İzmir, Türkiye

Photo by Sinan Alper

Innovative and Collaborative Solution

How does the initiative show evidence of feasibility, including on-going financial and logistical support?

Studies carried out within Peynircioglu Ecological Restoration Project in Mavisehir district were realized as a result of the cooperation of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality with both its budget and cofinancing of the European Union under the HORIZON 2020 framework. In addition, the use of local, low-water-consuming plants and the use of drip irrigation systems ensured a feasibly efficient process of the Project.

In what ways is the initiative innovative?

NBSs which are delivered in this project are nature-inspired interventions, designed to deal with social and environmental problems. The idea behind these solutions is to design cities that are coherent with their environment, in parallel with native plants, soils and other natural elements and support the natural cycle of life. Examples of challenges to be addressed with NBSs include climate change, air and water pollution, floods and rising temperatures.
The project takes into account its environment and future conditions and seeks solutions to possible and existing problems. It offers natural, simple, lean solutions (such as permeable pavement application and İzMiras Routes) in which it proposes new methods in design. The success of the project is directly related to the fact that it sheds light on the problems of the future and creates sustainable solutions as well as offering new opportunities to the locals. The vision of the project is also covering the vision of IMM’s Izmir’s Strategy for Living in Harmony with Nature. This vision claims synthesis of culture and nature while aiming for innovation in methodology such as NBSs. In addition, the fact that the project is supported by the EU’s H2020 UrbangreenUP Project aiming Renaturing Urban Planning (RUPs).

How is the initiative supported by collaborative working across disciplines and sectors?          

The design, completed with a holistic approach, also includes co-financing from the IMM. Within the scope of H2020 UrbangreenUP, the local project partners are universities (Izmir Institute of Technology and Ege University) and SMEs (Demir Energy, and Bitnet). In this context, many different professionals had the opportunity to collaborate. For example, environmental engineers, mechanical engineers, landscape architects, computer engineers, architects, civil engineers, electrical engineers, agricultural engineers and city planners had the opportunity to work together on the project. In addition, professors from different departments from universities have conducted extensive measurement studies on monitoring and dissemination activities.

How does the initiative demonstrate evidence of community support?          

During the pre-implementation phase of the project, it was organised a design workshop, within the context of NBSs with different design institutions and associations. Approximately 70 design students and workshop coordinators attended the co-design of NBSs organized by IMM at Fablab İzmir. The pollinator house, which was one of the outcomes of this workshop, has been implemented in the project area. In addition, during the implementation of the project, the contributions of the people living in the vicinity were integrated into the project during the implementation processes in which the neighborhood managers participated.