URBZ continues its experimentation with local knowledge production, collective creativity, individual expression and radical pedagogy in Istanbul with the Mashup Workshop, which will bring together local residents, travellers, thinkers, creators, doers and other enthusiasts in the neighbourhood of Sishane-Galata.

Just as many other parts of Istanbul, Sishane-Galata needs to redefine itself in a context that keeps on expanding. Well known for its bazaar-like atmosphere and tight social networks, Sishane-Galata is a not-so-global neighbourhood in a city that seems to constantly grow and stretch itself. Just as Istanbul is being celebrated as a global city at the centre of a vast sphere of economic and cultural influence, the same global, regional and metropolitan powers are forcing so many localities to redefine their functions and identities.

Fortunately, not all forces brought about by globalization are synonymous with cultural and economic homogenization. Sometimes the flows can be reversed and villages, small streets and local communities can send a feedback to the world. Like the bright light of a shining star, such feedback signals a singular existence, one among millions. Millions of neighbourhoods affirming themselves in the world, and all of them in their own way, providing a sense of their trajectories, which can serve as an inspiration to others.

The Mashup Workshop will serve as an eccentric instrument pitching and magnifying the voices of Sishane-Galata and bringing them to the world –or at least to the World-Wide Web. Rather than pledging to accurately reproduce local beats, workshop participants will mix them, mash them and tune them up to their own realities. The workshop aims at establishing a connection with the neighbourhood and its residents in the form of a creative dialog. In the process, local skills and knowledge will be used and investigated, along with those of participants from other parts of the world.

The workshop’s output will be a multimedia portrait of the neighbourhood and its broader context, using all forms of expression available, including video, photo, sound, design, drawing, fiction, performance, and painting. The material produced will be published on urbz.net and madeinsishane.com. The workshop will raise awareness locally and globally, promote the neighbourhood and its residents, assist them in their advocacy, and hopefully influence planning and policy-making.

Stay tuned! for more updates urbz.net/istanbul

Rahul & Matias are proud to present the work of the URBZ collective at TEDxMumbai on Saturday April 3rd, 2010 (between 4:30 and 5:50 PM) at the Blue Frog. They will be speaking about how user-generated cities are not only possible but essential if we want to build a future that is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. They will show how the fear of slums and the rush to redevelop them into high-rise buildings is responsible for one of the worst man-made disaster in the history of urban development and propose alternative approaches based on their work and projects in Dharavi and elsewhere.

Live stream: http://www.ustream.tv/tedxmumbai

Schedule: http://tedxmumbai.com/schedule/

Samuha is a collective of artists based in Bangalore (Bengaluru). URBZ is helping them design a temporary workshop/exhibition and party space in the neighborhood of Richmond Town. [gmap] This design is a participatory work in process:

The main idea was to provide large spaces where different functions would not be segregated from one another, so that more fluid forms of multi-media, 2D, 3D and perfomance art could take place: the stage can be viewed from two different places, 2D artwork can be displayed in the lecture hall, on the stage area, in the café-bar area, as well as in the atrium and stairs. Art pieces, 2D or sculpture can essentially hang anywhere in the building (walls and even ceiling).

There are huge empty walls, and since the entire structure is made of scaffolding, there nothing easier than to attach panels, banners, picture, objects, a projector or even to hang large objects from the ceiling structure or on the facade. There is a total floor area of 4800 sqft.: 2800 sqft on the ground floor. 2000 sqft on the first floor. The building footprint is 3000 sqft (66′ x 59′). -LECTURE HALL: 1500 sqft, with a stage area of 500 sqft. 150 people can sit.

EXHIBITION SPACE: 2000 sqft, without counting the Atrium, Stairs to first floor and other potential spaces that can be used to exhibit work.

ATRIUM-GARDEN-HANG OUT SPACE: 800 sqft

CAFE-BAR: located within the exhibition space, sitting space could be anywhere in the Garden /Hang out space.

WORKING STUDIOS, 2000 sqft., organized in two parts:

OPEN TABLES AREA:  65′ length of table which could accomodate 50 ppl working -semi-closed working spaces: 29 semi-closed studio spaces with table and chairs.

Organized in small clusters with small open chill-out area / garden space in between 25 x small_25sqft. the unit can accommodate 2 pple, a total of 50 ppl 3 x medium_50 sqft. the unit can accommodate 8 pple, a total of 24 ppl 1 x large_100 sqft_the unit can accommodate 15 pple, a total of 15 ppl -A total 140 ppl approx can work on the first floor and more ppl can work on the ground floor, in the Atrium, lobby or sitting around the garden to use the wireless.

Two small BATHROOMS 25 sqft approx.

The Structure:

We have been working on many different options before choosing to go with scaffolding to provide structure and a basic skeleton. We went through pallet racks wood rods and bamboo, but it seemed  that scaffolding offered the most possibilities. The main constraints on the structure are a load of 100-300 people and building a floor or two that can bear the same amount of load. Also, the floor and ceiling heights are flexible.

We designed the whole structure as ’space-frames’, meaning that the building is made as a large box with thick hollow walls. It will give a huge atrium and great light. The space frame could be covered with fabric and custom-made plastic sheets for waterproofing. The material should be pretty cheap, and we could even work directly with some recycler in neighboring slum settlements and local workshops for the sewing.

The whole building will look like a box from the outside with few windows and doors punctuating the volume, and at night, the building would look like a light box.

We already mentioned it above, but this building made of scaffolding would allow one to curate art works in infinite ways. It would even be easy to display huge banners on the outside walls of the building. All of the electrical equipment could run through the space-frame walls to provide outlets in any place within the building. Lamps and projectors could be attached to any parts of the ceiling with a simple clipping system.

Some facts about scaffolding:  Easily available in India and to be rented, therefore a cheap solution, easy and quick mounting, easy to dismount and remount -lightweight but extremely resistant -comes as a kit of parts, all the joints are available, and it provides limitless possibilities.

Construction and moving from city A to B: The whole building should be easy to put together. The structure should be put together by a skilled worker, but there are plenty of other things to build that would allow anyone to come and participate. We are sure that we could get a whole workshop of architecture students to come and help as well.