Izmir’s New Council

  • Project Date: 2023
  • Location: İzmir, Konak
  • Client: İzmir Metropolitan Municipality
  • Project Team: Cem Ilhan, Tülin Hadi, Ayşegül Ersin, Sezin Beldağ, Efe Toz

IZMIR’S NEW PARLIAMENT AS A MANIFESTO
Debates on democracy have never slowed down since the 1960s. The inadequacy of representation mechanisms, their actual and structural bottlenecks have led to the emergence of direct participation mechanisms beyond representation. These practices described in the context of participatory democracy are sometimes seen as a separate political medium that will replace representative democracy. However, since the current scales of our living spaces have reached a level that does not allow direct participation in governance, participatory practices can only be seen as complementary and supportive of representative bodies. In this sense, participation and representation cannot replace each other, but can provide a democratic functioning by existing together.

We can imagine this symbiotic relationship between participation and representation, the Izmir Democracy Campus, which brings together the representation and participation elements of the city, as a monument symbolizing these discussions on democracy. We can begin to think of the structure by taking inspiration from the etymological origin of the basic element it will host. Because the representative, deliberative and decision-making bodies of political institutions are expressed in two different ways in our language: Assembly and parliament. According to Sevan Nişanyan, the Assembly is “a loanword from the Arabic root cls, maclis, “session or place to sit, a meeting for conversation.” Again, according to the same source, the parliament is “derived from the French verb parler, “to speak,” with the suffix +ment°.” When we consider the two etymological roots together, we designed the campus with a design idea that makes sitting and talking possible. On the one hand, a sitting area where people can come together and watch the city, and on the other hand, a conversation area where the city’s problems are discussed. What is in question here is the creation of a wide and unobstructed discussion space.

The first manifestation of this integrity is the amphitheater-like stairs of the structure that make it possible to sit across from Konak Square and watch it. If we think of the square as a public stage, the structure turns into an organic extension where we can watchthe square while sitting. We see the same organic integrity in the passage function that the structure assumes between the sea, the esplanade and the square. The structure seeps into people’s daily habits and routines, becoming an organic part of them.

The point where the corridor meets the stairs offers an opportunity to turn the transit passage into a standstill as a viewing terrace; it invites the city flaneur to become a participant of the city because the City Council takes its place in the project as a transparent structure that will be placed inside the stairs rising in the form of an amphitheater. Thus, the distinction between the watcher and the watched, the representative and the represented, is symbolically blurred; citizens and administrators are equalized at eye level. The space overcomes the distinction between inside and outside, and makes every citizen a shareholder in the decision-making authority. It distributes the responsibility of the director equally, symbolically and functionally. The space is designed in a transparent manner suitable for the uninterrupted flow of the gaze and in a dynamism that provides diversity to the mobility of bodies.

RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CITY
Four main strategies have been determined through the concept of relation to eliminate discontinuities in public spaces, which are one of the acute problems of our cities.
These are spatial relation, relation with urban memory, relation with actors/subjects, and relation with the coast and green.
While designing the new parliament building, the connections on the north-south and east-west axes that were already actively established were preserved, and pedestrian and bicycle connections that strengthened the relations in both directions, especially focusing on the square, and that would increase accessibility were proposed. Within the boundaries of the competition area, sub-regions with different identities, users, and therefore different needs were enriched and related to each other in a way that would allow different uses without ignoring their current functions. The new Parliament Building was designed with a holistic design by considering the coastal promenade coming from the Konak Pier direction, the Cumhuriyet Boulevard axis, and the pedestrian axes coming from the Kemeraltı Bazaar direction together.