IZMIR UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS BUILT A BRIDGE BETWEEN TURKISH-JAPANESE DESIGN
Japanese and Turkish interior architects believe that day care centres, where the future of each country, the children, receive their initial education at, are not given enough importance, so they combined their design forces together for bright minds of future. Interior architects from Chiba University, Japan, and Izmir University of Economics (IUE), are making new synthesis through educational collaboration. Prof. Dr. Kaname Yanagisawa, Head of Department of Architecture of Chiba University and his 9 students, came to IUE to design “day care centre” with interior architecture students.
Prospective Japanese and Turkish interior architects and architects, who attended various seminars and went on historical and architectural sightseeing tours of Izmir, got into groups to find a solution to the inadequate number of day care centres, one of the major problems of nowadays. The students will work on their dream designs through the internet, and IUE students will eventually visit Chiba University in Japan. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Deniz Hasırcı, IUE Head of Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design, Faculty of Fine Arts and Design, stated that they established various academic collaborations between the two universities since 2004. Hasırcı said, “We signed an exchange program for students and lecturers of both universities. This year, Prof. Dr. Kaname Yanagisawa and his students visited our department and had a chance to analyse history and architecture of Izmir. Next trip will be to Japan by our department.”
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Deniz Hasırcı stated that informative seminars promoting Izmir were also conducted by Özge Başağaç, Architect at Izmir Branch of Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB) for students. Hasırcı indicated that in the later days, students worked on their day care designs together. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Deniz Hasırcı stressed that the presentations by Prof. Dr. Yanagisawa and his students at Studio course have been very informative for IUE students. She stated that after the seminars, the mixed group of students worked on the “three most important features each day care centre has to have”. “We conducted a very efficient workshop on design of children’s spaces, a subject that is often neglected, with the help of IUE lecturers Asst. Prof. Dr. Emre Ergül, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Osman Demirbaş, research assistants Hande Atmaca, Oylum Dikmen and students. Students and lecturers of both groups will continue their studies during the semester through internet and they will also be sharing their project outcomes on the internet at the end of the semester. Such organizations create good opportunities to experience different point of world and design views,” said Assoc. Prof. Dr. Deniz Hasırcı.
