This article is based on the discussions we had during our meeting, where we commemorated the first anniversary of the earthquake, with contributions from our instructor Yağmur Yıldırım, organized by the Feminist Studies and Activism Club on 06.03.2024.
A year has passed since the earthquake, yet the rubble has not been cleared. Perhaps as a defense mechanism, we continue our lives just as they were. Saying that we are continuing with our lives is hard for those of us living in a city like Istanbul with the risk of earthquakes, and because the country’s wounds haven’t healed, and our country is not prepared for any earthquakes despite all its experiences. For this reason, this year in the March 8th events, we wanted to bring this issue to the agenda again and rekindle our memories, evaluating the effects of the earthquake from a feminist and ecological perspective.
The earthquake exacerbates the difficulties experienced by vulnerable groups at every stage, from the moment it occurs to the reconstruction of cities. For example, the survival rates of women in a disaster can be lower than men’s because societal norms exist at every moment of our lives, just as they do during earthquakes. For instance, societal norms can prevent a woman in the shower from prioritizing leaving the building. On the other hand, the safety of temporary shelter areas for women and whether they can access necessities such as sanitary pads are other question marks.
“Temporary” shelter cities are particularly critical in such disasters. Although we may think those areas can be used for 1-2 years, constructing a new city can take decades. Therefore, these are not “temporary” but “emergency” shelter cities; they have the practicality of an emergency. It is important to consider alternative solutions that are longer-term, sustainable, and adaptable to different conditions. These cities could turn into transition areas compatible with the new city to be built and can be used for other purposes or emergencies afterward. The news of flooding in the earthquake zone since last year shows how important these emergency shelter cities are, from their location to their materials. The fact that the container cities established in the Netherlands after World War II can still be used as dormitories for students or as shelters for refugees when needed years later indicates that sustainable and robust emergency areas are not short-term solutions.
This point brings us to the question of what the designed city will be based on. According to the prepared plan, we see that the city has sharply divided into areas such as work and residential areas. This brings up the question of what makes a city a city. In Turkey, neighborhoods are places where shopping is done outdoors, people of similar beliefs and ethnic origins live together, and each neighborhood has its unique texture. According to the prepared plan, a plan has been made where people leave their workplaces, go home to sleep, and go to another part of the city for shopping. At the same time, although it may sound nice for people from different socio-economic backgrounds and different views to live together, this situation can lead to class-based exclusions in practice. On the other hand, for women whose domestic labor has been overlooked and who already have living space at home and in the neighborhood, these cities can create cities where they are further confined to their homes and cannot exist in public spaces.
While considering this, we discussed feminist urban projects from the early 1900s from an architectural perspective. Even seemingly simple ideas such as communal kitchens and shared daycare areas can expand public spaces where women can exist. Also, instead of completed turnkey homes, half-built homes can be sold at cheaper and more affordable prices, and people can shape the rest according to their needs. For example, the space that could be a room according to the number of people in the house could be used as a shop or garage. In short, seeing this issue only as an urban transformation issue, leaves people in already challenging economic conditions with no choice but to be part of a debt economy. (See: Feminist Rejection of Debt – Luci Cavallero).
Finally, we touched on some issues that are talked about less compared to the problems revolving around the city. One of these is the psychological consequences of the earthquake, especially. Some NGOs in the earthquake zone; with projects such as the Purple Tent and the Women’s Coalition, established spaces where women in the earthquake zone could socialize and share things, and provide psychological support. While evaluating basic needs such as housing and nutrition, we need to remember how fundamental such needs are. Another issue is the intense migration to other cities after the earthquake. We do not know where these people live, under what conditions, whether they can find jobs, whether they can adapt in many areas such as the education of children, in the big cities that already host challenging conditions such as the rent crisis. Some data not provided to the public after the earthquake is a crisis issue in itself. For example, we do not know the number of people who lost limbs or became disabled after the earthquake. This is especially critical as we design cities according to the human body we perceive as normal, and in a city where disabled people are considered the norm, it is a critical issue to build a city accordingly.
In short, rethinking both the new cities to be built and the cities we already live in, making collective efforts to explore how alternative publics could be, and producing demands seem to be the key to change.
We would like to thank our instructor Yağmur Yıldırım for her contributions and for enabling us to better address the issue both architecturally and from a feminist and ecological perspective. We thank everyone who participated in our event for addressing different points and their interest. We believe that being together and keeping these issues on the agenda and pondering over them is valuable, and we look forward to seeing you at our future events.
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Photo by Mahmoud Sulaiman on Unsplash