Müge AKKAR ERCAN

Prof. Dr., Middle East Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of City and Regional Planning, Ankara, Turkey

As the co-leader of the WG3 Planning Policy of CA18137 European Middle-Class Mass Housing project, I was asked to organize the Stakeholder Workshop in 2021 in Turkiye at my university. It was a great pleasure for me to organize an international event with the involvement of international experts and young local researchers and academics, together with the engagement of residents and the housing corporate of a middle-class mass housing site in Ankara. I aimed to contribute to the development of this Workshop in collaboration with an international team which became real through the continuous communication with the Action Chair, the grant holder manager, Dr Juliana Martins, and my young colleagues from METU. Besides the organizational and managerial roles, I wanted to contribute to this Workshop through my research and teaching experience and knowledge in urban design, public space, urban regeneration and conservation, sustainable urbanism and sustainable community development. I also aimed to start a good dialogue between the local community and the district municipality through this Workshop. I hope this stakeholder workshop brings many innovative and co-creative ideas to improve the quality of life in Umitköy Sitesi and reveal new sustainable regeneration possibilities for such a valuable middle-class mass housing site to be an inspiring example for other middle-class mass housing sites.

Sofia BORUSHKINA

PhD candidate, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

I describe myself as a scholar of urban and regional planning, governance, and policy with a focus on housing and post-socialist urban development. In particular, I am interested in how legacy and current context interact to shape contemporary urban policy. I am currently a 3rd year PhD student at Politecnico di Milano and will begin my visiting period at the Faculty of Area Studies in Oxford in October ’22. My doctoral dissertation is dedicated to the contradictions in the development of mass housing in Moscow, while the geography of previous projects includes Kazakhstan, Belarus and Azerbaijan. I am interested in participating in the Workshop for several reasons. First, I believe that stakeholder engagement and collaboration is a key element in implementing any changes in urban housing, from small improvements to large-scale interventions. It would be useful for me to observe and reflect on what this process looks like in such an interesting place as Ankara. Second, I have read a lot of literature on the urban planning system and housing policy in Turkey. I plan to continue my PhD with a comparative study of housing policy approaches in Turkey, China, and Russia, for which this Workshop will be incredibly useful. Finally, I would like to gain a deeper understanding of how mass housing works in different contexts with different legacies, demographics, approaches, and socio-political situations. The case of Ankara seems very attractive to me from this point of view. In a chapter “A Story of Mass Housing Reconstruction Programmes in Moscow. Lessons (not) Learnt” which I wrote for the MCMH book “Urban Renewal in Mass Housing “, I try to argue that the success or failure of housing initiatives depends to a large extent on the city regime and its willingness to cooperate with citizens. In the case of Moscow housing, the authoritarian features of the city regime do not allow it to rely on local stakeholders in solving housing problems. As I have read in the literature, urban regimes in Turkey also exhibit authoritarian traits, so I would like to test my findings on the case of Ankara. I am sure that the experiences from the Workshop will be an important broadening of horizons for me.

Meriç ALTINTAŞ KAPTAN

Teaching and research assistant, PhD candidate, Construction Sciences Program, Istanbul Technical University

My major research interests include technological adaptation, refurbishment, and transformation of modern buildings and sites. Between 2018-2019, I participated as a researcher in an Erasmus+ partnership project entitled “Re-use of Modernist Buildings (RMB)”. I also participated in several online workshops and courses where sustainable urban development from a heritage standpoint is being discussed: “K.M. Built Heritage Futures”; “Industrial Heritage for Sustainable Cities” by Netherlands Institute in Turkey (N.I.T.) ‘s Urban Heritage Lab; and ICOMOS online summer school “Heritage in the Shadow of Conflict”.

My main focus in my PhD studies encompasses refurbishment and conversion/transformation of modern architectural heritage, from a building science and technologies perspective. The backbone of my research is set upon the question of “how to intervene with the 20th-century buildings and places”. Formulating a way in which modern buildings can be preserved and updated without sacrificing their inherent values, intrinsic characteristics, and technological significance, as they embody the most innovative and rationale design responses of their time, is my research goal. My primary motivation is to improve the efficiency of the refurbishment practices with a special focus on building technologies, assemblies, and materials of the era, investigating the novelty and diversity of the applied techniques, methods, and materiality in modern buildings.

