Museum  Gazhane is the new vital “public space” of Istanbul as a result of the  transformation of the 130-year-old Hasanpaşa Gazhanesi with a long-term  struggle and a versatile restoration project. It is one of the oldest  industrial facilities in Istanbul and houses Turkey's first Climate  Museum.

One of the steps Gazhane has taken in strengthening  its position as the country's first climate adaptation platform is to  re-evaluate the campus and its surroundings with the aim of reducing  carbon footprint to zero.

For this purpose Gazhane asked the Play the City team  [based in Amsterdam and Istanbul] to produce the Climate Game under the  name "Climate Adaptive Gazhane". This interactive working method enables  participants to think in an integral manner about water,  transportation, green and energy issues together with urban spatial  transformation. Its purpose is to support the realization of abstract  climate adaptation visions and strategies made at the central and  regional levels by identifying concrete projects to be implemented at  the scale of the city and neighborhood.

Gazhane in Istanbul’s Kadikoy district is the first neighborhood to start translating the climate vision plans into local  concrete actions. To serve the aim of making tangible plans, the  "Climate Adaptive Gazhane” game was held in two sessions on October 22,  2021 in Istanbul. 

The outcomes of the game can be summarized under  following five headlines:

Building-scale interventions

Participants brought suggestions at different scales,  from the building scale to the street, from the neighborhood scale to  the city. It is possible to deduce from the moves made by the players  that building and street scale are significant in creating climate  resistant spaces, and green facades, heat insulation, water cisterns and  green roofs are seen as solutions.

Water

Rain water appears to carry unexplored potentials in a  city like Istanbul, where there is constant shortage of water. We  observe frequent proposal of water cisterns, water-friendly landscapes,  rain gardens and water permeable surfaces in the game.

Green Spaces

The prominent conclusion from both sessions was that  Hasanpasa neighborhood did not have enough public green space and that  Gazhane and the IETT Garage could be used as a possible open green  space.

Accessibility

It has become clear that Gazhane and its surroundings  are poor in terms of accessibility and that it is necessary to  strengthen the position of pedestrians and bicycles with Gazhane,  starting from the Sögütlüçesme public transportation and transfer center  along Kurbagalıdere Street.

Community

Players stressed that Hasanpasa Mahallesi is a  socio-economically fragile neighborhood, there it is significant that  the development of the game results are communicated seriously with  residents, also with the goal of involving them further in decision  making and implementation.

The game provided Gazhane and Istanbul Metropolitan  Municipality with an action list for the implementations of the Museum Gazhane and Hasanpaşa neighborhoods:

Museum Gazhane actions

.Building a drinking fountain at the entrance of Gazhane campus [free drinking water is a human right and a public  dispenser is effective in reducing plastic bottle waste]

.Constructing a water cistern in the Gazhane campus and considering it together with the irrigation systems on the campus

.Ensuring the communication of climate compatible  technical solutions with information boards for raising awareness in  Gazhane campus

.Water efficient landscaping within the Gazhane campus

.Allocating playgrounds for children as a new user profile in Gazhane, such as a skateboard track or a sandbox. Currently  an integral playground is being designed for children to discover the  entire campus of Gazhane instead of a corner singled out for children.

Hasanpaşa neighbourhood actions

.Pedestrian and bicycle path along the Kurbağalıdere road

.Accessibility of the line between Sögütlüçesme transportation and transfer center and Gazhane 

.Public green park by placing the IETT Garage underground  

.Planting orchards in schools

.Green roofs and facades on buildings, starting around the Gazhane