Hadeel ABUZAID (Jordan)

PhD candidate, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

Since graduating from high school, I have determined to pursue a career in architecture and urban planning. In 2017, I got my bachelor’s degree in architectural engineering. One thing that fascinated me about the field during my undergraduate studies was the sheer number of different elements whose interactions constitute a person’s experience of an urban environment. To develop my understanding of how these disparate elements combine and interact to create the urban environment, I enrolled in the master’s program in urban design at Middle East Technical University (METU) in Turkey in 2019.My studies allowed me to work on projects that focus on sustainable urbanism. In 2020, I participated in the Sustainable Urbanism studio that focuses on learning and finding the ways and possibilities to develop and invent the tools to attain a higher degree of sustainability through urban design research and projects on Göreme in Cappadocia. Inspired by sustainable urbanism, my research interest focuses on studying the relationship between the city and the people, how people experience the city and how the city provides for people’s needs. I believe that urban development focusing on the people who live in the town is a key to achieving a lively, sustainable, and healthy city. Regarding sustainable urbanism, my master thesis concentrates on studying the spaces’ physical environment and users’ interaction with the surrounding built environment and understanding sustainability from the human perspective to demonstrate the importance of human appropriation in places. My thesis aims to explore how the physical environmental design of open spaces influences users’ sense of safety and experience in open spaces by understanding complex relationships of economics, sociology, behaviour, and environment embedded in poor communities such as refugee camps. Through further study, I hope to develop my understanding of sustainable urbanism. Believing that the city is for everybody, my ambition as an urban planner is to work with impoverished and middleclass urban communities. By participating in “WG3 MCMH STAKEHOLDER WORKSHOP I”, I believe I can bring my experiences and education in sustainability to the problem of improving infrastructure and quality of life in middle-class mass housing.

Nurten Müge AYLA (USA)

MSc student, Master of Urban Design, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

My educational and professional background consists of a bachelor’s degree in interior architecture and 2.5-year experience working in a commercial interior architecture firm with responsibilities ranging from drafting construction documents, collaborating with contractors and engineers to managing design projects. Wanting to expand my knowledge in related fields, I decided to pursue a master’s in urban design with future plans to work towards a PhD in said or related fields. By understanding design concerns of sustainability and quality through micro and macro scale observations, my background in interior architecture as well as my ongoing knowledge of urban design has provided me with a unique set of tools to bring new perspectives into the issues. I look forward to expanding my knowledge by joining forces with other students and professionals through this Workshop and finding creative design solutions through our collaborative efforts.

Aybüke BALAHUN ÇOBAN (Turkey)

MSc student, Master of City Planning, Teaching and research assistant, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

I have participated in studies on micro and macro scale urban features, especially on issues involving children, with the aim of increasing the quality of urban life and welfare. In my thesis, I am conducting a study on how different urban areas (urban transformation areas, forest areas, industrial areas, etc.) affect air pollution and the life and health of children. Within the scope of a TUBITAK project in METU that I am a researcher, I had the opportunity to conduct micro- and meso-scale mapping studies in 8 different neighborhoods in Ankara, including the Koru region. For all these reasons, I think this Workshop will be an instructive and new experience for me and I believe that I can contribute to the Workshop in terms of my own experiences.

Nilay Nida CAN (Turkey)

PhD candidate, Teaching and research assistant, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

I graduated from the Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University (METU) undergraduate program in 2016. After this, I studied in M.C.P. in Urban Design program and graduated with the thesis titled “Investigating modern Industrial Heritage Through Value Based Mapping of Zonguldak Central Scrubber Area” in 2019. In the same year, my colleague and I proposed the “Crescenzago Web Site” PROJECT, which was awarded the 3rd prize at İZOCAM International Student Competition. The subject was about designing the Middle-class Mass Housing in Milano, Italy. Regarding the theme of the Workshop, I have experienced housing projects in different concepts and contexts since my bachelor’s degree. Moreover, designing a Cultural Center in Delft, the Netherlands, as a studio project and proposing a culturally oriented urban traffic system as a part of the Erasmus project in Palermo, Italy, are other educational studies I have. Briefly, I have studied urban design, public space, modern thought, urban conservation, participatory planning approaches, and creative mapping techniques for years. Also, I am a student at Ph.D. City and Regional Planning Program at METU since 2020.

Ecem ENGİN (Turkey)

MSc student, Master of Urban Design, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

As a master’s student in the thesis stage, I think this Workshop will be very informative. I am excited to participate in a great network built by people in my field as well as related interdisciplinary fields, and I additionally believe that such an encouraging environment will introduce so many innovative perspectives that could enrich my further studies. I am also thankful for being a part of a university-stakeholder collaboration in a humanities and urban studies process. I look forward to experience a three-day interactive learning environment!

