You are invited to the Mediterranean Port Cities: Shared Heritage, Shared Challenges for Urban Sustainability online symposium organized in the framework of the 2024 NIT Urban Heritage Lab Historic Ports, Future Cities. Cultural Heritage for Sustainable Urban Development on 11 October 2024. 

Please register for the event in advance here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. You can download the symposium booklet here. 

It has frequently been recognized that port cities around the Eastern Mediterranean, such as Smyrna, Salonica, Alexandria or Venice, have long and intertwined histories. Centuries of maritime trade and the exchanges of people, culture and ideas that came with it, gave port cities and their populations a character that merged aspects from their regional or national settings with aspects shared with other port cities across the sea. The labels ‘cosmopolitan’ and ‘multi-cultural’ are often applied to describe this character, while harbor installations and trade infrastructure have also contributed to the spatial and visual ‘port city’ character of these historical cities.

Port cities around the Mediterranean and elsewhere are currently faced with major spatial, environmental, economic and demographic challenges. How are these challenges affecting their historical port areas? What transformations are taking place and what conservation, planning and design strategies are employed to integrate the unique port city heritage into these transformation processes?

This symposium looks at Eastern Mediterranean port cities, their historical developments and urban characteristics, with a focus on port city heritage as a way to explore and strengthen connections between past, present and future.

SYMPOSIUM PROGRAM

09.30 – 10.00 | OPENING SPEECHES

Fokke Gerritsen, Netherlands Institute in Turkey (NIT)
Özgün Özçakır, Graduate Program in Conservation of Cultural Heritage - Middle East Technical University (METU)
Charlie Smid, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Merve Çalışkan, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality
Bilge Bektaş and Ahu Sönmez, The Historical Port City of Izmir Site Management Office
Sergenç İneler, TARKEM

10.00 – 12.30 | SESSION I
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE OTTOMAN WORLD AND BEYOND

Architecture of Humble Landings: Early Modern Port Structures of Istanbul and the Ottoman World
Namık Günay Erkal (TED University)
Non-material heritage of a Mediterranean port city: The case of fin-de-siècle Thessaloniki
Didem Yerli (Leiden University)

11.00 – 11.30 | Coffee Break

Tracing the Dutch in the Ottoman Port City İzmir
Çağla Caner Yüksel (Başkent University, University of Amsterdam)
Logistic infrastructures in the Golfo and the 17th-century debate on commercial regulations
Vera Costantini (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

12.30 – 13.30 | Lunch Break

13.30 – 16.00 | SESSION II
LINKING PAST AND PRESENT: REGENERATION, REVITALIZATION IN A CHANGING WORLD

Portraits of Port Cities: Waterfront Regeneration Projects and Contemporary Design Approaches
Fatma Tanış (TU Delft)
Echoes of the Mediterranean: A Call for Revitalization
Husam Husain (German University in Cairo)

14.30 – 15.00 | Coffee Break

The Effects of Coastal Developments and Climate Change in Rize, Türkiye
Gül Aktürk Hauser (Leiden University)
What Makes the Historic Kemeraltı Bazaar a Living Heritage Site?
Ayşegül Altınörs Çırak (Dokuz Eylül University)