2025 - 2026 Spring
Graduation Project JURY A Poster
“The Living Heritage Landscape: Productive Core of Ankara”

Graduation Project JURY A “The Living Heritage Landscape: Productive Core of Ankara” will be conducted by Prof. Dr. Meltem Erdem Kaya and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Didem Dizdaroğlu as the core jury members; Prof. Dr. Nurbin Paker Kahvecioğlu, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özlem Özer and Arzu Nuhoğlu as guest jury members; Dr. Kumru Arapgirlioğlu as the consultant jury member and will be assisted by Res. Asst. Elif Ağaoğlu Yıldırım and Res. Asst. Lâl Dalay Algan in the 2025–2026 Spring Semester. 

“This land is our homeland; it cannot be abandoned to its fate.” Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

The 2025–26 Spring Semester Diploma Project Jury A of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Istanbul Technical University invites students to critically engage with Atatürk Forest Farm (Atatürk Orman Çiftliği) as a significant component of the capital’s landscape and national history. Within the scope of the graduation project, Atatürk Forest Farm is addressed as a distinctive landscape form and a living heritage landscape, encouraging the development of scenarios and speculative design proposals through new spatial strategies capable of shaping the future of the city.
Founded in 1925, Atatürk Forest Farm represents one of the most significant examples of living heritage landscape in Türkiye, forming a fundamental component of Ankara’s green backbone with its layered historical and cultural dimensions extending from the early Republican period to the present. Its transformation from marshy and infertile land into a productive landscape reflects a holistic vision that integrates agricultural production, animal husbandry, research, and education, alongside recreational and cultural uses for urban residents.
Within the scope of the diploma project, students are expected to interpret Atatürk Forest Farm as a living heritage landscape, critically analyze its transformation processes from past to present, and re-evaluate its crucial role within the capital’s green system. The studio aims to foster an environment of knowledge production and intellectual debate that questions the potential new roles of Atatürk Forest Farm under contemporary conditions, particularly its capacity to be re-envisioned as a productive centre for Ankara.

Site Visit: A three-day field trip to Ankara is scheduled for February 12–14. 

For the syllabus, please click here.