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

Some neighborhoods are around the clock non-stop, phenomena. Playing or working residents and “users” have no time to lose. Our 48h non-stop workshops harness this restless, perpetually-in-motion energy, where people become willing  to dive in a creative exercise with full intensity, in a context where they would otherwise be unable to take 4 or 5 days off of their routine.

The 48h non-stop workshop format is inspired by ‘hackers events’ such as Yahoo!’s Hack U and Open Hack where talented young programmers get access to previously unknown codes and have 48h to develop new application prototypes. It is also inspired by architecture school’s design charrettes where collaborators just push themselves to the maximum to produce a final output.

As draining as it may be, these intensive and short periods of production, often  facilitate very interesting output. They unleash a different kind of energy where the need to take quick decisions to move ahead of the project, helps cutting through to the bare essentials. While we believe that 48 hours is rarely enough to produce quality work, it is often enough to generate ideas that can be further developed later on.

Another interesting feature of the 48h workshop is that it involves experiencing a site at night as well as during the day. In some cases, the nightlife of a place is just as important (or more) as the day life. Encouraging all participants to be up at night (at least the first night) is a good way to make sure that this dimension is given equal importance.

48h workshops can also be repeated over a longer period of time. For instance on every first weekend of the month for a few months. This reduces the stress of producing output in short spurts, allowing some ideas to mature in between each workshops. Condensed moments like these 48h workshops draw from the energy unleashed by compression, which – as anyone who has worked against deadlines – knows can be pretty productive. Keep a lookout here for more announcements.

Sites: JJ School of Art and Architecture, Wilson College Neighbourhood, Chowpatty, Khotachiwadi, Crawford Market.

The MASHUP is an opportunity to visualize Mumbai’s oldest neighbourhoods afresh. This is important not only because these constantly evolving spaces are changing at a fast pace, but also because a little bit of imagination can help them do so without disrupting their spirit and the lives of their old and new residents. Your photograph, photo-shopped image, graphic, painting, poem, rendering, essay or anything else that you choose to express yourself with, will go a long way in giving direction to the ongoing make over of this part of the city. The MASHUP will work with Mumbai’s student and resident population together with international participants. We will explore these neighbourhoods, archive ongoing transformations, introduce thoughts, ideas and images from elsewhere and help visualize the future in a manner that does justice to both, the history and aspirations of these spaces.

Why leave this important task to politicians and the development lobby? Come – join the fun and take charge!

The MASHUP activities cover the oldest neighbourhoods of the city. Girgaum, where Khotachiwadi  – the much threatened and celebrated trophy heritage habitat exists, just a stone’s throw away from Chowpatty beach, another historic space for demonstrating free expression. A fifteen minute walk takes you to Crawford Market – Mumbai’s oldest and favourite shopping destination, facing its own challenges. In between lies a maze of dense streets and bazaars that testify the ability of the city’s numerous communities to make the city what it is, a city of shops, markets, factories, docks, artisanship, dreams and collective aspirations.

In this maze lie opportunities that provide newer definitions of what it means to be a Mumbaikar, through the many languages the city speaks in, the many cultural practices it invents, its changing and evolving built forms, its bazaars and markets that are as vital and dense as the air Mumbai breathes – making the question of its identity richer than anything the city officially celebrates. Way richer than the imagination of its political leaders and deeper than the possibilities framed by its most conscientious citizens.

Register now!!!

Tokyo: July 17th – 19th, 2009

This fantastic and contrary city has been a consistent source of inspiration to URBZ. The MASHUP organized there included participants from two Temple University Japan courses, Metropolitan Tokyo, led by Dr. Geeta Mehta and Tokyo Stories, lead by Professors Ron Carr and Irene Herrera.

The projects undertaken during the workshop included the following themes/ locations:

G-Cans: A design based exploration of Tokyo’s mysterious underground water storage facility.

Nakagin Capsule Tower: The landmark structure, which is in danger of being demolished is the subject of study.

Shimokitazawa: A continuation of the spirit of the Urban Typhoon workshop 2006, framing it as the “SOHO” of Tokyo.

Golden Gai/ Kabukicho: The post war black market district that is now famous for its bars.

Shibuya: In all its eclectism.

Nihonbashi: A design based study of Japan’s important landmark that lies buried under highways.

Mashup Partner: Temple University Japan Campus (http://www.tuj.ac.jp)

Come Re-envision Tokyo!

You are cordially invited to MASHP presentations/party at Design Festa Gallery in Harajuku on July 17th from 5:00 p.m. See map bellow:

TUJ -URBZ Mashup exhibit will continue at the Gallery till July 19th. In an interdisciplinary attempt to capture the city of Tokyo, students from two TUJ courses, Metropolitan Tokyo (lead by Prof. Geeta Mehta) and Tokyo Stories (lead by Professors Ron Carr and Irene Herrera) as well as local people and guests joined together for this MASHUP The participants explored architecture, neighborhoods and unique urban events through multi-media during the month of June, and then re-envisioned them. Teams will present videos on the mysterious underground flood water storage facility G-Cans, the endangered Nakagin Capsule Tower, Shimokitazawa’s current controversial battle, the Golden Gai district now famous for its bars, eclectic Shibuya, and Nihonbashi- the centre of Japan’s capital currently buried under highways.

Tokyo Stories is an elective course initiated by Ron Carr with the intention of motivating students to explore personal narratives of the city through visual anthropology, oral history and new media. It is now jointly taught with Irene Herrrera.

For more information please contact Irene, Ron or Geeta . We look forward to seeing you there.

URBAN TYPHOONS are events during which local communities from particular neighbourhoods get together with urban practitioners from around the world to produce visions and ideas for a collectively authored effort at urban planning and transformation. The workshops are based on the premise that communities and neighbourhoods have the basic skills and talent to participate more effectively in the processes of urban planning or in simply making appropriate choices that affect their future and the future of their cities. During a ten day interactive event, resource-persons work in teams comprising of local residents and practitioners from everywhere to develop specific themes.

The first Urban Typhoon workshop was held in Shimokatazawa, Tokyo, Japan,in 2006. The second one took place in Koliwada, Dharavi, Mumbai, India in 2008.

Behind the specific contexts of the Urban Typhoon workshops lies a theme of great relevance for urban communities around the world: the participation of the residents in the planning of their urban environment. Over the past decade, participatory planning has gradually gained recognition in the fields of planning and development. Developing cities, such as Curitiba in Brazil, Bogota in Colombia, and Mumbai in India, have experimented with participatory schemes, inspiring other cities, as well as international organizations such as the United Nations and the World Bank. Residents’ participation has become an essential element of urban policy in the developing world, as well as in highly developed cities such as Tokyo.

URBAN TYPHOON Khirkee Village, New Delhi, 2010

URBAN TYPHOON Koliwada, Dharavi, Mumbai 2008

URBAN TYPHOON, Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, 2006