Graduate students of Yaşar University Faculty of Architecture was admitted by the international research project “Welfare, Housing and Infrastructure/WHIT in Turkey” funded by the British Academy.
Conducted jointly by Yaşar University’s Faculty of Architecture, the UNESCO Chair in International Migration and the UK’s Institute of Development Studies (IDS), the project is intended to contribute to improving the spatial conditions in the accommodations/houses where Syrian migrants and Turkish citizens with low income live.
Architecture majors from Yaşar University and Sweden’s Umeå University gathered as part of the project. Executed by Yaşar University Faculty of Architecture Dean Prof. Meltem Gürel and by Robert Mull from University of Brighton and Amalia Katopodis and Sangram Shirke from Umeå University, an online class was administered to improve the spatial conditions that the Syrian migrants and Turkish citizens with low income residing in Basmane and Torbalı are living in.
NOT JUST FOR SYRIAN MIGRANTS
“The project will have innovative proposals regarding the accommodation and infrastructure not only for the Syrian community but also for all communities living in the socioeconomically underdeveloped regions of İzmir,” said UNESCO Chair in International Migration Coordinator Assoc. Prof. Ayselin Yıldız to inform about the project that will propose alternative models of accommodation.
PROMISING DEVELOPMENTS FOR MIGRANTS
To express her opinions about the online class, Anne O’Rorke, Founder of the Team International Assistance for Integration (TIAFI) that conducts works for the benefit of the migrant communities and Turkish citizens with low income in İzmir, said, “Students started their project with great motivation, energy and creativity. It is really promising both for the TIAFI and all migrant communities that we support. The exhibition here is also showing the spaces that the students have designed to this end.”
