As GEDS, we would like to promote designers in the Business World. For this aim, this year we have supported SXSW Place by Design Awards 2020 as a partner. We had two roles in the program. We have recommended candidates to the SXSW awards team and also our founder Gulay Ozkan was on the advisory board of the awards.
One of our recommended projects BOGADA has made the finals and been invited to SXSW Final presentation which will take place on March 16, 2020, in Austin, Texas.
We have asked Dilara Kara who will represent the BOGADA Project in Austin, how she felt about the application process as well as the story of BOGADA. We wish her great success at the finals.
BOGADA
Dilara KARA
Three years ago, surprisingly, I found myself in a union I had been dreaming of since the first day I started my architectural education.
A friend who believes that the “guerilla architecture” movement can come into prominence in Turkey, has pursued an international Tandem fund which brought together a Spanish architecture collective and Turkish architectural collectives and created a wonderful environment for them to produce. Apart from the beauty of this productive environment created in Istanbul, the words ‘guerrilla design’, ‘collective production’, ‘participatory process’ have been unusually involved in a ‘municipality’ project.
Executed by the Spanish and Turkish collectively, in the heart of Kadikoy with the Tandem Turkey fund and support of Kadikoy Municipality, we have made an urban design project in the heart of Kadikoy alongside the Boga (Bull) statue. After three months of research and preliminary design preparation, as a result of a ten-day production period, we renewed the area around the willow tree located at the entrance of Bahariye Street and made area improvement with seat units. During the research, while the requests of the residents have listened, the responses of the users of the region were given priority during the production and settlements.
During the design and production process, where we prioritize the circular design principles, we evaluated the waste materials from the warehouse of Kadıköy Municipality. In the workshops of the municipality, we also provided training sessions to the participants and put the productions to square that we made all together. BOGADA has set an example for the formation of new types of projects in many ways, both due to the process design and the correct relationships with the municipality. Perhaps this was the most important aspect of the project. It was very promising for me as a young architect at the beginning of her career to see that the user-designer relationship emphasized in design schools resulted quite well when it was shaped by participatory design rules.
Around two years ago BOGADA had received good news; the project was going to be shown at the LSE Cities: Conflicts of an Urban Age in Arup London office. Moreover, there was not even an application that we made, it was a user of BOGADA nominated the project. This was the first international success of the BOGADA Project.
In the last months of 2019, this time, a friend from GEDS’ design team reminded me of BOGADA, while making a project proposal for the Place by Design category of SXSW2020. It made me incredibly happy to see that the first person to defend BOGADA was actually a BOGADA user. I applied to the Place by Design category through the support of GEDS. Months passed and I learned that BOGADA was chosen as one of the 5 finalists with the mail I received one night. GEDS, which encouraged me to participate in the contest, continues to support me as a mentor throughout the process, from sponsorship to preparation for my presentation.
It has been 3 years since this ‘tiny’ guerrilla architecture touch we made in 2017; while the massive concrete masses, metal plates, and heavy seats made by the municipality during this period could not withstand the speed and use of Kadıköy, our tiny seats are still in their places today. I will present BOGADA in the grand finale on SXSW2020 on March 16 and I will talk about all that. Design is possible with the right design approach, correct collaborations, and correct process management. Living designs are possible, as long as we have the courage to do so. I would like to thank GEDS for supporting courageous designers.
