2025 - 2026 Fall
Landscape Design IV Studio
 “The Second Ground: Art, Education and Technology”

Landscape Design IV - PEM 411E  (CRN 13893) & PEM 312E (CRN: 13895) – “The Second Ground: Art, Education and Technology”  will be conducted by Prof. Dr. Elif Lutfiye Kutay Karaçor @elif_lkkaracor and Res. Assist Mürşit Sönmez @landscapeontheway in the 2025-2026 Fall Semester.

This studio invites students to explore the transformation of post-industrial landscapes through the lens of art, education, and technology, using the Ümraniye site as a case study. Once occupied by furniture and textile industries, the site presents both challenges and opportunities for adaptive reuse. The project will focus on how these abandoned production zones can be reprogrammed as vibrant public grounds, reconnecting them with cultural memory, ecological resilience, and social inclusivity.

Students will investigate how post-industrial sites can act as laboratories for sustainable futures by integrating renewable energy, water cycles, and zero-waste systems into design. At the same time, the studio emphasizes public art and vocational education as tools for social cohesion, local employment, and community participation. Through collaborative design strategies, students will define the “second ground” as a layered network of cultural, ecological, and technological systems.

Focusing on the question, “How can landscape architecture redefine post-industrial landscapes as spaces of cultural continuity and sustainable innovation?”, the studio encourages students to envision site-specific, future-oriented design solutions.