World renown architect Emre Aroat has teamed up with Dr. Ece Ceylan Baba, an assistant professor, to launch “Umut – Elazığ” (Hope – Elazığ), a social responsibility project that dually serves as a possible solution that could relieve Turkey of post-earthquake trauma. Backed by the City of Elazığ, the Municipality of Elazığ (province), and the Elazığ Chamber of Industry & Trade, the project proposes a sustainable and eco-friendly living arrangement that embodies all of what Elazığ has taken away lesson-wise both from the 6.8 magnitude earthquake that recently shook it, as well as from the Covid-19 pandemic. It would set an example not only for Turkey but also for the whole world. The Municipality of Elazığ has appropriated the 600,000 square-metre lot atop which the project – which includes plans for a brand new residential area plus, for the district of Sivirce, a master plan – will sit. Drawing upon a wide spectrum of architectural alternatives, the project’s masterminds have made provisions for everything that locals could ever need, all the while enabling the city to sustainably get itself off the ground: housing, clinics, educational facilities, cultural centres, arts & rec centres, and even land set aside for family and husbandry. The project’s design team is being lead by Arolat and Baba alongside an independent committee of consultants, and features students and freshly minted architects alike from Yeditepe University – all untied under the “Umut – Elazığ Advanced Design Studio.” All of their design projects had to first gain the approval of and then were tweaked according by an independent panel of judges made up of many a key figure in the architecture community. Only projects that truly answered people’s needs were given the green light.