Growing demands and challenging policies on energy efficiency, urban densification and re-development programs, impacts of prestige projects, changing economic and political contexts together with the lack of public awareness and appreciation put such sites and urban areas at risk. Engagement and participation of the local community is of utmost importance in generating widespread recognition and support for protection of vulnerable sites of any era and context. I truly believe that potential pathways for opportunities can be established through interdisciplinary collaboration. It is my desire to utilize such multinational platforms and networks to ensure a positive change in transformation and refurbishment practices of built heritage, to be able to take part in professional conversations and ongoing discussions. For this reason, I am interested in participating in your “Stakeholder Workshop”, which I believe to be a unique multi-national and multi-disciplinary learning environment and collaboration opportunity.

Claus BECH-DANIELSEN

Professor, PhD, Architect M.A.A., Department at the Centre for Housing Research, Aalborg University

I hold several positions of trust in the Scandinavian research community, chairman in Think Tanks, and have received awards for his research. Also, I have received several first prizes in architectural competitions on master plans. In my research, I study the field between architectural space and social space. Special focus on post-war housing, disadvantaged housing areas, affordable housing, homemaking and homefeeling, trends in housing architecture, housing ideals and housing quality. I have a PhD. on environmental sustainability in housing construction, and for the last decades his research has been focusing on social sustainability. I’m currently (2019-2028) head of research in a major research project that follows the physical transformations in the 15 most disadvantaged housing areas in Denmark. Focus is on the residents’ experiences and everyday lives, and on the reputation of the residential areas. Also, the consequences of the established social mix is an important topic in the research.

In the Workshop I will find it crucial to discuss the housing architecture and the spaces between the buildings as a frame for everyday life. Collective space, community building, social mixing and affordability will also be an interesting field to develop.

Hasan ESTAJI

Assistant Professor, PhD (Dr.techn.), Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism, Hakim Sabrevari University

I did my PhD (2017) at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, Institute of Architecture, Building Technology Department. My field of research is Flexibility and Adaptability in Housing Design. In my previous projects, I tried to study the relationship between spaces and users by applying the Space-Syntax theory and methods, also, I tried to determine the degree of flexibility and adaptability of buildings. This evaluation helps to investigate the potential of the buildings and spaces to be rearranged in response to future changes. I found that the key to Sustainability is Flexibility. The biggest criticism of the Middle-Class Mass Housing projects is that the product is not a flexible building. Case study feedback from the occupants of houses (Post Occupancy Evaluation) helps to better understand how buildings perform and how they interact with their users. If a building serves the present purposes and is also able to meet future requirements to a certain extent, a lot of energy and material can be saved; extending the useful cycle of a building maintains value with limited new resources. My idea is to rethink and develop the building system of Middle-Class Mass Housing project that, in addition to a flexible structure, also has a flexible spatial configuration to be able to meet the rapidly changing demands of current and future users. After around 15 years of academic experience (designing and research), I would like to share my experiences in a new practical project. I welcome new challenges that will enhance the skills and experience that I have gained.

Roberto GOYCOOLEA PRADO

Professor, PhD, School of Architecture. University of Alcalá. Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain

For the last 15 years, together with Professor Paz Nunez Marti (WG03), I have been researching public housing policies developed in the period between the end of the Spanish Civil War (1939) and the last Social Housing Law (2018) applied to the context of a population in a situation of precariousness and impoverishment under the approach of citizen participation in each of its work phases. The development of this research has allowed me to: (1) evaluate the effectiveness of public rehousing policies in the territory of Madrid; (2) expose through indicators the possible improvements in the process of development and allocation of public housing and (3) work on the implementation of public to improve the habitat of families in situations of social exclusion and apply what has been investigated to achieve success in the interventions. Our contribution to this Workshop is to offer the work done during this period, identifying the participatory processes of citizenship. specifically, those derived from the Social Emergency Plan (1957) where future users contributed labor for the construction of their public housing. A good example of habitat management and collective housing in the 20th century.

