Kayseri Architecture Festival: "Re-Told Stories"

The third Kayseri Architecture Festival, organized by the Kayseri Branch of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), will take place from October 3 to 5, 2024. This year’s theme is "Re-Told Stories."

Speakers sharing their projects and research focused on the festival theme include Ahmet Sezgin, Cem Sorguç, Chen-Yu Chiu, Christele Harrouk, Elif Çelik, Hayriye Sözen, Kadir Uyanık, Kim Seunghoy, Melis Cankara, Melis Varkal, Merve Gedik, Mucip Ürger, Nevzat Sayın, Zeynep Eres, and Zeynep Hagur.

This year, the festival will take place in the Maintenance and Repair Workshop located in the Sümer Campus of Abdullah Gül University, which is currently under consideration for re-functionalization.

The curator of the festival, Sevince Bayrak, wrote the following text about the festival theme:

RE-TOLD STORIES

“No work is born into a void; it is added to the flowing river,” says Nurdan Gürbilek. The flowing river is filled with words, images, buildings, roads, and bridges; there is a place for everything in re-told stories.

A story, whether conveyed through images or words, is part of daily life. Not only today, when technology fills every moment, but since we discovered the first tools for storytelling, we have never had a day without a story. First, we listen to others’ tales, and then we construct our own. What was told before us influences what we will narrate, whether we are aware of it or not; the storyteller is as important as the story itself. From whose perspective are we viewing the plot? Whose voices are loud, and whose remain unheard? To re-tell a story opens the door to imagining even the most well-known legends and those deemed as absolute truths in a different way, paving the way for new heroes.

Today, stories that have been told for years, from mythology to history, technology to medicine, are being re-told, and architecture is part of this process. Instead of constructing from scratch every time, transforming what already exists, allowing buildings to regain life, and improving cities through small-scale interventions instead of mega-projects are more relevant than ever. Moreover, this is not a mere choice but a necessity in a time where economic, environmental, and social crises are intertwined; stories are being reconstructed with different perspectives and methods as a starting point.

The aim of re-telling is not to repeat what we already know or to create something entirely new. It is about recognizing the details we have not heard before, the heroes we do not know by name, imagining “what if it had been this way,” and looking at photos taken from angles we have not seen. We need to re-tell the flowing river, along with those born into it, to reveal the ups and downs that every work has traversed.