Iranian architect fellow designs for human rights, public spaces
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Friday, February 5, 2010
Justyna Szewczyk
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Uninterested in designing hi-tech architectural projects for big companies, Hossein Sadri, an Iranian fellow at one of Turkey’s leading research facilities, instead focuses his work on the relation between human rights and public spaces.
Hossein Sadri, an Iranian fellow at the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey.
Those who think that architecture is only about designing fancy skyscrapers and making a lot of money are very wrong. Hossein Sadri, an Iranian fellow at the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey, or TÜBITAK, demonstrates the “human face” of architecture.
The social dimension of architecture has long been Sadri’s main interest. His master’s thesis, which he defended back home in Iran, was concerned with democracy and public space. He has investigated the role public spaces have played in democratic processes in Iran and in post-communist countries. For example, in Ukraine, Georgia and Romania there are many large public spaces that can be used as places for assembly, providing opportunities to demonstrate dissident opinions.
Public space and democracy
Democratic revolutions that took place in recent years, both in Ukraine and Georgia, seem to confirm the relationship between space and democracy. In Iran, on the contrary, public spaces are not big enough to allow protesters to gather and feel the power of the crowd. Even when big demonstrations take place, with hundreds of thousands of participants, they are often marching through narrow streets. This makes it difficult for demonstrators to assess their own numbers, which can have a very empowering effect, and makes them easy targets for police forces.
Public activities brought to private spaces
In Iran, Sadri said, “public space is limited” through a number of rules, which has changed Iranian life as public activities have been brought into the private space of homes. Both traditional celebrations as well as civil activism have sought refuge in private houses, a situation that contributes to the scattered nature of Iranian civil society. Since it is very difficult to register a nongovernmental organization, or NGO, activists meet in homes, where they are exposed to potential police raids. Furthermore, such private/public organizations lack the international links that could provide protection or help in the event of police persecution.
This raises the question of whether public space is necessary for democracy. Sadri’s answer is that “private space can do some work temporarily, but it can be easily attacked by the government and no one will know.”
Capital, government and professionals
Sadri’s doctoral fellowship at TÜBITAK focuses on economic and social rights in relation to space. He listed human rights related to space as follows: the “right to participate in the production of space and the right to change it” and the “right to appropriation.”
The Fatih Municipality’s recent decision to evict the Roma population of Sulukule is an example of a case where capital, government and professionals such as architects and city planners have decided to change space without consulting these changes with the people inhabiting the space in question. In Sadri’s opinion, people’s right to produce and change space has been violated by these actors, which he calls the main “enemies” of the poor.
The problem is that the government failed to empower members of the Sulukule community so that they could decide about their own neighborhood. The situation of the district would be different if people were able to ask for some educational or work facilities, Sadri said.
Taksim Square in Istanbul is another example Sadri provided in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review to illustrate the disregard of government and capital for people’s right to space. Plans in recent years to build a mosque or redesign the Atatürk Cultural Center have ended in an impasse. No one has been able to change it, but also no one is able to use the square. It is not a place of activity, as if it has been taken over by the police. While the police presence in Taksim Square is a problem related to the government and its policy of controlling potential locations for mass gatherings, capitalists have overtaken neighboring İstiklal Avenue.
‘People should be the center of change’
Architects and urban planners work for government and capital rather than for the benefit of the wider public, Sadri said. He believes contemporary architecture is focused on bettering standards instead of being concerned with providing minimal housing standards for everyone. This is partly due to the way architects are educated, he said. Unlike sociologists, who come across readings about poverty or disadvantaged groups in society, architecture students receive no such education. Only recently have some universities included, for example, courses on handicapped-accessible architecture in their curricula.
“If architects were aware of these problems, they could change many things. If they knew, they have no right to change space,” Sadri said, calling on architects to “go to people and ask them what they want to do.”
Zaha Hadid’s recent project for the Kartal-Pendik waterfront regeneration in Istanbul is an example of such arrogance, Sadri said, noting that she flew over the city in a helicopter to design solutions for this vast area. Instead, Sadri said, “people should be the center of change.”
Housing, a human right
The right to appropriation, or, simply put, the right to dwell in a space is a second category of rights related to space. Unlike property rights, which are exclusive by their very nature, the right to appropriation allows citizens to freely use a space and settle in it if necessary. The increasing privatization of public space that started in Turkey in the 1980s has led to the marginalization of large numbers of people. As education and health care are privatized, people’s rights to access these spaces have been increasingly violated.
“You have a right to use facilities [i.e. health care] if you are not rich; if you are homeless, you have a right to dwell in a place; poor men without social security have a right to adequate health or education services,” Sadri said, adding that the right to appropriate land extends, for example, to the shantytown developments known as gecekondu. “You cannot demolish people’s houses – it’s a basic human right,” he said.
The first category of rights Sadri talked about – namely, the right to participate in the production and change of spaces – is more about political rights. People should be able to decide about their lives and destinies as they have the right to participate in power and decision-making. The second category, the right to appropriation, is related to social and economic rights. Nevertheless, human rights are indivisible and therefore must be equally protected.
