Conversation:
On Ayamama Swa(m)p
Salt Galata
December 19, 2024 17.00
Ayamama Swa(m)p, Salt Galata, 2024
Photograph: Beno Öterkuş
Photograph: Beno Öterkuş
As part of the exhibition Ayamama Swa(m)p—organized by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Faculty of Architecture and Planning and hosted by Salt—Rafi Segal, Selin Şahin, and Marisa Morán Jahn will be in conversation with Berin Golonu, Hayriye Esbah Tuncay, and Evren Uzer.
The program will be held in English and is open to everyone. Click here to join the conversation on Zoom.
Berin Golonu is an assistant professor in the Art Department at the University at Buffalo. Her research focuses on urban ecologies, spatial practices, and landscape imagery. Her first monograph, Naturalizing Modernization, Urban Greenspace and Cultural Memory in Late Ottoman Istanbul, traces changing concepts of urban public space in the long nineteenth century, and also looks at uses of the city’s historical greenspaces today. Golonu’s peer-reviewed research articles have appeared in publications such as Third Text and the Journal of Visual Culture, and her art criticism has been published in art journals worldwide, including Artforum, Art in America, Aperture, Modern Painters, and Frieze. Along with Candice Hopkins and Marisa Jahn, she is the co-editor of the volume Recipes for an Encounter (Western Front Editions, 2010). From 2003-2008, Golonu served as a curator of contemporary art at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
Evren Uzer is an educator, urban planner, and community practitioner working on civic engagement in planning and design. She is an Associate Professor of Strategic Design and Urban Practice at Parsons School of Design, The New School. Her current research focuses on community engagement in collaborative processes, critical heritage within resistance studies, and feminist spatial practices. Evren’s practice is currently split between community engagement, planning, and design work at Collective for Community, Culture and Environment-CCCE and her artistic practice at roomservices. Through these two initiatives, she works on advocacy planning, artistic research, co-design, and accessible forms of publishing. She is currently PI for Community Engagement 101, a curricular research project, and the Foundations: Teaching and Learning Frameworks for Equitable Community Engagement course, which is focused on faculty training.
Hayriye Esbah Tuncay is a professor at the Department of Landscape Architecture at Istanbul Technical University. Her research in landscape ecology, particularly its integration into design, has contributed to discussions on sustainable cities in the face of climate change. She focuses on the important connection between human well-being and ecological balance, with her work encompassing urban, rural, natural, historical, and cultural landscapes. As the Founding Director of HET (Habitat-Ecology-Technology), a landscape architecture and urban design firm based in Istanbul, she leads projects that prioritize sustainability and climate resilience. Esbah Tuncay holds a doctorate in the field of environmental design and planning from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in the field of landscape architecture from the University of Arizona.
Rafi Segal is an architect and associate professor at the Department of Architecture and Urbanism at MIT. His work involves design and research on the architectural, urban, and regional scale, currently focused on how emerging notions of collectivity can impact the design of buildings and cities. Segal directs Future Urban Collectives, a design-research lab at MIT that explores the relation between digital platforms and physical communities asking how architecture and urbanism can support and scale cohabitation, coproduction, and coexistence. Segal has exhibited his work at venues including Storefront for Art and Architecture; KunstWerk, Berlin; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Venice Biennale of Architecture; Museum of Modern Art; and the Hong Kong/Shenzhen Urbanism Biennale. He holds a PhD from Princeton University and a M.Sc and B.Arch from Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
Selin Şahin is an architect and researcher interested in questions of urban sustainability, transformation, and participatory design. A Fulbright recipient, she holds a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS) from MIT and a Bachelor of Architecture from Bilkent University. Her experience includes projects in Belgium, South Africa, and Turkey, notably an award-winning community center in Reyhanlı recognized for its innovative design. She continues to actively contribute to academic and professional discourse. Currently, at Höweler + Yoon, Selin operates at the intersection of technology and strategy, leveraging computational tools to explore behavioral patterns, user experience, and their spatial implications.
Marisa Morán Jahn is an artist whose work highlights the potential of art as a form of social practice and delves into civic spaces and the transformative power of play. Working across drawing, public art, and architectural-urban scales, Jahn collaborates with new immigrant families and low-wage workers. Jahn’s initiatives have reached wide audiences through platforms such as the Tribeca Film Festival, the United Nations, the Obama White House, The New Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and international outlets like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Univision Global, BBC, and CNN. She serves as a Senior Researcher at MIT, her alma mater, and as the Director of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design, The New School.