Berin GÜNEY (Turkey)

MSc student, Master of Urban Design, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

As a city planner, and an urban designer, I take into consideration of improving the quality of life at our surrounding environment. We have only that environment which is a place of memories, experiences, supplying needs, and sometimes, coming true of wishes. So, I would like to touch the people who are residents and visitors of the environment, and give contributions to enhance their life conditions by fulfilling their needs and demands to make them achieve happiness in a healthy, safe, natural, amusing and sustainable environment. At cities, there is a variety of the background of people, who are residents and visitors. I would like to maintain this variety by proposing solutions. For example, children should not be isolated from the areas of cities due to their healthy development that the environment has lots of effects on (I focus on children at my master’s thesis.). So, I consider the relationship between environment and people from all different backgrounds as significant to provide them a healthy environment. I believe that there should be an integration between people and place in order to sustain the vitality of cities. Thus, I would like to give attention to diversity of the people from a comprehensive perspective. The design of the surrounding environment is one of my main interests. So, I would like to analyze the design of the housing area, and its nearby areas by considering design principles.

Selen KARADOĞAN (Turkey)

PhD candidate, Teaching and research assistant, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

I am an urban designer and city planner whose research interests include sustainable public space design and daily urban rituals. I have previously studied on a sustainability measurement model to enable comparative analysis on urban public spaces.

Shiza MUSHTAQ (Pakistan)

MSc student, Master of Urban Design, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

I am interested in participating in this Workshop because I feel that my research and past participation in design studios based in Ankara make me a good match. To be specific, in 2021, as a Master of Urban Design student, I researched Cayyolu’s neighbourhoods, street networks, mobility patterns and residential urban form as part of the Urban Design Studio II at METU. I feel that I can contribute my knowledge and experience to this Workshop and hope to gain valuable insight and learn from fellow researchers and urban design experts.

The focus of my Master’s thesis is analyzing walkable spaces in Ankara, specifically in neighbourhoods vulnerable to unprecedented climate events such as cloudbursts, urban flooding and rising SUHI effects. Ankara has a unique geomorphology and has experienced intense urbanization in recent years. It also has a very dynamic blue infrastructure with at least 20 active streams flowing below or adjacent to the existing road links. I aim to develop GIS-based screening methods to reveal critical or at-risk localities where design strategies for improved walkability conditions and climate resilience must be prioritized.

As an exchange student at PoliMi, my work in Milan was highly oriented towards sustainability and climate mitigation. I collaborated with interdisciplinary groups to work on the revitalization of existing industrial areas, their residents and identification of key urban issues. I studied the relevant planning procedures and legislation, conducted analysis of scientific and technical sources, identified key stakeholders, developed sustainability matrices, and utilized quantitative data to write reports and propose quantifiable nature-based solutions. The proposals were aimed at reducing vulnerabilities of people, vegetation and buildings to urban flooding events and to bring life to the daily activities of the residents and workers in the industrial town of Rho, Milano.

I am very enthusiastic about participating in this Workshop. I understand sustainable planning practices, I am well-versed in the various aspects it entails, and I believe my work ethic and communication skills match the requirements of this intensive Workshop. My thesis research and academic projects demonstrate that I am able to perform high level spatial analyses, can interpret data and research relevant reports, policies and strategies. I am comfortable in new environments and enjoy interacting with different people.

Aslı Selin ÖZZADE (Turkey)

Graduate, Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at Middle East Technical University, 2020) and Ongoing Student in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design in İ.D. Bilkent University (Third Grade).

I am writing to express my interest for the Workshop as the sustainable solutions and innovations for interior spaces is the field that I want to focus in my undergraduate studies and also to work in my graduate studies. “Ümitköy Sitesi” having a significance for Ümitköy to develop as a residential area is a co-housing project that still hosts most of the first residents of the site. The most important thing that motivates me for this Workshop is the fact that there are problems in terms of interior, detail, architecture, urban and technical aspects in this site, which has the potential to be examined in various ways from an urban and architectural point of view. Especially finding solutions regarding sustainability gives me a lot of enthusiasm and desire to take part in this project heartedly. By taking part in this Workshop, I believe that I can produce sustainable solutions, renewal solutions, conservation solutions and material solutions to the existing problems regarding increasing quality of life on the site with the help of my diligence, research enthusiasm, observation skills and current knowledge and experience, taking into account collective life and collective housing. I also believe that I can produce sustainable ideas in terms of materials, details and applications on the reflection of collective life on the interior. In addition to how I can contribute to this Workshop, I believe the experience I can gain with this Workshop is also very important. The possibility of experiencing what I learned in related courses at university and what I read in many articles about the main idea of the project gives me a lot of motivation to take part in this Workshop.

