We continue our series “Architecture from the couch”. After Bo Christiansen in Copenhagen/Malmö, Anneke Bokern in Amsterdam/Rotterdam, Boris Strzelczyk in Valencia, Bettina Johae in New York and Cristina Silva in Porto/Lisbon, we are moving on to Turkey.
Sixth, our Guiding Architects partner Zeynep Kuban from GA Instanbul in Istanbul reports.
The majority of us are currently sitting in our home offices and thus have no opportunity to explore the world. So we thought we bring the world to you. For this purpose we have asked our partners from Guiding Architects a few questions about the current situation.
Read their answers here and get a few tips on how the situation is dealt with in other countries and what you can see from home.
Architecture from the couch: tips from Zeynep Kuban
1. what is the situation like in your city?
It is like everywhere, schools are closed since 4 weeks, all public gatherings of all sorts are prohibited, people go out less. The difference is that there is a prohibition for people over 65 (retirement age) to go out. As they are the most vulnerable. (But of course nothing has been planned) But this is most about white collars. The working class is still going to work and many (probably most) will not get a paid leave. On some large construction sites the workers went on strike because the working conditions were not appropriate.
Zeynep Kuban © a-tour
2. how do you look into the future?
I have an ambiguous view. The fact that the air is much more cleaner and environmental issues become more clear, I would find it sad, if after everything people go back to travel as much as possible, consume as much as possible. Our business is based on these short city trips by plane and if we feel responsible for the nature, we shouldn’t do what we do…. On the other hand we love what we do… Difficult. But at least I hope that people (including me) will have learnt, that we do not need so much….
Architecture from the couch: tips from Zeynep Kuban
3. What could be viewed digitally in your city (museum, gallery, archive)?
The private art museums go online as much as possible, state museums do not even have a good website.
EAA Museum © Cemal Emden
4. name a positive initiative from your city, which has been created due to the current situation?
Like everywhere, it is the private initiatives; but there is one association, I find very useful that supports, among many other things, those that will not be able to bring food home during these days.
5. give us 1 tip for an architecture book and/or a documentary on architecture and/or movie and/or podcast that you have enjoyed recently?
Bruno Taut, Architekturlehre, This is a book of Bruno Taut, published first in 1938 in Turkish and in 1977 in German, then again last time in 2017. There is no English translation so far.