Notes from 7 March 2013

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Levent Şentürk

Our first exercises on the site Lohberg: “A Carpet for Lohberg”

Yesterday (7.3.2013) we made our first discussions about the revision of the industrial mining site in Lohberg. The summary is of course my personal ideas and thoughts; Duygu and Arzu might disagree; or make further comments to the following.

 I took notes during the discussions and I would like to share them so that our students and the rest of all in Germany can be informed about what we are trying to deal with. We are making all our discussions in Turkish and I will try to summarize them in English as far as I can…

This can also be a reconsideration for our students to rethink the very beginning of their ideas about their site plan sketches.

For the next week, we are planning to have our first jury; so last week we gave the brief in a three-step way. The first step was about their concept; how we should deal with the site: The site plan should be reconsidering all the situations about the interaction between the early thwentieth-century neighborhood and the industrial site. So a concept was our first demand, each student has to consider the concept of his/her situation plan. The second demand was about giving functions to the protected buildings. We are expecting from our students to re-use each building. The third demand about the site plan is that they should weave the relationship of the site with the neighborhood so that a new ground is designed and they must be thinking about what kind of a surface on the ground is re-created.

The second task is about anther scale; the building. In a closer look, every student is expected to choose a building or some buildings to focus on. In 1/200 scale, they will be designing their re-programmed buildings existing on the site. This can also be considered as an in-between; i. e., a corridor between two buildings, a passage, a covering, shell, etc.

Yiğit Uçar (M): Unfortunately in his first sketch it was hard to see the concept, analysis about the site or an idea that could weave the new relationships. He was trying to see the urban relations on the plan, it was still difficult for him to understand everything from the photos. For Yiğit we may be needing a wandering video shoot in and around the marketplace from Lohberg and the connecting streets. Because photos seem to be insufficient to deal with the industrial site and the neighborhood. His view has to become three-dimensional. This video can be shoot by any person living in Lohberg; we may be asking for a route to follow; we may demand this route by simply coding this route or routes on the existing site plans; so a student or students in the high school may be shooting them for us?

            Sümeyra Yirekli (F): The situation seemed to be the same, even worse, for Sümeyra. We wanted a 1/1000 scale site plan for their first considerations; unfortunately, Sümeyra brought a 1/5000-like map, only showing the road-connections related to driving. However, the site plan is a walking and cycling distance (and scale) look, so this way of mapping seems irrelevant. The lack of a concept was also obvious.

            Nursima Aladağ (F): She came up with lots of fruitful ideas abut the site as a whole, not to mention all the buildings existing and planned to exist within the site. She analyzed the site by color-coding them in yellow for concert spaces and spaces for children, in blue for ateliers, in green for recreational uses and in red for a gastonomical area/zone. The XL Coal storing/mixing shed in wood was re-functioned partly as a drive-in cinema and for concerts. Many cinema spaces were foreseen under the she also. We warned her about the structure, the longitudinal and cross-sectional planning of the huge space. The re-using proposal for the concrete water tank was a way an inspiration from the Landschaftspark in Duisburg Nord. She foresaw a reuse for the tank-building as a swimming pool or as a skating platform in winter. The rectangular new proposed buildings close to the metallic tower which is kept were re-programmed as gastonomical and entertainment retails. The ground of the tower, which is to be cleaned after the deomition is completed was considered to be an intersection of various activities and uses: Exhibition, gastronomy and leisure. She also foresaw some offices, minor offices for companies to be housed and a bicycle-web between the industial site and the neighborhood Lohberg.

            Tuğba Abaklı (F): She tried to conceptualize a triple-route beginning from the marketplace to the mining site. The routes were a representation of the Turks, the Germans and the hybridization of the two. This seemed to us a bit too-representational considering the background of Lohberg. There could be two routes, one for the Turks and one for the Germans; the intersecting venues would become the hybridization itself.  Arzu made an interesting remark about the “mischung/mixing” that there routes as a cultural narrative could only be possible in an ironic way, so that after following each, one will find asking himself/herself “what is German identity, what is Turkish identity?” Only this kind of a confusing narrative would be ironic and successful. I added that the stories of people living in Lohberg could be collected by using different sorts of media, videos, sound recordings, etc to make an oral history out of these intersecting cultural routes to follow.

Özlem Yıkıcı (F): She had an idea of making a lateral, metalical, modular, planar marking as an installation. These units would transform into sheds, floorings, etc within Lohberg and the mine zone. She had some ideas about the buildings to be used for scientific facilities. So Duygu suggested this project to become a technopark campus, for experiments, museum, etc.

Elif Koyuncu (F): “Rüzgargülü”. She decided to name her conceptual work “windmill” (???). This conception is related to natural resources of energy, dynamism, continuity and the mélange of colours when the windmill is in rotation. She planned to re-shape the site as a campus for theatre and dancing. The XL depot would house these two main functions. The water tower will serve as a vista location, she is planning to situate a museum in the new waterfront (pond), some exhibition halls will unite eith the museum, there will be ateliers, etc. Still, the relationship between the mine site and housing was not clear; however the concept seemed very fruitful for the future development of the project and for the workshop…

İrem Turhan (F): She made her concept around a new artificialization that was radically proposing new landmarks to the site which would produce a new dialogue between the existing iron towers. She was also suggesting new city squares, an axis that would bind the housing and the industry. She proposed new gigantic follies in the form of sheds.

Ayşe Nur Saltı (F): Her analysis looked like a planar road division, therefore were insufficient. The longitudinal building is supposed to be used by her as a museum.

Ercan Çam (M): Ercan was the first to make some collages about the future of the site. He is foreseeing that the industrial landscape will become a colorful and casual space, so his collages were concentrating on the concept questioning “what is an industrial site?” The keywords like “awareness” were criticized by us that it was not the point; awareness looks like a Turkish priority due to the industrial burdens in turkey. His collages were transforming both the Landschaftspark and Lohberg. He made a red coding system to be inserted in the ground. This will contain a steel rail section with a red lighting system. Red lights will be visible when it is dark and will serve as landmarks; sometimes transforming into bus stops or benches. Productivity is the slogan of his work. He decided to keep one of the yet to be demolished buildings’ laod-bearing system and insert coloured cubes in it.

Rakibe Ergül (F): She brought us impressive sketch analysis. The whole site is considered as a viod. The idea seems to become a fruitful and imaginative architectural design. She decided to zone the whole campus for museums, concerts, film productions and most of all for recreative programs. The paysage within a visual depth can become an interesting designing idea.

Sündüs Kargı (F): Her sketch was dealing with a musical center and we advised her to reconsider the idea as a soundscape.

Buket Pilan (F): Buket is planning to make the industrial site a dancing center. For the workshop she brought the idea to use mirrors. The mirrors will be positioned so that we will still be able to see the steel tower from the marketplace. This is an experimental task to multiply the image of the tower without using any digital or copying technologies. She also told about putting mirrors to the industrial zone to reflect the protected buildings. Every building will have conventional programs like restaurant, atelier for dancing clothes, etc except the fact that each will also contain something from the main theme, “dance/dancing”.

Ömer Faruk Hayal (M): Ömer was fascinated with the truth that some seeds came to the Landschaftsfark from overseas when minerals were brought for pig iron production in the past when the park was still an iron factory. These seeds have now become the endemic botanical burden of the park. He thought to refresh this idea for Lohberg and transform the whole site as a seed production campus and to make a new hybrid flora. However, we found the idea has a very weak spatiality and it will be impossible to think the whole site only as an agricultural landscape.