Public Space Design
Pinar Sefkatli | University of Amsterdam
Rhythms are part of our bodies, the heartbeat and the natural cycles, as well as of our social and physical surroundings and the cities. Henri Lefebvre introduced rhythms to the urban sociology literature, and many philosophers and artists have been working on it for decades if not centuries.
Pinar Sefkatli explores this theme with her research group Designing Rhythms for Social Resilience (UvA and TU Delft, chaired by Prof. dr. Caroline Nevejan). She will present a showcase in the K-buurt neighborhood in Amsterdam Zuidoost, where she unraveled the issue of trash in the outdoor spaces around two almost identical high-rise residential buildings.
As a result of this research, the concept of rhythm zones has been coined, which makes it visible how the space-time interactions in the urban environment generate complex performances and experiences. It thus becomes clear that using rhythms as a research method, brings both a distinctive methodological ability to better understand urban life, and a distinctive design ability to propose interventions that better facilitate existing dynamics.
Pinar Sefkatli is a PhD candidate and part of the research group Designing Urban Experience at the University of Amsterdam (Prof. dr. Caroline Nevejan). Her research formulates rhythm as a concept for understanding the social life in cities and for identifying design spaces for socio-spatial issues, through engaging with the context of Amsterdam Zuidoost. Pinar studied architecture at Delft University of Technology (Msc 2015) and at the Polytechnic University of Milan (Bsc 2013). Before starting her PhD, she collaborated with architecture studios from Amsterdam and Rotterdam, was research assistant at City Rhythm research (2018) and worked for the Chief Science Office at the city of Amsterdam.