Bernard HAUMONT

Professor, PhD, Paris-Val de Seine National School of Architecture, Centre de Recherche sur l’Habitat  (CRH, UMR 7218 CNRS), Paris, France

I joined the Cost Program during the seminar held in Paris in April of 2021: History, Memories and Urban Strategies where the organizers asked me to make some concluding comments. I continue my participation with a communication at the seminar held in Paris in March of 2022 (Beautification and Liveness in Housing Public Areas). I participated in the Beograd Meeting, where I presented a communication about single family houses. I was the main writer, with Ahmed Berberiou, of the French Narrative Paper for the WG3. Beside that involvement in MCMH activities, I developed numerous researches about architects and their clients, and I am writing a book for Wiley about them. Before, I directed a research program on architectural and urban design with an European perspective: EuroConception. The key actors intervening in the design and implementation of buildings have been considered and taken in account. (3 vol. 1992-1994. I. Forces et tendances de la maîtrise d’oeuvre, EuroConception-PUCA ; II. Recherches sur le projet et les concepteurs, Euroconception-PUCA ; III. Les enjeux européens de la maîtrise d’oeuve, Euroconception-PUCA). All these works are sound bases for stakeholder’s issues.

Byron IOANNOU

Associate Professor, PhD, School of Engineering, Department of Architecture, Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus

Exploring challenges and opportunities through stakeholders is a very meaningful task to be able to co-design space with inhabitants. Sometimes we find it useful in these brainstorming sessions to provide examples from a different urban context since it urges people to start thinking out of the box. In our opinion, the key issue for both sustainability and quality of life is place inclusiveness.

A sustainable neighbourhood is an inclusive neighbourhood and inclusiveness is a very complex notion, respectively involving not only social but equally economic and environmental parameters. Our research has dealt with aspects of inclusive residential areas always keeping in mind the role that density plays in shaping neighbourhood imaginaries. We will discuss our experience in suburban and sprawled self-housing neighbourhoods. One main and very substantial aspect, in this but also in any case is mobility. Mobility can play, of course, a very important role in the way several social groups or individuals feel functional or satisfied with their built environment. Although we feel that the typical guidelines for sustainable urban mobility cannot be a universal recipe for all spatial contexts. We did some investigations for special typologies of fabrics, mainly for suburban car-oriented neighbourhoods where we have seen that historically urban expansion stages along with the types of family and social spatial connections could output different levels of satisfaction. A recent questionnaire in these types of neighbourhoods reveals the willingness of adopting a more sustainable lifestyle, which is a cornerstone for every project or policy implementation. Furthermore, on this approach, we have studied the aged population in suburban areas and measured its self-assessment for different densities and typologies of urban districts.

One second focus of our research more relevant to the WG3 approach has to do with policies, especially urban expansion and density policies which are the invisible hand behind what we think it is designed. In fact, policies can design space without applying any design methodology. Middle-class housing is motivated by policies regulating land consumption and urban expansion but also affects the quality of life and sustainability.

Lora NICOLOAU

Professor, PhD, Department of Architecture, Frederick University, Nicosia, Cyprus

I am an architect and planner with extensive experience in the UK, Ireland, The Netherlands and Cyprus on Urban Planning, Urban Design and Strategic Briefing Project at different scales. Before joining Frederick University and parallel to practice I taught at Oxford Brookes University, was the Head of Research of URI (Urban Renaissance Institute) at the University of Greenwich, London.

