Mission

In the information age, cutting-edge digital technology brings about silent revolutions in industrial production methods and profound transformations in the social and spatial organization of the productive processes. Within such context, the settled relationships between human and manufacture are about to be reformulated radically by the new codes of conduct. This inevitably alters the conventional forms and patterns constructed on the established protocols between the industry and the city.

The current transformation, in this sense, has its own risks and opportunities. If managed well, the cities that are already provided with industrial infrastructures would adapt to the new period by retaining and increasing their production capacities. The cities deprived of industrial background, in turn, would generate such capacity by introducing novel policies in an integrative manner. That signifies an actual need for operational programs incorporating the know-how of economics, spatial planning, and design.

The prospective programs aiming for the productive cities, in this framework, are to deal with the fundamental questions to researched by design:

  • re-embracing industry as the generative and reclamation force of the city,
  • formulating new proximities between living and working sustainably,
  • increasing the productivity of industrial districts/complexes while strengthening their perceived spatial quality and vitality,
  • enabling manufacturing to expose a sense of pride by the higher visibility in the urban landscape,
  • approaching industrial districts as the generator of urban form and as an opportunity to develop alternative life patterns in and around the city.

From this perspective, INDUSTRIAL URBANISM_TURKEY aims to develop strategic perspectives for the future transformation of the industrial districts in relation to the city in the very urbanistic context of Turkey. The program eventually provides an operational view for supporting the industrial development of the cities while ensuring good urbanism, effective planning strategies, and responsive architecture.