"Sustainable, Eco-friendly, Green Campus and District with AGU Garden"

The School of Architecture of Abdullah Gül University (AGU) has organized the "Sustainable, Eco-friendly, Green Campus and District with AGU Garden" workshop.

Kocasinan Mayor Ahmet Çolakbayrakdar, AGU Vice Rector Prof. İrfan Alan, School of Architecture Vice Dean Assoc. Prof. İpek Akpınar, academics and municipality officials attended the workshop, organized in cooperation with the Kocasinan District Municipality.

In the opening of the workshop held at the Conference and Seminar Rooms on the Sümer Campus, Kocasinan Mayor Ahmet Çolakbayrakdar gave a speech and said, they work for the city together with different people in different careers creating a collective wisdom.

Çolakbayrakdar added, not only countries but also cities are competing with each other in the world and they will protect both the cultural heritage in the city we live and bring the novelties of the modern age to it.

Çolakbayrakdar said: "Cities mark their place in the global arena with either culture, nature, or economic opportunities, richness, modern buildings, and technological opportunities. The city where we live has also a history in which relics go back to the 4th millennium BC, and harbors much richness and cultural values. In a city with such a history, our duty is to protect these values, cultural heritage and add new things onto them."

Assoc. Prof. İpek Akpınar, Vice Dean of the AGU School of Architecture, explained the reason they organized the workshop as a desire to have a green and sustainable campus and district and have spaces which move people.

Assoc. Prof. Burak Asiliskender, head of the Architecture Department at the School of Architecture, informed about the AGU Sümer Campus.

Assoc. Prof. Asiliskender said, the Sümer Campus will play a crucial role at the greening and sustainability of the city.

After the speeches, the following presentations were given in the workshop: “Etkileşimli Tasarım Süreci İçin Bütüncül Süreç Tasarımı” (An Holistic Process Design for an Effective Designing Process) by Mustafa Fatih Bakır, Honorary President of the Turkish Institute for Permaculture Studies, “Endüstriyel Rönesans: Biyobazlı Ekonomi” (Industrial Renaissance: Bio-based Economy) by Çağatay Erşan, academic at the AGU School of Engineering, “Yenilebilir Üniversite” (Renewable University) by Assoc. Prof. Hossein Sadri and Assoc. Prof. Senem Sadri, academics at Girne American University, “Kolektif Belediyecilik ve Coğrafi İşaretleme” (Collective Municipalism and Geographical Marking) by İrem Yıldırım, Head of Kocasinan Municipality Parks and Gardens Department, “Sürdürülebilir Yeşil Kampüs ve AGÜ Bostanı” (Sustainable Green Campus and AGU Garden), by Özlem Kevseroğlu and Aslıhan Atılgan, research assistants at the AGU School of Architecture.

Afterwards, Yasemin Somuncu, researcher at the Energy, Environment and Economy Center of Özyeğin University, Ayça İnce, social scientist, Ali Taptık, founder of Bandrolsüz Kolektif (a small independent publisher), also made their presentations.

At the end, the RIBA 2016 exhibition of the Royal Institute of British Architects, which puts the best structural projects of the world on display, was opened.