IABR director George Brugmans: “Like all metropolitan regions in the world Istanbul is preparing itself for the challenges ahead. How can we harmonise rapidly advancing urbanisation with ecological and economic concerns? In the next few years, the urban planners, designers, politicians, cultural operators, citizens and entrepreneurs of Istanbul will need to find common ground on this issue.” 

Making City Istanbul presents three urban projects that not only offer concrete solutions for specific local issues, but also present inspiring strategies and examples that are offered as inspiration and possible benchmarks.

Test Site Rotterdam argues that Making City essentially depends on human beings: we all have a role to play when it comes to the sustainable transformation of our habitat. São Paulo provides us with examples of how the clash between social and ecological issues may be solved by playing the card of economics. And IABR Atelier Istanbul shows us that a separation of functions is less sustainable than an integrated vision that embeds agriculture, water management and forestry in the process of on-going urbanisation. 

Making City Istanbul, co-curated by George Brugmans and Joachim Declerck, with visuals by the Dutch graphic design office LUST, is on view until 13 December 2012 and is part of NLTR400, a roster of activities and events celebrating four hundred years of trade relations between the Netherlands and Turkey.

Organised by IABR, the seminar Making City Istanbul takes place on 15 October as part of the launch programme of the Istanbul Design Biennial. During the morning session, which will be opened by mayors Aboutaleb (Rotterdam) and Baltacı (Arnavutköy, Istanbul), Dirk Sijmons (H+N+S Landschapsarchitecten and curator of the 6th IABR in 2014) will give a presentation of the strategy and results of the IABR Atelier Istanbul. The Atelier developed a strategic vision and action plan at municipal level, eventually to be realised throughout the entire Istanbul metropolitan area.  Turkish architect Emre Arolat, curator of the Istanbul Design Biennale, will discuss the potential of this comprehensive, innovative strategy.

The seminar is followed by a networking lunch for Dutch and Turkish organisations, organised in collaboration with the Municipality of Rotterdam, DutchDFA and the Economic Development Board Rotterdam.

The afternoon programme examines ways of fine-tuning the approaches to sustainable urban development outlined in Making City Istanbul to the specific context of Istanbul and how stakeholders – planners, designers, politicians, civil society, and market parties – can put them into practice. After a number of short presentations of the three projects, these issues will be discussed in a debate between Dutch, Belgian and Turkish designers and architects, in dialogue with the public.

The seminar is part of NLTR400, a programme of events celebrating four hundred years of trade relations between the Netherlands and Turkey.