Assoc. Prof. Bülent Batuman, chair of the Department of Architecture, has published a new book, “Mekânın Politikası: Kriz, Kent ve Mimarlık” (The Politics of Space: Crisis, City, and Architecture).
The book reads the relationship between the contemporary moment and the city and architecture through a spatial–political lens. In a time when neoliberal crises, wars, migration, post-truth populism and ecological destruction envelop the world, the intensification of economic crisis in Türkiye, electoral processes and the devastation wrought by the 2023 earthquakes form both the context and the terrain of debate for these texts.
The book unfolds along three axes. “City, Crisis, Politics” brings together readings that range from Singapore to Qatar 2022, from Riyadh to the transformation of Türkiye’s metropolises, and sit alongside analyses of contemporary forms of urban populism. “The Politics of Destruction” offers observations from earthquake zones; discussions of disaster urbanism; tensions between authority, power and participation in reconstruction; debates on memory stretching from Berlin to Varosha (Maraş); and notes that invite us to think about Gaza through the concept of “urbicide.” Finally, “Authoritarian Construction and Resistance” addresses the ideological function of housing, architectural representations of power, contested sites such as AOÇ/Ankapark, the example of Christiania and practices of public space extending from Gezi Park to Saraçhane.
