Balat. We found out that few Gypsies live in these areas. They have been pushed out as the could not afford the high prizes of the houses after many restorations projects that have taken place there. There are actually many interestings historical buildings in both of these areas and they are of the most beautiful areas in Istanbul. Some dpu students stayed in ITU developing the process and the objectives in depth based on the information we collected during the 3 days before.
14.15, preparation of questionnaire for the Instabul Metropolitan Unit.
16.oo, visit at Instabul Metropolitan Unit that is responsible for the masterplan and the urban design projects in historical city of Instabul. There were 15 different departments promoting different activities and plans.
18.00, dinner at Gunez Restauran on Istikal Street. Discussing and sharing information.
ioannis
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
3rd day
im sure everyone agrees when we started still feeling exhausted from the first 2 days, havent really got to properly rest.
but despite that, we all bucked up and pull ourselves out of bed to get going to ITU approx 840am. the weather was rainy and wet the whole day. different from the 2 sunny days we were fortunate to experience prior. tough luck! heheh.
ok, got to ITU and conducted task force description, deriving from the task forces that was conjured the day before. due to the weather being wet, we spent the morning session in ITU, gathering data, discussing, lunch-ing, coffee-ing, and chit chatting with few Turkish students that would probably be working with us for this project (just our luck that they seem interested in Sulukule, yay!)
as the afternoon progressed, we separated into 2 teams, going to 2 separate venues : the Wall investigation (with 2 other ITU students, by CAR, lol!), and the NGO meeting. 
the wall investigation was so much fun! eventho it was wet and rainy, the wall is just spectacular and impressive, soooo grand! took alot of pretty pictures! (from inside the craziness of the car driven by ahmet, lol! and from ontop of the wall). data gathered just from one visit - walls incorporated with modern function; housing, hotel, commercial - fancy green parks along the bank, which is across the highway with no proper accessibility to pedestrian is just silly - and also the mafia could be involved in growing vegetables, who would have thought noh? lol!)
we met again to regroup and discuss the day's events. so from the NGO meeting, the group had collected alot of information concerning the Sulukule area and of the development project. (more and more talking .... we talk soooo much, its never ending!!!!!)
the heavy task of analysis all the info, daily info, mind u! and more loooong-discussion sessions! lol! sigh ....
anyways, its all good and fun, good learning experience. everyone seems to be positive abt the project. we all have a common goal, which helps from not ripping each other's tongues apart. this group has alot of patience. both, the students and the professors. group dynamic they say!
so, now it is 1145pm, will try to get more rest, scheduled for a very loooooong day tmrw. sigh ... hope the sun will come out and play, but according to BBC, not gona happen. sigh .... ;)
-suzaini zaid-
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Day 2 in Istanbul
Well our second day didn't start in the best way (for me especially)... lol... We went grocery shopping yesterday for the basics like milk, bread, cereal etc. So this morning I woke up looking forward to my bowl of cerial, but when I had my first spoon (FULL on top of that) i realised that what was in the cereal was not MILK but something else, which was not meant to go with cereal... CONCLUSION: no breakfast:( But on the lighter side it was Iyad's birthday!!!! (more on that storyline later;))
(boys from Sulukule, the one in blue loved Natalia's drawings)
Plan for the day: Have discussion on yesterdays events at ITU then walking and travelling around Istanbul.
Anyway BUDD met at the cafe across the hotel ready to go to ITU to discuss the project. Walking down to the metro (or tunel, not sure) we saw loads of policemen at which point we remembered it was Labour Day and there was likely to be protests so the main sqaures (Taksim) were not the best place to head off to (on the way to ITU). Which meant we had to return to the cafe and have our discussion (and have some coffee).
The discussion was on our impressions of our day yesterday in Sulukule and our impressions of
the area. This was intersting as a lot of intial questions we had were answered the day before and thus were trying to connect all we learnt to possible options for development of Sulukule.
The objective of our discussion was to 1) Compile a vision for Sulukule (how we think Sulukule to look like in a couple of years) and 2)what mechanisms are needed to achieve that vision. Various tensions and contradicatories were discussed within the dimension of urban development... Social Cohesiveness VS Cultural Diversity, Internal Production VS External consumption of the Romani Culture etc... With some discussion we arrived at some themes for our vision of Sulukule.
The discussion was on our impressions of our day yesterday in Sulukule and our impressions of
the area. This was intersting as a lot of intial questions we had were answered the day before and thus were trying to connect all we learnt to possible options for development of Sulukule.
The objective of our discussion was to 1) Compile a vision for Sulukule (how we think Sulukule to look like in a couple of years) and 2)what mechanisms are needed to achieve that vision. Various tensions and contradicatories were discussed within the dimension of urban development... Social Cohesiveness VS Cultural Diversity, Internal Production VS External consumption of the Romani Culture etc... With some discussion we arrived at some themes for our vision of Sulukule.
After a long break we met again to discuss the issues related to information gathering and divided ourselves into teams to gather information tommorrow. Most of this discussion was on the details of the information needed, such as detailed questions (for interviews), maps needed etc. Although we did not discuss the plan for each group colectively (we will tommorrow), we did put in alot of work today which will be important to move to the next stage of the project... but it will be important to share each sub groups plan as this will avoid the problem of overlapping information and different sub groups going to actors with the same questions.
After finishing at about 7pm we rested for while before heading off to Iyadji's birthday dinner. We all had some goooooood food (Turkish kebabs and stuff) before singing happy birthday Iyadji and eating his birthday cake. After dinner some of BUDD went off for some drinks while went back to the hotel to see the Chelsea loose to Liverpool....Tommorrow will be our first day of fieldwork, so there something to look forward to!!!
Tony
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