Moderator: Prof. Dr. Ali Cengizkan
Speakers: Prof. Dr. Abdi Güzer, Teaching Assistant Dr. Arif Çağlar and Associate Professor Hatice Kurtuluş
Discussion Session: 30 October 2012, 18:00

The Chamber of Architects Istanbul Metropolitan Branch is organising a discussion session entitled cities changing through the arc hitect/architechture as well as providing venues during the biennal. In the mean time, organised in relation to the title “Architects are city changers” which is the theme of the 2012 World Day of Architecture chosen by the International Union of Architects UIA, the discussion platform aims to address different aspects of the concept “transformation” which has become the main agenda of today and aims to discuss the concept “public sphere” in urban space and life from various perspectives and provide new insights. The sessions will address many topics such as the discussion on the roles and responsibilities of the architect and architecture in the transformation process; the questioning of the social position of architecture within the transformation process; the evaluation of the process from the perspective of public rights and professional ethics by aproaching “architecture and urban design” through the concept of commodification within the context of global neo-liberal policies; the discussion of cities changing through the architect/architechture in terms of “public rights” and “social benefit;” the evaluation of “architecture and the transformation of urban design” as a “design product” and/or “process” and the social and cultural dimensions of the process.