Architecture & Urbanism in the Age of Planetary Crisis

10:00-10:15, Opening Speech, Professor Dr. Senem Zeybekoglu, Conference Chair, Ecodemia

10:15-11:00, Keynote Speech,  Towards Lightness and Freedom: Reimagining Architecture and Education, Professor David Gloster, Director Of Education, Royal Institute of British Architects

11:00-12:30, Session 1, Moderator: Professor David Gloster

• The Urban Commons as A Possibility for the Socio-Spatial Justice   in the Cities of the Global South: Rethinking the Favelas in the Metropolis of   Rio De Janeiro, Bernardo Soares, Ph.D. Candidate, Federal University of Rio de   Janeiro
• Creating Geographies for Capital Accumulation and the   Reproduction of Crises, Dr. Paria Valizadeh, Near East University
• Post-Democracy Governance in Refugee Camps. Unveiling the   Socio-Spatial Conflicts of Refugee Crisis in Athens and Thessaloniki,  Dr. Charalampos Tsavdaroglou Professor Dr. Konstantinos Lalenis, University of Thessaly
• Recovering the City, Citizen Empowerment Towards A Tactical   Urbanism, Amine Mseddi, Asil Zureigat, Carlos Enriquez Diaz, Jéssica   Andrade Dos Santos, Letícia Pacheco Dos Passos Claro, Madelyn Lackman, Sarah   Ben Salem, Ecodemia
• What Do We Have to Be Careful about Public Space in the Age of   Planetary Crisis?, Beatrice Galimberti, Phd Candidate, Politecnico di Milano
• The Contributions of Architects   to Post-Conflict (Re)Construction: Social Processes Towards Building Peace,   Case studies from Rwanda, Colombia and Iraq, Sabine Lepere, Uppsala University

12:30-13:30 Lunch Break

13:30-14:15 Keynote Speech: Unveiling Istanbul: Taksim Urban Design   Competition for Prost’s espaces libres, Professor Dr. Ipek Akpinar, Izmir Institute of Technology

14:15-15:45 Session 2, Moderator: Professor Dr. Ipek Akpinar, Izmir Institute of Technology 

• De-urbanisation as Paradigm and   Process: The Embedded Transdisciplinarity in De-Urbanisation, Danielle Maccarthy, Joshua Hurtado, Ecodemia
• Towards Post-Pandemic Urban   Change; Renaissance of Bicycle Networks, Gurkan Guney,, Ph.D. Candidate   Dr. S. Aysegul Tokol, Middle East Technical   University, Bilkent University
• The Urbanization Processes of   Northern Istanbul in the Anhropocene Era: The Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge and the   Northern Marmara Highway, Dr. Evren Aysev, Istanbul Bilgi University
• Strategy and Planning from the Field: An Alternative Methodology, Professor Dr. Fátima Silva, Rui Seco, Ph.D. Candidate, CITAD Lusíada University Lisbon
• The Incentivization of Freedom and Its Future, Muhammad Isfandyar Khan, Ahmad Waseem Ghauri, Spacemen Architecture Design, TkXel
• An Analysis of Children's Perceptions on the Concept of   Neighbourhood through Their Own Paintings, Dr. Nevset Gul Canakcioglu, Ozyegin University

15:45-16:00 Break

16:00-17:30 Session 3 Moderator: Dr. Hossein SADRI, Professor, Girne American University, Lecturer, Coventry University

• Sustainability and Smartness During a Pandemic Scenario: Case Study   in New York City, Professor Dr. Monica Santos   Salgado, Federal University of Rio de   Janeiro
• A Reading on New Social Praxis and Its   Possible Effects on Built Environment in the Post-Pandemic Era through the   Brave New World Text, Sinan Yasan, Merve Cengiz, Associate   Professor Dr. Ece Ceylan Baba, Yeditepe University
• The Pandemic Reveal: American Housing Policy 1920 - 2020, and its Lasting Impact on the   Black Community, Jerrod Delaine, Assistant   Professor, Pratt Institute
• House Types, Settlement Patterns, Infrastructure and Physical   Distancing Measures During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Adedayo H. Ayoola, Professor Dr. Amira Osman, Federal University of Technology, Tshwane University of Technology
• The Crisis of Place-Based Labour at the Crossroads of Planetary   Gentrification and the COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Gulsah Aykac, Adjunct Lecturer, TEDU
• Urban Planning Evolution by Virtual Workplaces, Ghazal Khaksari, UITM (Universiti Teknologi   MARA)
• Seeking Potentials in the New Cultural & Material Reality of   the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Critical Appraisal from the Lenses of New Babylon, Ali Dur, Lecturer, Ph.D.   Candidate, Kadir Has University

