Currently we are busy setting up a research and real-time act project for July and August 2010. Our base will be Istanbul. Istanbul is today’s largest and most diverse city laboratory. Not because of her best practices, but because ‘It all comes together in Istanbul’ if we are to hi-jack Ed Soja’s article on Los Angeles dating from 1989*. From urban transformation projects to active neighborhood resistance acts, from extremely rich gated communities to rough slums of African and Kurdish immigrants and travesties, from skyscrapers financed by Dubaians, Americans, and Europeans to Zaha Hadid signed new centers [with 2 million inhabitants], from ambitious infrastructure projects to ever-marginalizing gecekondu settlements, from tourist-targeted waterfront projects to gypsy-squatted Byzantium churches, Istanbul is the place where it all happens simultaneously.

The scientific research part of the project is about to start and it focuses on creating an alternative vision for Istanbul. The public act part of the project will happen in Istanbul coming July and August. This part will be a mix of scientific, cultural and artistic projects. We will be based in an empty building where we will continue our work with the Istanbul residents. Currently we are in search of an inhabited building. Below I will post few alternatives we have been working on.

At this moment, the working team [the research and the public act] is being established, please feel free to jump in! We are open to work with fresh ideas on envisioning cities and organizing public acts such as interacting with the neighborhood, setting up projects with inhabitants, involving them in thinking and making process of a city. With this blog, we will keep you updated on developments of this fast emerging and evolving project.