LANDSCAPE DESIGN III & IV | “Urban Jungle”

Conducted by Prof. Hayriye Eşbah Tunçay (PhD)

Assisted by Res. Asst. Fatma Sultan Yaman

Urban vegetation is indispensable for the health and livelihood of the communities. They are the most effective mechanisms to mitigate climate change. Cities benefit from many ecosystem services through well established vegetation cover. And yet, the urban vegetation suffers from ignorance, underappreciation, vandalism, lack of maintenance, ill planning, and unsustainable design in nowadays’ rapidly growing urban matrix. This studio explores the dialogs between the city and its biota. It aims to develop understanding and appreciation of urban vegetation in the harsh urban context through creative thinking, detailed analyses, and research based design. Different scale urban environments will be the focus throughout the semester ranging from a single tree to urban groves, from idle spaces and vacant lands to large urban infrastructures. Science oriented concepts such as urban hydrology, carbon sequestration, urban heat island effect, primary production, phytoremediation will enlarge students’ knowledge with respect to landscape’s capacity to address environmental problems. Meanwhile, cultural meanings, humanly encounters and artistic interventions with urban vegetation in place making will make the tighs with site specific urban design. Overall, the studio is a platform for elaborating nature and artifice relationship in the town of Fatih, the historic peninsula of Istanbul.