13:30-14:15 Keynote Speech: Reproducing Architecture and Urbanism in the   Midst of a Pandemic Condition, Professor Dr. Ashraf Salama, Chair in Architecture, University of Strathclyde

14:15-15:45, Session 4: Moderator: Professor Dr. Ashraf Salama, University of Strathclyde

• How Can Architects Serve the Climate Crisis? Presenting A Design-Led   Solution to the Wicked Problem, Rebecca Jane Mcconnell, Ph.D. Candidate, Queen's University Belfast
• Using Case Studies to Explore the Concept of Buildings-As-Energy-Service, Dr. Maurizio Sibilla, Senior Research Fellow, Dr. George   Blumberg, Senior Lecturer, Oxford Brookes University
• Ti.hum : Tierra húmeda | Especies   Coexistence Urban Model for Vulnerable Basins The Case of Tierra Amarilla, Agro-Mining   Town of the Copiapó River Basin, Atacama Region, Chile, Alessia Valenti, Pontificia Universidad Católica   de Chile
• Retracing Reconstruction. Establishing An Analytical Drawing   Method for the Comprehension and Systematisation of Urban Metamorphosis   Following Extreme Events, Dr. Jacopo Galli, Università Iuav di Venezia
• A Home in the Earth, Made without Hands, Iliona Outram Khalili, University of Kent
• Transform to Transform Ourselves, María Ignacia Lucares, María Paz Jiménez, Alexandre Carbonnel, Hugo   Pérez, Daniel Escobar, Dayana Gavilanes, Universidad de Santiago de   Chile 

15:45-16:00 Break

16:00-16:40 Keynote Speech: Transition Design: An Approach   for Addressing Complex "wicked" Problems and Catalyzing Transitions   Toward More Sustainable Long-Term Futures, Professor Terry Irwin, Director of Transition Design Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

Architecture and urbanism play a significant role in the production and reproduction of urbanization and the supremacy of the state and capital, which results in the current planetary crisis. Unveiling the interconnection of this crisis and architecture and urbanism is the first and the most significant step to finding out the ethical function of architecture and urbanism in the solution of this crisis. 

Wars, deforestation, poverty, soil erosion, hunger, pollution, injustice, climate change, inequality, mass extinction of species, uncontrollable wildfires, and current epidemics - the ravages of our time - as well as mass migration have changed the 21st Century to a century of planetary crisis.

In addition to the ecological effects of this crisis, especially climate change and associated extremities which mostly preoccupy our attention, the social impacts of the current crisis are also major concerns. We are witnessing alarming inequalities that are unprecedented in history. While the richest 1% of the world population is holding almost 50% of the wealth of the planet, the majority of the rest is struggling with poverty, wars, autocratic regimes, racism, and famine. All these make the most excluded communities of the world more susceptible and vulnerable to the impacts of this crisis.

With all its different aspects from injustices to environmental disasters, this crisis is a result of a union of hegemonic forces between state and capital which are both products and byproducts of current urbanization and its consumerist life, centralized services and hegemonic control mechanisms over massive populations that largely reside in easily steerable dense areas. These characteristics eradicate human scale relations, and people’s will and control over their lives, their self-sufficiency and independence and builds consumer, dependent and vulnerable societies.

This conference aims to examine the different roles architecture and urbanism, as agencies of the current urbanization, have played in the emergence of the current planetary crisis and more importantly to explore the necessary shifts in the education and practice of architecture and urbanism which can lead to possible solutions to this crisis and promise a better world for all of its inhabitants.