Archipelago Concept

In our urban design class, we have prepared a presentation about the archipelago concept and how it is applied to architecture, urban design. First I will explain the meaning of archipelago in its original context; originally archipelago means a group of islands in the sea. When we apply it to architecture, I like the idea to use this original meaning as a metaphor. So in architecture, the archipelago concept according to city planning, it suggests a fragmented condition. There are separated parts but those parts are not totally disconnected, they are located in a common ground and the parts are self-sufficient. So the fragmented parts are like the islands in the sea and their common ground is the sea itself.

To get the concept better, of course, we have example projects about it. The most impressive one was the Berlin as a Green Archipelago project by Oswald Mathias Ungers. As we know, Berlin was divided into two after the war and West Berlin was surrounded by walls. The city was an example of a fragmentation condition and the form of the city was like ‘a city within the city’. And in addition to that, the wall made it harder to heal the war wounds. At that point, in 1977, Oswald Mathias Ungers, Rem Koolhaas, Peter Riemann, Hans Kollhoff and Arthur Ovaska suggested a rescue project. In my opinion, the most impressive thing about that project was, they used the main problem as the solution. I mean, they have used the fragmentation of the city as a new plan of the city; that means they have planned the city as an archipelago. So they have interpreted the city as a composition formed of islands, and named them ‘micro-cities’. If we apply our sea-island metaphor to Berlin, the fragmented parts of the city were the islands and rest, the common ground of them was the sea.

I think another interesting part was interpreting the iconic buildings in this concept. Every city has its own iconic buildings and when we look at the city, they are probably the most recognizable elements. So in this concept, the iconic buildings of the city can be the ‘islands’ and the rest is the sea. And I like the idea to relate this concept with our ARCH301 project. For that project, we have visited and analyzed Gaziantep. So when we look at Gaziantep, the most eye-catching, the most recognizable elements are the khan buildings. So in the archipelago concept, they are the islands of that area and the city which meets them in a common ground is the sea. And another thing that fits the archipelago concept is the self-sufficiency of khans. They are the iconic buildings of Antep and they are self-sufficient. So my aim for my ARCH301 project is to add a new self-sufficient island to the city.

In our presentation, there are not many written explanation about the topic because we have mostly explained with words but if you want to check, here is our presentation; Archipelago