Block by Block Seferihisar workshops held in cooperation with the Swedish Institute, Un-Habitat, Block by Block and Seferihisar Children's Municipality; brought a new perspective to inclusive and participatory planning through the eyes of children.
Business models maintained through communities creates holistic effects covering all segments of society, not only in the development strategies of brands but also in countries.
Integration of communities into decision-making mechanisms; It stands out as a dynamic that creates a positive impact on society and encourages social transformation in the long run. Building a community; today, it finds its counterpart in different areas of design, from urban design to architectural design and experience design. In this context, the initiative of the Swedish Institute, with the cooperation of UN Habitat, Block by Block and Seferihisar Municipality; The Block by Block workshops held in Izmir brought a new perspective to inclusive and participatory planning from the eyes of children.
Block by Block Workshops held in Izmir Seferihisar on March 16-17, 2019
Photos: Abdullah Ozden
Last weekend, 25 members of Seferihisar Children's Municipality aged 12-15 used the Minecraft computer game to design the children's summer camp in Seferihisar, Izmir. The main stakeholders of the workshop are İzmir Seferihisar Municipality, UN-Habitat Block by Block Foundation, Swedish Institute and Architecture for All Association. Seferihisar Municipality is known for being the first municipality from Turkey to be accepted into the international Cittaslow (Slow Cities) network, with the seed bank it has established in Turkey and abroad, with local cooperatives, with projects focusing on children and women, and with the use of innovative technologies in agriculture and city management.
Block by Block Workshops held in Izmir Seferihisar on March 16-17, 2019
Photos: Abdullah Ozden
Members of Equator Architects from Stockholm, DDRLP, SANALarch, Emre Senan Design Foundation and Herkes İçin Mimarlık from Istanbul, as well as architects and academics working in Izmir attended the two-day workshop and enriched the disccusion of children, public space, participation and architectural design.
Block by Block was launched by UN Habitat in 2012 with the idea of integrating the computer game Minecraft into their planning processes to more effectively involve the community in public space planning.
Minecraft offers a format where individuals of all ages and educational levels can quickly adapt, visualize their environment in three dimensions and share their ideas. Urban residents can use Minecraft as an interface and have a say in their neighborhoods. The communities visualize the possibilities they imagine for the city they live in, through this open platform provided by the Block by Block project.
Block by Block Workshops, Photo: UN Habitat
Block by Block has worked as a catalyst for revitalizing urban areas in more than 30 countries. More than 1,000 participants attended Block by Block workshops held in different cities of the world.
The Block by Block project methodology was originally developed in Nairobi and Mumbai. Project; people who do not have a say in public projects, from women to children, the elderly, refugees and people with disabilities; Designed to integrate into planning processes. Block by Block offers these participating groups a democratic platform in a collaborative process that incorporates their ideas into these processes.
The main aim of the project is to meet the needs of every citizen; to design public spaces such as parks, squares, gardens and streets with a common consciousness. The fact that the committees that come together through this approach are included in the planning processes through a game in a language that everyone can understand has a positive impact on the future of urban design.
In the months following the workshops in Seferihisar, members of the Architecture for All Association and Cut-Paper will translate these ideas into architectural projects under the consultancy of architect Evren Başbuğ and representatives from Seferihisar Municipality. The construction of the Children's Summer Camp is planned to begin before the summer of 2019.
The collaboration realized thanks to the Swedish Institute, Dr. Curated by Architect H. Cenk Dereli, the Herkes İçin Mimarlık and the Cut-Paper are being realized with the contribution of the student design club of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design of Izmir University of Economics.
This project is a collaboration of the Swedish Institute, Un-Habitat, Block by Block and Seferihisar Children's Municipality. It is part of the "Equal Spaces" program aiming at long-term mutual creative exchange between stakeholders from Sweden and Turkey.
Swedish Institute
https://si.se/en/
Block by Block Mojang is an innovative collaboration between Microsoft and UN-Habitat
https://www.blockbyblock.org/about
Equal Spaces
https://si.se/en/events-projects/turkey-equal-spaces-creative-smart-inclusive/tra