Forum:
Water Assemblies
Wetness
Merve Bedir, Duygu Cihanger Ribeiro
Salt Beyoğlu
March 4 – December 31, 2025
Merve Bedir’s installation Rotte, presented at Singer Sweat Shop as part of the ZigZagCity Festival during the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam in 2012
Photo: Rubén Dario Kleimeer
Photo: Rubén Dario Kleimeer
“Water embodies and creates ‘relations of care and desire’ before its conception as a chemical abstraction of mere resources and energy. Formless yet essential to shaping life, water unveils layers of social and environmental histories, always finding its way through flows, leaks, and cracks.”
Initiated as part of Water Assemblies, “Wetness” is a research project led by architect Merve Bedir in collaboration with urban planner Duygu Cihanger Ribeiro.
In this research strand, participants will explore the social and ecological architecture of water outside colonial and patriarchal systems, rethinking it as a heterogeneous entity deeply connected to our bodies, collective practices, and everyday spaces. The study will unfold in three phases: evidence, delineation, and memory. The first workshop will trace and mark the flow of water beneath the surface, through pipes, and across the cracks of the Salt Beyoğlu building. In the second workshop, participants will examine the embodied meanings and hidden spatial dynamics of water as presented in books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. The following phase of the research will take place in Ankara, in collaboration with students from Middle East Technical University. Addressing water as a shared resource in the stepped terrain of Ankara will offer a rich exploration of the spatial and social aspects of wetness in a “dry” land. The students will integrate findings from earlier research on the embodied meanings and concealed spatial dynamics of water with everyday memories collected around water bodies. A summer study will continue tracing fluid and transversal spaces, spectral infrastructures, and water commons in the city and villages of Ankara. The research methodology will follow more-than-human anthropology, Masao Adachi’s landscape theory, and patchwork ethnography by Gökçe Günel and Chika Watanabe.
PROGRAM
March 7-9, 10.00-17.00
Workshop: Evidence in Salt Beyoğlu
In this workshop, participants will trace and map the flow of water beneath the surface, through pipes, and across the cracks of Salt Beyoğlu. Accompanied by technicians, they will discover the building’s water systems and learn about water tanks, fire systems, clean and waste water systems, and water usage in kitchens, toilets, and other notable spaces. Participants will also explore the building’s site-specific elements in relation to water. Humidity monitors will be used to identify cracks on the ground floor. Experts will share insights into the underground water systems along Istiklal Street and beneath Salt Beyoğlu, while the group collectively studies maps. The workshop will culminate in the creation of a front façade installation reflecting the building’s waters. Participants are encouraged to attend at least two days of the workshop.
March 21, 10.00-18.00
Workshop: Embodied Meanings of Waters
In this workshop, participants will examine the diverse meanings of water in rural and urban contexts and its spatial dynamics, particularly in the stepped terrain of Ankara. The following publications will guide their research: Anadolu Manzaraları (1957) by Hikmet Birand, Ankara Şehri Su Tesisleri (1967) by Eşref Özand, İsim İsim Ankara (2013) by Önder Şenyapılı, Doğal, Tarihsel ve Kültürel Değerleriyle Kaybolan Ankara (2022) by Mehmet Tuncer, Necati Yalçın, and Savaş Sönmez, Nişanyan Sözlük and Deyimler Sözlüğü. The group will collaboratively create a document that brings together the etymologies, forms, and flows of water-related concepts. The outcomes of the workshop will contribute to the visualization of water cosmologies.
The following phase of the research will be held in Ankara in collaboration with students from the course “Public Spaces for Inclusion and Diversity” at Middle East Technical University.
The first two workshops, which will take place on March 7-9 and March 21 as part of the launch of Water Assemblies, are open to individuals of all ages and backgrounds. The program will be held in Turkish and is limited to 15 participants. Participants are encouraged to attend both workshops. Please submit your application via this form by Monday, February 24 at 18.00. Selected participants will be notified on Wednesday, February 26.
In addition to the workshops, K. Mehmet Kentel and Merve Bedir will be in conversation on Friday, March 7. The free-admission program will be held in Turkish.
