Cities are not built in such a short time, from scratch, at once

Antakya has a history of 100,000 years. It has seen more than 30 earthquakes. It is an ancient city that brings different religions and cultures together.

There are almost no solid buildings left in Hatay, which was heavily damaged in two major earthquakes in Kahramanmaraş and was shaken once again by an earthquake of 6.4 magnitude. One of them is The Museum Hotel Antakya... While it was planned as a 400-room hotel, 90 percent of this building, which was turned into a museum hotel after 10 years of excavation work, was designed as a steel construction. In the project, approximately 20 thousand tons of structural steel and 3 thousand tons of rebar was used. The architect of the hotel, whose investor is the Asfuroğlu Family, is Emre Arolat, owner of Turkey’s award-winning architectural firm, and EAA Architecture. We asked Emre Arolat the secret of The Museum Hotel’s survival after devastating earthquakes and what needs to be done for the region in the future…

Arolat explained the reason why The Museum Hotel did not suffer serious damage after the earthquakes: “The fact that the static project is qualified as well as the architectural one, that the ground surveys are done correctly and that these are taken into account are related. Architecture is not the only determinant. The fact that the whole process is done correctly is due to the fact that it is correctly coordinated. The construction phase is also very important, and the control phase is also very important. Therefore, this is the expected normal result, as a process that complies with universal norms, both project and construction norms, is carried out here from beginning to end.”

Emre Arolat, who also gave information about the latest condition of the building, stated that there was no visible damage and said, “There are some damages such as small glass shards and explosions in the water pipes. Other than that, there is no serious damage to the remains. However, a technical check must be made, all carrier parts and all connection points must be checked not only visually, but also by testing. Some parts need to be investigated down to the basics. This is a process that will take months,” he said.

Architect Emre Arolat objects to the hasty reconstruction efforts of ancient cities destroyed in the earthquake, especially in Hatay: “You cannot design cities with purely physical structures. I have built rows of buildings, it is not enough to say come and sit. Certainly, scientific committees should be formed”

It is necessary to understand Antakya layer by layer and to establish the new city in this context. What I firmly believe is this: Cities cannot be built in such a short time and from scratch, all at once. Even in planned cities, there is an organic development period. As such, quality cities and places to live emerge.

Currently, promises are made that TOKİ will step in quickly, construction of new buildings will be started within a month and will be completed in a very short time, perhaps for reasons such as more populist motives and election concerns. Yes, shelter is a very urgent and important need, we all know that. From one side, TOKİ is an incredible power, and it can even be claimed that it does a wonderful job if you do not take into account some realities. After all, it is an institution that was established and organized to meet the need for housing not only in normal times, but also in times of disasters. They have a tunnel formwork system that they are very proud of as a carrier, they know what to do and how to place the structures now that it is just like a potato press, or they think they know. Maybe some interventions can really improve things. These are all ok. These are advantages, but the city is nothing like that. The city is actually a multi-layered organism and therefore all its elements must be taken into account and the projection must be made accordingly. In this context, it is very important to produce better quality temporary accommodation opportunities. Thus, reasonable times can be used for the qualified design of permanent places. In other words, there is no such thing as “I built rows of buildings, come sit down”.

Looking at the images, historical places were also destroyed. There was the world’s first illuminated street in Antakya.

In this regard, a holistic strategy should be considered together with the general planning of the city. For example, I saw the most mentioned Habib-i Neccar Mosque. That structure can be easily restored. Synagogues, churches, synagogues… All of them can be revived. However, this should not be done as if smuggling goods from the fire.

All of the historical heritage should be looked at in detail and meticulously. Studies should be carried out with a common mind and by protecting all values. Demographics are very important. Otherwise, Antakya will unfortunately be sold out. The strategy needs to be finetuned. We must plan the city center very carefully and calmly. There is one in the world from Antakya. Undoubtedly, in this new plan, it will be possible to highlight the archaeological layers even more. But at the same time, we have to carefully evaluate and somehow renovate Kurtuluş Street, Saray Street, Uzun Çarşı, the historical buildings in the center, and the original structural texture of central Antakya. It is necessary to construct the new plan as a kind of mosaic in which the ancient culture of Antakya is taken into account.

