SMALL SYSTEMS
Social Housing /
Urban AgricultureYear 2020
Location Göksu, Istanbul
Context Individual Architectural Graduation Project, Istanbul Technical University
Type Social housing and urban agriculture proposal
Role Research, concept development, architectural and spatial design, ecological strategy, visualisation, model making

Small Systems is a social housing proposal developed as a graduation project at Istanbul Technical University. Located in Göksu, Istanbul, the project investigates how domestic life, collective living, food production and ecological processes can operate as interconnected systems. It responds to a territory shaped by a long agricultural history, fertile landscapes and increasing pressure from urban development.

The proposal builds on the agricultural character of the site by integrating cultivation into everyday life. Productive landscapes are not treated as residual green space, but as an active component of the housing system. Growing, harvesting, sharing and maintaining food become collective practices that connect inhabitants with one another and with the land they occupy.

Existing buildings and landscape conditions are incorporated into the proposal rather than erased by a new masterplan. New structures develop around these elements as a flexible framework that can respond to changing seasons, uses and forms of occupation.

Drawing on posthumanist and political-ecological perspectives, Small Systems questions the separation between human habitation and its wider environment. Architecture is approached not as a closed object, but as an evolving network through which humans, non-human life, resources, climate and seasonal processes interact. The project therefore proposes housing as a small system within larger ecological and social systems, where everyday acts of living, producing and sharing continuously reshape the spatial environment.
The project is situated in Göksu, an area of Istanbul that still retains traces of its agricultural past despite increasing pressures of urbanization. Its fertile alluvial soil, stream, historic gardens, and long tradition of food production position Göksu at a threshold between urban and rural conditions. Drawing from Istanbul’s bostan culture and existing community gardens, the project considers urban agriculture not only as a productive landscape but also as an infrastructure of social solidarity, resistance, and food justice.
Housing is organized through flexible sharing systems that can respond to changing household structures, population density, climate, and patterns of agricultural production. Instead of defining the home exclusively around the conventional family, the project accommodates different forms of collective living. Private units are kept relatively compact while shared kitchens, courtyards, circulation spaces, gardens, and intermediate floors become extensions of domestic life. Openable façade systems, varying floor levels, and interconnected common areas improve daylight, ventilation, and spatial adaptability.An abandoned cement factory dating from the 1950s is retained as an existing spatial and material reference. Instead of being demolished, it is transformed into a winter garden and greenhouse, establishing a continuous relationship with the new housing and agricultural systems. Its reuse connects the productive landscape to the site’s industrial history while introducing a collective space for cultivation, gathering, and seasonal use.
The landscape and architectural program are conceived as continuously interacting systems. Gardens extend through the site and occasionally enter the housing units, while spaces are designed to accommodate changing relationships between people, plants, animals, and seasonal processes. Rather than attempting to reproduce non-human habitats literally, the project explores minimal architectural interventions that allow other species to inhabit and appropriate the site on their own terms.