Abstract

In last decade, the theories that have evolved within the interdisciplinary platform have offered a new way of understanding landscape as a source for the development of urban and rural environments. Among those theories, landscape urbanism appears to be one of the most promising fields of action, as it redefines the performance ground of landscape designs. In light of the landscape urbanism discourse, the aim of this paper is to discuss an interdisciplinary design approach by looking at a proposal developed for a project competition that focuses on the transformation of Dicle Valley into an open space system along Dicle River to be a future development site for the city of Diyarbakır, Turkey. Appreciated as one of the major ecological corridors of the region and serving as fertile agricultural land, Dicle River has been threatened by redevelopment projects since the late 1970s, losing its socio-cultural and ecological quality. In this context, the project focuses on the reevaluation of the site's existing character and proposes a design scheme to transform the 675-ha site into an open space system that connects two sides of the valley with diverse programs. To respond to the current environmental conditions and the competition brief, the proposed project is structured around four landscape strategies: integration, restructuring, multi-functionality, and flux. In light of the interdisciplinary design approach, design strategies are used to reconstruct the bounds between nature and culture. Ecology, socio-cultural transformation, and spatial characteristics that foster new functions appeared to be important ideas--accompanied by the design strategies, which are inspired by the existing site conditions to propose a new development scenario. With its urban position and rural character, Dicle Valley confronts different dimensions of a space, history, ecology, urban development, and socio-cultural transformation. As a by-product of a design competition, it suggests an approach drawn from the theory of landscape urbanism to stimulate landscape-based strategies.