Four Days in the Field: Gaziantep Excursion

The Fall 2024 vertical studio works in Gaziantep under the theme of convergence. Gaziantep is a city shaped by multiple urbanization processes: the dense historical fabric around the castle, traditional craft quarters, modernist housing estates, industrial zones and neighborhoods reshaped by migration. These fragments often exist in isolation, separated by sharp boundaries. Rather than treating this diversity as a problem to solve, the studio approaches it as a resource to activate, searching for interfaces where distinct urban pieces can productively interact.

Before any line was drawn, the studio went to the city. For four days students moved between these fragments on foot, experiencing the boundaries and transitions that no plan could fully convey. Days were spent mapping, sketching and photographing; evenings turned into collective discussions on what the city had shown.

The observations, encounters and documentation gathered during the visit set the analytical ground for the entire semester. The individual design projects that grow out of this material will be shared here as the studio concludes.