For whom: 2nd Adana Architecture Festival participants and residents of Adana With whom: Chamber of Architects Adana Branch and university students When: 2025
The 2nd Adana Architecture Festival, which is structured around the theme of “looking south→ yellow-warm shades,” not only indicates a cardinal direction but also determines how the South is portrayed and which of its features are highlighted. However, in our view, this framework is inadequate. The main discussion of the festival must revolve around whose voice is heard and who is excluded. The “Looking from the South” workshop was created in this context out of a need to make room for questioning the festival from an insider, local perspective.
The “Looking from the South” workshop intended to create a space that highlights the voices of those who use and re-experience architecture daily, as well as those who design and create it. The workshop utilizes the participants’ personal experiences to address the urban and architectural agenda of the South while setting the festival’s debate topics as its foundation. As a result, it aims to create a multi-layered oral history study that emphasizes both the traces of the present and the memory of the past.
This article attempts to showcase the effort to create a “festival critique within the festival” by following the workshop’s journey from ideation to implementation, as well as its motives, methodology, and the discussions it has generated.
The “Looking from the South” workshop, which took place over three days at the 2nd Adana Architecture Festival, was conducted with participants, the majority of whom were students, newly graduated architects, landscape architects, and designers from various fields. Rather than just establishing a creative process that remained between the participants, the workshop made an effort to create a wider platform with the intention of enhancing local voices. As a result, an open survey was created to start the workshop process before the festival. The purpose of this open survey, which was shared across various social media platforms, was to gather comments from both workshop participants and anyone else who wanted to express their opinions on the urban and architectural environment, even if they did not attend the festival. The objective was to develop a multi-perspective archive that would address both the festival’s central theme and the architectural vision of the local South. The survey results were made available for discussion during the in-person and online meetings with the participants in the workshop. The topics of these discussions were further developed and integrated into the participants’ personal experiences on the first day. Then, the participants collectively turned the thoughts, comments, and critiques that emerged during the process into posters. Using various representational techniques, including slogans, drawings, and doodles, the participants portrayed Adana’s agenda from their perspectives on these posters while acting as the people looking from the South. The public discussion area of the workshop incorporated some of the slogans from these posters.
On the second day of the workshop, a collective Adana map, which encompassed all the ideas generated up to that point, was created to open up the previous discussions to festival visitors and to create an interactive environment. This map was hung in the workshop area, allowing for the participation of everyone who wished to contribute.
The slogans and words expressed during the workshop offer a fragmented yet potent hint regarding Adana’s social, cultural, and spatial structure. These expressions, which include concerns about inadequate planning, public sphere problems, criticisms of the architectural scene, gentrification, transportation, earthquakes, and environmental challenges, indicate a collective effort to understand and rethink the city. These notes,compiled under the topics below, can be utilized as a starting point for future discussions as well as a record of current conditions.
LACK OF PLANNING & SPONTANEITY
“FROM RURAL TO URBAN: NORTH ADANA”
“NORTH ADANA: HMAX UNLIMITED PUBLIC SPHERE MINIMUM/NONEXISTENT”
“PILED UP, SIDE TO SIDE, HAPHAZARD, SPONTANEOUS CLUSTERS…”
“Throwing boxes randomly”
ARCHITECTURE (FESTIVAL) CRITIQUE
“Architects making projects for architects”
”WHO IS THE ARCHITECTURE FESTIVAL FOR?”
“ARCHITECTURE FESTIVALS IN TURKEY: THE USUAL SUSPECTS”
“IF I DON’T DO IT, SOMEONE ELSE WILL”
“WHERE IS ÇUKUROVA UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE?”
“08.00-17.00 OFFICERS’ UNIVERSITY→ ATU”
“WE DON’T WANT A UNIVERSITY IN A WASTEYARD”
CITY & PLACE
“ADANA’S HISTORICAL … KEBAB SHOP”
“ADANA DOESN’T HAVE AN UTOPIA”
“Could we say that Jansen once had an utopia?”
“ADANA’S 66% IS INFORMAL”
“THE RECOVERING OF SARICAM”
“VIOLATION OF PUBLIC SPACE”
“ALTIN KOZA SHOPPING MALL” → The fact that movie theaters are located solely inside shopping malls, and consequently, the city’s most important festivals are trapped within these malls.
TRANSPORTATION
“UNWALKABLE CITY”
“THE CITY NOT FIT FOR CYCLING”
“ADANA’S CONSERVATION PROBLEM (Bus Terminal, Tekel Cigarette Factory, South Industrial Factory, Döşeme Neighbourhood, Adana Movie Theatres)”
“ADANA’S TRANSFORMATION PROBLEM (5th of January Stadium→Nation Garden→Bound-less Park)”
“ADANA METRO”
EARTHQUAKE
“8 OUT OF THE 11 BUILDINGS THAT DEMOLISHED IN THE 6TH OF FEBRUARY EARTHQUAKES LACKED OCCUPANCY PERMITS.”
CLIMATE, ENVIRONMENT AND GREEN AREAS
“I HAVE EARTH, WATER, AND TREES, YET THIS IS WHAT I CHOOSE”
“THE RATIO OF ACTIVE GREEN AREA PER PERSON IN ADANA: 0.65 M2”
We would like to thank all of our partners who enabled us to implement the “Looking from the South” workshop as a part of the 2nd Adana Architecture Festival. The festival was held between October 23 and 25; it was organized by the Chamber of Architects Adana Branch, curated by Heval Zeliha Yüksel, and advised by Celal Abdi Güzer. We are also grateful to the festival team for inviting us into this productive process and granting us the opportunity to contribute.
The workshops, panels, exhibitions, and various events that took place during the festival enhanced the general programme, creating a space for thinking, discussion, and collaborative production across various scales. We would also like to thank all participants who contributed to this process, enriching the festival with their ideas, participation, and effort.
Here you can read the workshop Looking from the South journal prepared at the end of the workshop.
Here you can find the photo album of the workshop.
Workshop Coordinators: Ece Sultan Karacık, Emrah Güllüoğlu, Emre Gündoğdu
Workshop Participants: Beyza Durgun, Ceylan Liha, Esra Töle, Gökçe, Havvanur Kestelli, İkra Ay, Kaan Taka, Meryem, Niyazi Emek, Şeyma Arık
Photographs: İlay Bilge Şen, İkra Ay, Esra Töle and Herkes İçin Mimarlık
