Practice Matters: Engaging Communities
Salt Galata
September 19, 2025 17.00
![1 Richter <i>Lärande Bygd</i> [Öğrenen Köy] projesi kapsamında düzenlenen dikiş atölyesi, Berg, İsveç
Fotoğraf: Maria Richter Simsek](/directus/media/thumbnails/1-richter-jpg-1200-1200-false.jpg)
Workshop IV
Practice Matters is a project that explores how design, craft, architecture, and urban practices respond to urgent issues of conflict and crisis. Bringing together diverse experiences and fields of knowledge, the project aims to serve as a common space and resource for discussion, (un-)learning, and (re-)thinking the role and potential of spatial practices today.
This public event, organized on the occasion of the 18th Istanbul Biennial, brings together practitioners to discuss how to organize rural and urban communities in response to shared social and environmental challenges, focusing on practices that engage with issues of land use, ecology, agriculture, and food production. The program will reflect on often-overlooked aspects of collective work, such as negotiating differences, navigating conflicts, and establishing common ground. It will highlight examples that explore how participatory approaches can adapt and evolve when working with diverse communities and perspectives.
The program will feature presentations by Evrim Çoksöyler, Volkan Büyükgüngör, Emre Rona, Maria Richter Simsek, and Bediz Yılmaz, with an introduction and moderation by Magnus Ericson (IASPIS) and Eylül Şenses (Salt). Participants will share strategies for extending engagement, experimenting with inclusive methods, and developing new forms of collaboration. Discussions will also address the relationship between urban and rural contexts, considering how different practices can learn from and contribute to one another.
Planner and researcher Evrim Çoksöyler and holistic management trainer and field professional Volkan Büyükgüngör will discuss their work with Anatolian Grasslands, a social enterprise dedicated to strengthening climate change mitigation and adaptation through regenerative systems. Landscape designer and permaculture practitioner Emre Rona will share his experience working on environmental issues and community engagement in the Aegean town of Datça, where reverse migration is reshaping social dynamics between locals and newcomers. Designer Maria Richter Simsek will reflect on her work in social and environmental change and rural development in Sweden, exploring how to build infrastructure for local participation and create space to unlearn dominant practices of care for nature. Researcher and agriculture practitioner Bediz Yılmaz will draw on her work with Istanbul’s urban gardens and the diverse community maintaining them. She will address their efforts to negotiate with the municipality, document archaeological heritage, raise public awareness, and establish market spaces for produce through a food community.
The program will be held in English. Seats are limited. Please register here.
Practice Matters is developed by IASPIS in collaboration with Salt and programmed by Magnus Ericson and Eylül Şenses.
Volkan Büyükgüngör is the co-founder of Anatolian Grasslands, an internationally accredited trainer, and field professional with the Savory Institute. He is also the co-founder and a former resident of the Ormanevi Collective. Between 2014 and 2019, he managed Anatolian Grasslands’ application site, overseeing pasture-based cattle and sheep enterprise on more than 200 acres of land. At Anatolian Grasslands, he works on trainings, provides consultancy services, and coordinates large-scale, multi-stakeholder steppe restoration projects.
Evrim Çoksöyler is a planner and researcher based in İzmir. She works with civil society organizations in various roles, focusing on ecology and regenerative agriculture. She has been trained in permaculture design, composting, soil microbiology and holistic management. She mainly works with Anatolian Grasslands, the Savory Institute’s hub in Türkiye, where she received her training in holistic management. In 2021, she became a certified Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) monitor through the Savory Institute. Learning the language of the land through ecosystem process indicators, she observes grasslands and reports on their condition, which informs regeneration efforts.
Emre Rona is a landscape designer and permaculture practitioner based in Datça. Since 2010, he has been engaged in theoretical and applied permaculture work, teaching, advising, and developing simple yet effective nature-based techniques for creating holistic landscapes. His focus areas include rainwater harvesting, wastewater reuse, erosion control, organic waste management, and food production. He has been consulting for various NGOs and is a member of several working groups under the City Council of Datça Municipality—a volunteer initiative that seeks to support local authorities with knowledge, expertise, and labor.
Maria Richter Simsek is a designer based in southern Sweden, working in rural development and social and environmental change. She is interested in how social design and visualization can support community development, and in the power of collaborative learning for mobilizing change. Her practice is rooted in process design, graphic facilitation, and participatory design, with experience leading projects such as Lärande Bygd [Learning Village], Permapilot, and Aktiva byar [Active Villages]. Her current focus is on the conditions of the rural forests and the social norms and practices of care that shape them.
Bediz Yılmaz is a researcher and agriculture practitioner based in Istanbul. She has a background in public administration, political science, and urban studies, with a PhD on forced migration and social exclusion in a slum neighborhood of Istanbul. Following her dismissal after signing the Academics for Peace declaration, she shifted her focus to ecology and agriculture. She is currently engaged in urban agriculture at the Piyalepaşa Orchard in Istanbul, advises various NGOs, moderates the Fair Food Community initiated by Postane, and serves as one of two instructors for the program “The New Urbanite’s Guide to Ecological Living.”
Magnus Ericson is Head of IASPIS Applied Arts, leading programs related to design, crafts, architecture, spatial and urban practice. He is a Stockholm-based curator and educator working across design, architecture, urbanism, and art. Over the years, in different institutional settings and as an independent curator, he has combined curatorial and pedagogical practice with an emphasis on socially engaged critical practice, alternative pedagogies, and creating spaces for learning. He is the founder and co-curator of the IASPIS project Urgent Pedagogies.
Eylül Şenses is a programmer at Salt. She completed her BA in Architecture at Middle East Technical University and her MA in Architecture and Urban Studies at Kadir Has University. Her curatorial practice centers on urban and rural commons, spatial and environmental justice, with a particular emphasis on socially and politically engaged practices. She is a founding member of the urban studies cooperative Urban.koop and the ANATOPIA cooperative.
