CEEE organized the Zero Istanbul Workshop, the very first transdisciplinary event of Özyeğin University in SwissotelIstanbul on 25 May 2010. Lecturers from many different disciplines, including engineers, architects, building contractors, economists, bankers, historians, teachers, and “people from the street” discussed the major problems the “City” has been experiencing. More than 80 prop le attended the workshop which was sponsored by Urban Land Institute Turkey (ULI) and SOYAK Holding. The opening speech of the Workshop was made by Murat Özyeğin and M. Pınar Mengüç. Later, EU Energy Minister Stefan Toastman explained the smart city concepts that the EU had just initiated. Önder Kaya, the author of the book “Cihan Payitahtı Istanbul and its 2500 Years of History”, displayed the city’s centuries old stages with many old paintings, photographs and postcards.
After extensive discussions, the workshop participants have explored the possible effects of urban change, population growth and climate change in Istanbul.
According to the studies conducted prior to 2010, it was predicted that Istanbul, whose growth rate is very rapid, would be be one of the largest metropolises that would seriously feel the effects of climate change. Indeed, we are experiencing many of these predicted effects in 2020s, within 10 years after the workshop, is no coincidence. At the end of the day, the participants of the workshop expressed their wish for all the efforts in city planning, architecture, engineering and finance fronts to protect the spirit of Istanbul in the long term. The Zero Istanbul 2050 Workshop was timely and significant in many ways, and shaped CEEE’s later studies.
Pınar Mengüç and Pınar Özuyar, who organized this workshop, later initiated a university wide course with the code CEEE211 and covered energy, environment and economic concerns for urban settings. It was as open to all second year students at Özyeğin University, and transdisciplinary problems related to climate change faced by both Istanbul and the world were studied. Thanks to these efforts, CEEE won the 2010 IBM Smarter Planet Award. This award, which was presented to only 24 groups in the World, shows the value of what the CEEE has accomplished in its early days.
You can click on/scan the QR codes for the links of some news and subsequent events that took place in the media about Zero Istanbul.