Urban Planning work includes Building Height (and Density) Strategies for Rotterdam, Dublin, London and the 4 main Cyprus cities for the respective central or local planning departments, where city regeneration strategies include among others plans for Utrecht, Hereford, Dublin, Cambridge, Nicosia and Paphos. Empirical research covers a wider range of issues from the investigation of the implications of density on housing quality and urban character, to workplace strategies and the review of the impact of project management systems and skill on the ability of organizations to deliver regeneration. My interest in the Workshop is the review of methods for the investigation of often complex and multifaceted issues key to sustainable urbanism through’ _user research’, not necessarily through consultation but the observation and ‘trace’ of social, cultural, and economic behaviors. In this context, I find that planning policy often attempts to ‘restrict’ un-sustainable behavior in ‘place making’ practice more than actively encouraging/channeling active responsiveness of urbanism (the construction and consumption of space) towards low carbon and low energy consumption lifestyles. Furthermore, I believe that this COST action, and this Workshop in particular, can investigate the comparative evaluation of policies across Europe in relation to the ‘political and cultural’ making of mechanisms parallel to their implication on the physical context.

Paz NUNEZ MARTI

Associate Professor, PhD, School of Architecture. University of Alcalá. Alcala de Henares, Madrid, Spain

For the last 15 years, together with Professor Roberto Goycoolea Prado (WG03), I have been researching public housing policies developed in the period between the end of the Spanish Civil War (1939) and the last Social Housing Law (2018) applied to the context of a population in a situation of precariousness and impoverishment under the approach of citizen participation in each of its work phases. The development of this research has allowed me to: (1) evaluate the effectiveness of public rehousing policies in the territory of Madrid; (2) expose through indicators the possible improvements in the process of development and allocation of public housing and (3) work on the implementation of public to improve the habitat of families in situations of social exclusion and apply what has been investigated to achieve success in the interventions. Our contribution to this Workshop is to offer the work done during this period, identifying the participatory processes of citizenship. specifically, those derived from the Social Emergency Plan (1957) where future users contributed labor for the construction of their public housing. A good example of habitat management and collective housing in the 20th century.

Sanjin SUBIĆ

Licensed Architect, PhD, Belgrade, Serbia

I would like to contribute to the Workshop by:

• utilizing my stakeholder management expertise, identifying interest groups’, complementarity analysis
• analyzing the existing built environment to determine site specific solutions for identified problems/common goals
• using the resulting analysis for initiating new community capacity building oriented projects
• identifying the existing policies aimed at carbon emissions reductions and potential their implementation at site
• identifying sustainable tourism potential aiming towards new sustainable development
• identifying risks aiming to increase community resilience
• analyzing existing local governance model and determining potential for establishing new local community participatory governance model
• using experience in sustainable development towards determining potential for new policies within sustainable development goals, especially regarding sustainable transport and transition towards a smart city model

Hamdi TEKİN

Assistant Professor, PhD, Faculty of Architecture and Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Istanbul Arel University, Turkey

I have been working as Assistant Professor at Architecture and Engineering Faculty. I have a PhD degree (Civil Engineering) from Yıldız Technical University, Turkey and a MSc degree from Ruhr University-Bochum (Computational Engineering), Germany and a BSc from Middle East Technical University (Civil Engineering). I have experience and relevant studies in different stages of mass housing projects from construction phase to facility management including the topics of sustainability, recycling of water and water management. My studies on middle class mass housing projects- a case of Istanbul and water management systems in mass housing projects, which comply with the objectives of the Workshop, were supported by ITC-CG grants given by MCMH Cost Action. Because of COVID-19 pandemic, I have not participated in face-to face activities for a long time. Therefore, this Workshop would be a great chance to explore barriers and opportunities for improving mass housing life in terms of quality and sustainability. I have been involved in numerous COST Actions with different roles, as MC member, MC substitute, W.G. member. In addition, I am departmental Erasmus coordinator and visited many E.U. universities and gave lectures. I believe that both my experience in mass housing and network, I would contribute to enriching workshop outputs. As the Workshop will gather local and international urban scholars and residents, it would be a great opportunity to enhance my knowledge and expand my network. I believe that this invaluable Workshop would increase my engagement with the MCMH Cost Action. By actively participating in this event and other activities organized by MCMH, I would like to conduct serious academic studies by cooperating with other Action members and different parties. I would like to carry out virtual mobility and STSM to contribute the outputs of the Action. Furthermore, I would like to disseminate the outputs by attending different prestigious conferences and events. I am also very excited about the venue of the event, as I am a METU graduate. After many years, I would have a chance to experience the same fruitful environment.