Yes, the pain is unbelievable, we’re all devastated. It is impossible not to hold back your tears and not feel the pain when you see those who are carrying corpses on motorcycles and those who are waiting for the corpse of their husband’s child. And when you see this view, you think. Who built those houses? I don’t know if we get smarter? It takes some serious leverage. I don’t know the answer to this question, but unfortunately I don’t find it very convincing to think that something will change all of a sudden. Every segment of society has a share in this view to a greater or lesser extent. I think like this. There are those who say, “I am not guilty at all”. I want to say to those who say that, “think about it again”. Undoubtedly, someone has a much greater responsibility. We know this. But in order to solve this issue, it is necessary to undertake some issues as a whole.

Brand new houses demolished…

Yes that’s true. However, if we look at this issue from one angle, we will be wrong. Aren’t there those who don’t renovate their house because “I want 3 square meters more” and look negatively on urban transformation because they don’t like their money?

There are several main reasons why urban transformation does not evolve in a positive direction. For one thing, we have to admit that homeowners see this as a profit issue rather than an improvement or remediation. I think that population movements in all cities on the fault line should be balanced much better. In fact, a significant part of Anatolia remains empty. We have areas that are unsuitable for agriculture, and they are very suitable for the development of industry. It is very important to shift the population in a controlled and planned way, to relieve cities such as Istanbul and Izmir, and to manipulate them to have a much more balanced distribution across the country.

This earthquake I saw may make a lot of people angry, but I will use the word opportunity even though I don’t want to use it much, it created an opportunity, an environment to think about things once again. It was as if we were all woken up by a great jolt while we were snoring. Now we have two options before us. The first is to put the head back on the pillow and continue to sleep, and the second is to get up and do the things we know best at world-class standards. Hopefully this time we’ll shrug a little and get up.

Our country is an earthquake zone knitted with fault lines depending on the geological processes it has gone through. Possible earthquakes are waiting for their turn. For example, the Istanbul earthquake, which is always talked about. Talking about this right now may sound selfish when so many people have lost their lives under the rubble, but if Istanbul was badly damaged in the earthquake, it would mean the collapse of Turkey. We should see Istanbul as a Turkish issue. If the Istanbul earthquake happens 20 years later, we should not say, “Let’s not learn from the first 20 years, we didn’t learn from the second 20 years”. By taking rational measures, we can make Istanbul 80 percent more resistant to earthquakes than it is today. We have workforce and technical knowledge. New, improved and diversified regulations in accordance with local conditions and laws to ensure their implementation must be put into effect.

Sustainable living space...

We went to Elazig after the earthquake. We talked to the municipality. They showed us an area on the Malatya highway. There we created a kind of sub-city, a self-sufficient sustainable piece of city. It was a very collaborative effort. Sustainability principles came to the fore in the project. In addition to a qualified urban planning, we also carried out a meticulous study at the building scale. The design of open spaces was also considered as an important criterion of the project. The wetland on the land was arranged and turned into a park. As another distinguishing feature, we have integrated vertical agricultural units on the walls of the buildings that will trigger collective production motives.

Along with 500 living units, there are units such as a health center, education and culture areas, ecological water park, city archive and short-term accommodation units on the 2.5-kilometer trade and recreation axis. Another goal of the design is to transform some of the units on this axis and make them suitable for emergency use in disasters.

In summary; We must build quality and sustainable structures, taking into account all parameters, quickly but not hastily.

* Eli̇f Ergu Demi̇ral ( oksi̇jen ) and Meltem Kara söyleyenoğlu ( posta ) quoted.