Ports have played a key role in settlement development and cultural exchange throughout history. Linking sea and land, these coastal settlements served as hubs of trade, facilitating the exchange of goods, materials, ideas, and cultures across vast distances. The historic urban landscape of port cities often reflects traces of multiple influences, each bearing testimony to the numerous cultures that have left their mark on these urban centres with many structures such as warehouses, workshops, marketplaces, customs buildings, accommodation facilities and public buildings.
The Urban Heritage Lab 2024 will take as a case study the port areas of Izmir, a pivotal city in the Eastern Mediterranean, a crossroad of cultures and civilizations. Although many port cities are still dynamic places today, they face various challenges. Historical port areas within the city have become idle areas due to changing needs and technologies for trade and transportation; as they become idle, they have become potential intervention areas due to their disuse; the ports that are still in use cannot easily be integrated with the city for strict custom regulations. However, integrating and revitalising the cultural heritage of port cities, and enabling them to present narratives of past urban life poses significant challenges to archaeologists, heritage managers, architects, urban planners, designers, as well as sociologists, and social scientists.
During the course, 20 selected graduate students and junior professionals from universities and institutions in the Netherlands and Turkey will learn from international experts and will conduct a research-by-design assignment on The Historical Port City of Izmir. The course has a hybrid format, with a one-day online symposium, weekly online meetings, lectures by leading experts, and three days of in-person site visits in October. Applications are welcomed from any discipline, including archaeology, urban history and geography, architecture, city planning, landscape design, governance, conservation of cultural heritage, sociology, etc. Students and recent graduates not affiliated with Dutch or Turkish institutions can apply but will only be admitted if there are places available. The language of instruction is English.
Costs
There are no tuition fees. Fellowships that partially cover travel and accommodation expenses (upon successful completion) will be provided for graduate students as well as recent graduates who
obtained their diploma after June 2024 and do not have a regular income. Please refer to the information kit for details about the fellowships.
Course Format and Tentative Schedule
The course runs from mid-October through mid-December 2024 and is set up in four parts:
PART A | Defining the Issues: Port Cities Online Symposium
11 October 2024 [10.00-17.00 / Istanbul time]
PART B | Field Survey in İzmir
17-18-19 October 2024
PART C & D | Developing a Proposal for an area or a structure in The Historical Port City of Izmir with Online Discussions & Online Public Presentations by Researchers and Professionals from the Netherlands and Turkey
1 November - 8 November - 15 November - 22 November - 29 November - 6 December - 13 December 2024 [Fridays at 16.00-18.00 / Istanbul time; independent and group work, 4-8 hours per week]
Detailed information about the course is available in the Information Kit.
The application deadline is 8 SEPTEMBER 2024, Friday at 23.59 PM (Istanbul time)! You can find the application form here.
The results will be announced on 20 September 2024.
If you have any queries, please contact the course coordinator Dr. Aysel Arslan.
