On November 17, Saturday a large group of speakers came together to reflect the production process of the İzmir/Sea project at Istanbul Modern as a part of the Seminar Program. A discussion was held in the form of an informal conversation on how the process of developing an egalitarian and democratic project is achieved and what this process can teach us.

The coastline surrounds the northern Gulf of Izmir, starts from Karşıyaka Mavişehir, continues until Bayraklı, Alsancak, Konak and ends in the South, İnciraltı. The Izmir Sea Project contains the protection of the identity and the reorganisation of the 40 km long coastline as a wide public space. However, the project has remarkable originalities not only due to its size but also due to the process mobilising more than 100 designers, academics and experts to achieve the project. This project, which can be considered the first attempt of its kind in the history of urbanisation in Turkey, is egalitarian rather than hierarchical, contains multiple voices rather than a single voice and aims to create an environment not only for the city but one which will participate in the lives of the urbanites. Different from the top-down projects, most of which are developed for a limited segment of society, this project is an informative experience of how urban scale projects should be developed in such a way that it will be open to debate and broad participation.

Participants: Aziz Kocaoğlu (Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor); İlhan Tekeli (Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Chairman Advisor, METU, Academics); Tevfik Balcıoğlu (Yaşar University, Academic); Mehmet Kütükçüoğlu (Teğet Architecture, Master Architect); Zuhal Ulusoy (Kadir Has University, Dean, Akademisyen, Master Architect); Nevzat Sayın (NSMH, Master Architect); Tevfik Tozkoparan (Tozkoparan Architecture, Architect); Serhan Ada (İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Chairman Advisor, İstanbul Bilgi University, Academics); Evren Başbuğ (steb | studio evren başbuğ, Master Architect); Deniz Güner (DEÜ, Academic, Master Architect); Boğaçhan Dündaralp (ddrlp, Architect); Seçkin Kutucu (Yaşar University, Academic, Master Architect); Elfin Yüksektepe Bengisu (Event Designer and Culture Manager)