Ayşegül SARI (Turkey)

MSc student, Master of City Planning, Teaching and research assistant, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

I have started to work on the term “quality of life” at the beginning of my Master study. The theme of our City Planning Master Studio was constructed around well-being and relatedly around quality of life, inspired from the latest pandemic and the S.D.G.s of UNDP. Departing from this, on my research I became interested in place theories such as place attachment, place dependence, sense of belonging etc. as these “feelings” were strongly affecting the quality of life and sustainability. I discovered that sustainability is highly depending on the feelings of the users, much more than the physical qualities of a particular place such that even if a place demolishes physically, it can sustain in the memories in a way that inspires future design ideas for the same place. Through this Workshop, I aim to discover the various aspects of the participants from different countries with their field of interest in urban planning and design, and reflect my experience gained from my research when it comes to the quality of life and intend to develop my knowledge when it comes to the life in mass housing for the middle class. I hope the communication to make with this Workshop will lighten my way with the outcomes of the improving and interactive sessions. 

Furkan Erdem SÖZERİ (Turkey)

MSc student, Master of Urban Design, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

I believe that in such kind of a workshop, I am going to have an opportunity to develop myself in terms of both to experience a participation in a valuable group with local community and to learn important outcomes from mass housing design and planning. In terms of planning and design of mass housing, I took a course named “Collective Housing: Planning & Design”. After that course, I realized that I have an excitement for the topics of mass housing design, planning and architecture. On the final project, we proposed a collective housing design in the context of Yaşamkent which is close to the Çayyolu context. In addition, in the future, one of my possible topics of my research or thesis would be about morphological dimension of housing design or scale integration of urban design and architecture. In that sense, I have already run after such kind of opportunity to develop myself in that area, and I believe that this Workshop is a very big chance for me. I can contribute that Workshop in every step in the process to learn different outcomes from different instructors and different approaches, but I would like to contribute to the creative and critical design thinking and decision of design and morphological form interventions in the sustainable terms. Moreover, I live in Çayyolu so, I am familiar with the environment and its needs in terms of both social and morphological aspects. To conclude, I am very intended to be in that Workshop to reach a better position in mass housing and participation topics to produce better projects and literature for tomorrow and the future.

İrem Duygu TİRYAKİ (Turkey)

MSc student, Master of Urban Design, Istanbul Technical University, Teaching and research assistant, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

As a newly graduated city planner and currently a graduate student in Urban Design, I have a high interest in new trends, so I am good at combining existing and newly acquired knowledge. Also, I am strong on using technological applications that I have in presenting and displaying this information. Besides, as an important feature of my profession, I can develop decision making, strategy development and design scenarios, and put these decisions into practice at different scales.

While working at different scales in my undergraduate life, I have always been interested in the housing, which we have in common scale with other occupations like architects, civil engineers, etc., and I saw how important it is for different professions to work together on a residential scale. I also realized how complex the problems that residential areas have and I am interested in with which stakeholders these problems can be solved. Another interesting issue for me is which strategies will prevent potential problems that may arise in the future. It is very exciting that all these issues that I am curious about will be discussed together with the quality of life, which is one of the most important fields of work today, and sustainability with its increasing importance. As an urban planner and urban designer, I think that I can contribute to the solution of these problems we have today and present the information in a comprehensible manner by approaching them at different scales integrating with the issue of sustainability.

Fatmanur TOK (Turkey)

MSc student, Master of Urban Design, Department of City and Regional Planning, METU

My expertise areas are sustainable, resilient, and socially just landscape and urban design. Especially, the type of work I am interested in and related to sustainable, resilient, and socially just landscape and urban design is creating public green and blue sensitive open spaces which work as breathing and gathering spaces and host lots of human and non-human inhabitants. As a landscape architect, urban designer and student of the Master of Urban Design, I would like to contribute to the Workshop by sharing my accumulated knowledge and diverse experiences which I gained thanks to my design projects related to sustainable urbanism and quality of life. Also, I believe that brainstorming with unique and diverse individuals to explore challenges and opportunities and creating effective design solutions to improve quality of life and sustainability with local stakeholders will be an excellent chance for me to broaden my horizon and improve my design perspective.