The program will be held in English and is open to everyone. Click here to join the conversation on Zoom.
Berin Golonu is an assistant professor in the Art Department at the University at Buffalo. Her research focuses on urban ecologies, spatial practices, and landscape imagery. Her first monograph, Naturalizing Modernization, Urban Greenspace and Cultural Memory in Late Ottoman Istanbul, traces changing concepts of urban public space in the long nineteenth century, and also looks at uses of the city’s historical greenspaces today. Golonu’s peer-reviewed research articles have appeared in publications such as Third Text and the Journal of Visual Culture, and her art criticism has been published in art journals worldwide, including Artforum, Art in America, Aperture, Modern Painters, and Frieze. Along with Candice Hopkins and Marisa Jahn, she is the co-editor of the volume Recipes for an Encounter (Western Front Editions, 2010). From 2003-2008, Golonu served as a curator of contemporary art at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
Evren Uzer is an educator, urban planner, and community practitioner working on civic engagement in planning and design. She is an Associate Professor of Strategic Design and Urban Practice at Parsons School of Design, The New School. Her current research focuses on community engagement in collaborative processes, critical heritage within resistance studies, and feminist spatial practices. Evren’s practice is currently split between community engagement, planning, and design work at Collective for Community, Culture and Environment-CCCE and her artistic practice at roomservices. Through these two initiatives, she works on advocacy planning, artistic research, co-design, and accessible forms of publishing. She is currently PI for Community Engagement 101, a curricular research project, and the Foundations: Teaching and Learning Frameworks for Equitable Community Engagement course, which is focused on faculty training.
Hayriye Esbah Tuncay is a professor at the Department of Landscape Architecture at Istanbul Technical University. Her research in landscape ecology, particularly its integration into design, has contributed to discussions on sustainable cities in the face of climate change. She focuses on the important connection between human well-being and ecological balance, with her work encompassing urban, rural, natural, historical, and cultural landscapes. As the Founding Director of HET (Habitat-Ecology-Technology), a landscape architecture and urban design firm based in Istanbul, she leads projects that prioritize sustainability and climate resilience. Esbah Tuncay holds a doctorate in the field of environmental design and planning from Arizona State University and a master’s degree in the field of landscape architecture from the University of Arizona.
Rafi Segal is an architect and associate professor at the Department of Architecture and Urbanism at MIT. His work involves design and research on the architectural, urban, and regional scale, currently focused on how emerging notions of collectivity can impact the design of buildings and cities. Segal directs Future Urban Collectives, a design-research lab at MIT that explores the relation between digital platforms and physical communities asking how architecture and urbanism can support and scale cohabitation, coproduction, and coexistence. Segal has exhibited his work at venues including Storefront for Art and Architecture; KunstWerk, Berlin; Witte de With, Rotterdam; Venice Biennale of Architecture; Museum of Modern Art; and the Hong Kong/Shenzhen Urbanism Biennale. He holds a PhD from Princeton University and a M.Sc and B.Arch from Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.
Selin Şahin is an architect and researcher interested in questions of urban sustainability, transformation, and participatory design. A Fulbright recipient, she holds a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (SMArchS) from MIT and a Bachelor of Architecture from Bilkent University. Her experience includes projects in Belgium, South Africa, and Turkey, notably an award-winning community center in Reyhanlı recognized for its innovative design. She continues to actively contribute to academic and professional discourse. Currently, at Höweler + Yoon, Selin operates at the intersection of technology and strategy, leveraging computational tools to explore behavioral patterns, user experience, and their spatial implications.
Marisa Morán Jahn is an artist whose work highlights the potential of art as a form of social practice and delves into civic spaces and the transformative power of play. Working across drawing, public art, and architectural-urban scales, Jahn collaborates with new immigrant families and low-wage workers. Jahn’s initiatives have reached wide audiences through platforms such as the Tribeca Film Festival, the United Nations, the Obama White House, The New Museum, the Brooklyn Museum, the Guggenheim Museum, and international outlets like The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Univision Global, BBC, and CNN. She serves as a Senior Researcher at MIT, her alma mater, and as the Director of Integrated Design at Parsons School of Design, The New School.
