Cooperazione internazionale per il rilevamento e la documentazione dei tessuti urbani storici: l’insediamento medievale genovese di Galata, Istanbul. International cooperation for the survey and documentation of historical urban tissues: the medieval genoese settlement of Galata, Istanbul

The International Urban Design Workshop “Urban Façade: Istanbul waterfront” took place in March 23th-30st 2019 at the Faculty of Architecture and Design, Özyegin University, Istanbul. Organised by the authors in collaboration with University of Parma, “Sapienza” University of Rome, University of Naples “Federico II”, DIDALABS, Department of Architecture, University of Florence, and the Università degli Studi “Mediterranea” of Reggio Calabria. The workshop focused on the architectural survey, analysis and redesign of selected urban blocks of Galata’s waterfront considering their ongoing transformation (Dixon, Verdiani, Cornell 2017). We should not design the transformation therein like an arbitrary object, as most contemporary architectural production seems to fancy, but rather as a living organism within the formation process of urban tissues (Camiz, Carlotti, Díez 2017). The area is an important connection between the sea and the historical Galata neighbourhood, acting as the city’s “urban facade” towards the Golden Horn (Cuneo 1987). The workshop considered critically inserensome of the contemporary metropolis’ problems in Istanbul, the substitution of historical urban tissues with new buildings.