I worked with Sululuke Platform to redesign (in their words “clean up”) their alternative urban regeneration plans and maps in the summer of 2009. Platform members worked hard on how to suggest a new urban plan for Sulukule against municipality’s own plan. My job was to make the maps more understandable and presentable.
Sulukule Platform consist of architects, urban planners, sociologist, archeologists, activists and many people from diverse background. The aim of the platform was to protest unfair and forced eviction plans of the municipality against Sulukule (a neighborhood in Istanbul where Romanian citizen used to live) and to suggest new ways of urban regeneration for the area. After lots of debate, with the effects of the press and international organizations, the municipality asked Sulukule Platform to prepare alternative plans, accepting that the original ones are not as good for the area’s unique culture and features. Unfortunately, the alternative plans were mostly rejected (and ignored) by the municipality itself.
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keywords: cartography, maps, urban, visual explanationMost urban planners and architects would see these maps and explanation as a regular cartographic work but from a visual communication and design perspective, i find it suitable to categorize these works under information design, since my work was to make the maps and the explanations more visible and understandable. This is why i also attached the old versions – at least the ones that i could find.
