Building for a world in crisis

The February 2023 earthquake in Türkiye was cataclysmic, levelling great swathes of the country along the Syrian border, killing more than 55,000 people and destroying infrastructure and buildings. In Hatay, the city of Antakya – the ancient city of Antioch, a site of indelible ancient significance – was particularly badly hit: 80% of the city centre, several neighbourhoods and myriad historic structures were flattened, leaving thousands homeless. 

In the aftermath, the Istanbul-based Türkiye Design Council – an NGO supporting Türkiye’s design sector, active since 2016 – set to work. It teamed up with an international consortium of architecture, design, sustainability, engineering, culture, heritage and archaeology experts to develop a masterplan to redesign and rebuild Hatay, utilising the skills of more than 50 multidisciplinary companies to do so. This has included the local practices DB Architecture and KEYM Urban Renewal Centre, as well as the international practices Foster + Partners, Buro Happold and MIC-HUB, which developed the masterplan vision for Antakya and supporting design principles. 

Neither was it a straight refashioning of the old metropolis: the new plan, explains TDC, has sought to reimagine Antakya with future generations in mind – with the climate resilience, environmental and social wellbeing, and connectivity that demands.

It’s a massive undertaking: in scope and logistics, but also in the heartening notion of design, heritage and architecture experts pulling together in a show of resilience in the face of adversity. It directly echoes, too, the theme for TDC’s Global Design Forum programme during LDF: a day of talks dubbed ‘Resilience and Repair’, including conversations around ‘Responses to Conflict and Disaster’, ‘Community Resilience’, ‘Adapting to Survive’ and a keynote on ‘Preserving Identity Post Disaster’, specifically on the rebuilding and revitalisation of Antakya and on which Furkan Demirci, chairman of the Türkiye Design Council, will be speaking. 

“The revitalisation of Antakya isn’t just important for Türkiye – it’s important for the world,” explains Demirci. “The world is in crisis. There’s the climate, earthquakes, wildfires, wars. The cities are the core of our population and human civilization. It’s not just buildings and streets – it’s the symbol of trust we have for each other. Design has a healing effect on people: it’s a sacred practice.”

This human aspect, he continues, is the underlying thrust of the Council’s day at GDF. A project on the scale of the Antakya plan isn’t mere office work; it sets an existential precedent for future situations of this kind. Taking the stage at LDF, he says, is a means to explaining to a wider audience that a project of this magnitude is viable. “We want,” Demirci concludes, “to tell the world that this is possible.”