Merve Bedir is an architect and researcher whose work focuses on infrastructures of hospitality and mobility, as well as collective intelligence and imaginaries of landscapes. She is a co-initiating member of Aformal Academy in Pearl River Delta, Kitchen Workshop in Gaziantep, and Center for Spatial Justice in Istanbul. Bedir earned her PhD from Delft University of Technology and her Bachelor of Architecture from Middle East Technical University. She was an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at Hong Kong University, where she worked with wetlands, and Design Academy Eindhoven, where she focused on dunes. She co-chaired the “Design for Partnerships for Change” panel at the UIA World Congress of Architects in 2023. She authored “Kitchen Workshop: Cityzenship as Infrastructure” in Feminist Infrastructural Critique (2024) and co-edited “New Silk Roads” in e-flux Architecture (2024). Currently, she is a visiting professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) School of Architecture. Her recent design projects include MutfakNa, an industrial non-profit kitchen in Gaziantep, and the Postane repair project in Istanbul. She has curated Vocabulary of Hospitality (Istanbul and Rotterdam, 2015 and 2022), uncommon river (Plovdiv, 2015), and co-curated Automated Landscapes (2017-2019). Her work has been featured in BAK (Utrecht, 2025 and 2023), Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (New York, 2023), Venice Biennale of Architecture (2021), Architecture Biennale of São Paulo (2017), and several editions of Istanbul Design Biennial and Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen.
Duygu Cihanger Ribeiro is an urban planner and researcher whose work bridges academia, design, and artistic practice. She is an assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the Middle East Technical University Faculty of Architecture. She graduated from the same department and completed her master’s in Urban Design at METU before earning her PhD at Ghent University, with a dissertation on the interplay of spontaneity and design in urban space. Her professional journey includes an assistant professorship at TED University (2019-2020) and research residencies at Ghent University (2021), as well as Lisbon University and Aveiro University (2023-2024). Cihanger’s work is deeply rooted in exploring the social dimensions of urban morphology, with a focus on themes such as informal urbanism, public space, everyday life, inclusive design, migration, and urban sociology. She has curated and contributed to exhibitions, workshops, and interdisciplinary projects, often collaborating with collectives and non-profit organizations.
This research is realized with the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
Initiated as part of Water Assemblies, “Wetness” is a research project led by architect Merve Bedir in collaboration with urban planner Duygu Cihanger Ribeiro.
In this research strand, participants will explore the social and ecological architecture of water outside colonial and patriarchal systems, rethinking it as a heterogeneous entity deeply connected to our bodies, collective practices, and everyday spaces. The study will unfold in three phases: evidence, delineation, and memory. The first workshop will trace and mark the flow of water beneath the surface, through pipes, and across the cracks of the Salt Beyoğlu building. In the second workshop, participants will examine the embodied meanings and hidden spatial dynamics of water as presented in books, dictionaries, and encyclopedias. The following phase of the research will take place in Ankara, in collaboration with students from Middle East Technical University. Addressing water as a shared resource in the stepped terrain of Ankara will offer a rich exploration of the spatial and social aspects of wetness in a “dry” land. The students will integrate findings from earlier research on the embodied meanings and concealed spatial dynamics of water with everyday memories collected around water bodies. A summer study will continue tracing fluid and transversal spaces, spectral infrastructures, and water commons in the city and villages of Ankara. The research methodology will follow more-than-human anthropology, Masao Adachi’s landscape theory, and patchwork ethnography by Gökçe Günel and Chika Watanabe.
PROGRAM
March 7-9, 10.00-17.00
Workshop: Evidence in Salt Beyoğlu
In this workshop, participants will trace and map the flow of water beneath the surface, through pipes, and across the cracks of Salt Beyoğlu. Accompanied by technicians, they will discover the building’s water systems and learn about water tanks, fire systems, clean and waste water systems, and water usage in kitchens, toilets, and other notable spaces. Participants will also explore the building’s site-specific elements in relation to water. Humidity monitors will be used to identify cracks on the ground floor. Experts will share insights into the underground water systems along Istiklal Street and beneath Salt Beyoğlu, while the group collectively studies maps. The workshop will culminate in the creation of a front façade installation reflecting the building’s waters. Participants are encouraged to attend at least two days of the workshop.
