ALEPPO VOLCANO

Project Name

Build on the Side of a Volcano

Project Type

Thesis

Advisors

Peter Waldman / Michael Lee

Dates

09.2013 - 12.2014

Location

Istanbul, Turkey / Aleppo, Syria

The acrid smoke plumes and droning helicopters recede into the shrinking landscape of Syria as millions turn their backs on their former homescape in search of stability in foreign lands.  Istanbul, a mecca of cultural and economic endurance, beckons as a new home and place of rebirth.  Although they will always carry with them a condition of estrangement, they have an opportunity to flow within the ancient thoroughfares of Istanbul as a means of collectively mapping a new place and recalling their previous home.  But to live with a sense of hope for peace and stability requires a process of building for the future.  Education serves as the foundation for building knowledge, values, and skills necessary for integration into society.  With more than 130,000 Syrian children not attending school in Istanbul, there is dire need for the provision of an educational system that can accommodate the traumatized Syrian youth while highlighting the shining moments and monuments of the “Jewel on the Bosphorus”.

Aleppo to Istanbul

The route from Syria to Istanbul navigates through dangerous terrain and bleak landscapes. Gray zones indicate regions of conflict with high concentrations of refugee camps within.

Site Characters

This project structures itself along historical narrative strands such as Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” and Thomas Cole’s “The Course of Empire” as a method of linking contemporary refugee crises with the relentless subject of creation and destruction.  Here, “Guernica” has been dissected into 5 major elements that pair with one of Cole’s paintings depicting the allegory of an empire’s rise and fall.  Furthermore, these pairings link with imagined characters that inhabit the landscape and structures of this project.  Each of the 5 primary characters has a particular story and route through the city of Istanbul.