Practice Matters is a project that explores how design, craft, architecture, and urban practices respond to urgent issues of conflict and crisis. Bringing together diverse experiences and fields of knowledge, the project aims to serve as a common space and resource for discussion, (un-)learning, and (re-)thinking the role and potential of spatial practices today.
This public event, organized on the occasion of the 18th Istanbul Biennial, brings together practitioners to discuss how to organize rural and urban communities in response to shared social and environmental challenges, focusing on practices that engage with issues of land use, ecology, agriculture, and food production. The program will reflect on often-overlooked aspects of collective work, such as negotiating differences, navigating conflicts, and establishing common ground. It will highlight examples that explore how participatory approaches can adapt and evolve when working with diverse communities and perspectives.
The program will feature presentations by Evrim Çoksöyler, Volkan Büyükgüngör, Emre Rona, Maria Richter Simsek, and Bediz Yılmaz, with an introduction and moderation by Magnus Ericson (IASPIS) and Eylül Şenses (Salt). Participants will share strategies for extending engagement, experimenting with inclusive methods, and developing new forms of collaboration. Discussions will also address the relationship between urban and rural contexts, considering how different practices can learn from and contribute to one another.
Planner and researcher Evrim Çoksöyler and holistic management trainer and field professional Volkan Büyükgüngör will discuss their work with Anatolian Grasslands, a social enterprise dedicated to strengthening climate change mitigation and adaptation through regenerative systems. Landscape designer and permaculture practitioner Emre Rona will share his experience working on environmental issues and community engagement in the Aegean town of Datça, where reverse migration is reshaping social dynamics between locals and newcomers. Designer Maria Richter Simsek will reflect on her work in social and environmental change and rural development in Sweden, exploring how to build infrastructure for local participation and create space to unlearn dominant practices of care for nature. Researcher and agriculture practitioner Bediz Yılmaz will draw on her work with Istanbul’s urban gardens and the diverse community maintaining them. She will address their efforts to negotiate with the municipality, document archaeological heritage, raise public awareness, and establish market spaces for produce through a food community.
The program will be held in English. Seats are limited. Please register here.
Practice Matters is developed by IASPIS in collaboration with Salt and programmed by Magnus Ericson and Eylül Şenses.
Volkan Büyükgüngör is the co-founder of Anatolian Grasslands, an internationally accredited trainer, and field professional with the Savory Institute. He is also the co-founder and a former resident of the Ormanevi Collective. Between 2014 and 2019, he managed Anatolian Grasslands’ application site, overseeing pasture-based cattle and sheep enterprise on more than 200 acres of land. At Anatolian Grasslands, he works on trainings, provides consultancy services, and coordinates large-scale, multi-stakeholder steppe restoration projects.
Evrim Çoksöyler is a planner and researcher based in İzmir. She works with civil society organizations in various roles, focusing on ecology and regenerative agriculture. She has been trained in permaculture design, composting, soil microbiology and holistic management. She mainly works with Anatolian Grasslands, the Savory Institute’s hub in Türkiye, where she received her training in holistic management. In 2021, she became a certified Ecological Outcome Verification (EOV) monitor through the Savory Institute. Learning the language of the land through ecosystem process indicators, she observes grasslands and reports on their condition, which informs regeneration efforts.
Emre Rona is a landscape designer and permaculture practitioner based in Datça. Since 2010, he has been engaged in theoretical and applied permaculture work, teaching, advising, and developing simple yet effective nature-based techniques for creating holistic landscapes. His focus areas include rainwater harvesting, wastewater reuse, erosion control, organic waste management, and food production. He has been consulting for various NGOs and is a member of several working groups under the City Council of Datça Municipality—a volunteer initiative that seeks to support local authorities with knowledge, expertise, and labor.
Maria Richter Simsek is a designer based in southern Sweden, working in rural development and social and environmental change. She is interested in how social design and visualization can support community development, and in the power of collaborative learning for mobilizing change. Her practice is rooted in process design, graphic facilitation, and participatory design, with experience leading projects such as Lärande Bygd [Learning Village], Permapilot, and Aktiva byar [Active Villages]. Her current focus is on the conditions of the rural forests and the social norms and practices of care that shape them.
Bediz Yılmaz is a researcher and agriculture practitioner based in Istanbul. She has a background in public administration, political science, and urban studies, with a PhD on forced migration and social exclusion in a slum neighborhood of Istanbul. Following her dismissal after signing the Academics for Peace declaration, she shifted her focus to ecology and agriculture. She is currently engaged in urban agriculture at the Piyalepaşa Orchard in Istanbul, advises various NGOs, moderates the Fair Food Community initiated by Postane, and serves as one of two instructors for the program “The New Urbanite’s Guide to Ecological Living.”
Magnus Ericson is Head of IASPIS Applied Arts, leading programs related to design, crafts, architecture, spatial and urban practice. He is a Stockholm-based curator and educator working across design, architecture, urbanism, and art. Over the years, in different institutional settings and as an independent curator, he has combined curatorial and pedagogical practice with an emphasis on socially engaged critical practice, alternative pedagogies, and creating spaces for learning. He is the founder and co-curator of the IASPIS project Urgent Pedagogies.
Eylül Şenses is a programmer at Salt. She completed her BA in Architecture at Middle East Technical University and her MA in Architecture and Urban Studies at Kadir Has University. Her curatorial practice centers on urban and rural commons, spatial and environmental justice, with a particular emphasis on socially and politically engaged practices. She is a founding member of the urban studies cooperative Urban.koop and the ANATOPIA cooperative.