March 21, 10.00-18.00
Workshop: Embodied Meanings of Waters
In this workshop, participants will examine the diverse meanings of water in rural and urban contexts and its spatial dynamics, particularly in the stepped terrain of Ankara. The following publications will guide their research: Anadolu Manzaraları (1957) by Hikmet Birand, Ankara Şehri Su Tesisleri (1967) by Eşref Özand, İsim İsim Ankara (2013) by Önder Şenyapılı, Doğal, Tarihsel ve Kültürel Değerleriyle Kaybolan Ankara (2022) by Mehmet Tuncer, Necati Yalçın, and Savaş Sönmez, Nişanyan Sözlük and Deyimler Sözlüğü. The group will collaboratively create a document that brings together the etymologies, forms, and flows of water-related concepts. The outcomes of the workshop will contribute to the visualization of water cosmologies.
The following phase of the research will be held in Ankara in collaboration with students from the course “Public Spaces for Inclusion and Diversity” at Middle East Technical University.
The first two workshops, which will take place on March 7-9 and March 21 as part of the launch of Water Assemblies, are open to individuals of all ages and backgrounds. The program will be held in Turkish and is limited to 15 participants. Participants are encouraged to attend both workshops. Please submit your application via this form by Monday, February 24 at 18.00. Selected participants will be notified on Wednesday, February 26.
In addition to the workshops, K. Mehmet Kentel and Merve Bedir will be in conversation on Friday, March 7. The free-admission program will be held in Turkish.
Merve Bedir is an architect and researcher whose work focuses on infrastructures of hospitality and mobility, as well as collective intelligence and imaginaries of landscapes. She is a co-initiating member of Aformal Academy in Pearl River Delta, Kitchen Workshop in Gaziantep, and Center for Spatial Justice in Istanbul. Bedir earned her PhD from Delft University of Technology and her Bachelor of Architecture from Middle East Technical University. She was an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at Hong Kong University, where she worked with wetlands, and Design Academy Eindhoven, where she focused on dunes. She co-chaired the “Design for Partnerships for Change” panel at the UIA World Congress of Architects in 2023. She authored “Kitchen Workshop: Cityzenship as Infrastructure” in Feminist Infrastructural Critique (2024) and co-edited “New Silk Roads” in e-flux Architecture (2024). Currently, she is a visiting professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) School of Architecture. Her recent design projects include MutfakNa, an industrial non-profit kitchen in Gaziantep, and the Postane repair project in Istanbul. She has curated Vocabulary of Hospitality (Istanbul and Rotterdam, 2015 and 2022), uncommon river (Plovdiv, 2015), and co-curated Automated Landscapes (2017-2019). Her work has been featured in BAK (Utrecht, 2025 and 2023), Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (New York, 2023), Venice Biennale of Architecture (2021), Architecture Biennale of São Paulo (2017), and several editions of Istanbul Design Biennial and Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture in Shenzhen.
Duygu Cihanger Ribeiro is an urban planner and researcher whose work bridges academia, design, and artistic practice. She is an assistant professor in the Department of City and Regional Planning at the Middle East Technical University Faculty of Architecture. She graduated from the same department and completed her master’s in Urban Design at METU before earning her PhD at Ghent University, with a dissertation on the interplay of spontaneity and design in urban space. Her professional journey includes an assistant professorship at TED University (2019-2020) and research residencies at Ghent University (2021), as well as Lisbon University and Aveiro University (2023-2024). Cihanger’s work is deeply rooted in exploring the social dimensions of urban morphology, with a focus on themes such as informal urbanism, public space, everyday life, inclusive design, migration, and urban sociology. She has curated and contributed to exhibitions, workshops, and interdisciplinary projects, often collaborating with collectives and non-profit organizations.
This research is realized with the support of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
