Plankton Project: Durak Ovacık

Architecture, urban design  / Dersim Ovacık / with Plantok Project 

A user-conscious bus stop designed by Plankton Project under the guidance of locals and constructed under the guidance of local craftsmen.

Durak Ovacık is a user-conscious bus stop designed under the guidance of local craftsmen. Throughout the process, the team practiced designing from a distance and sourcing materials in what the locals call a “deprived region” while gaining experience in working with people from disciplines outside of academia.

Plankton Plankton realised its first project in partnership with the Municipality of Ovacık, an establishment known for maintaining an alternative approach to municipal services. Ovacık has been attracting wide-ranging attention with its recent municipal practices that place the needs of the people at its focal point, which is what motivated the Plankton Project to make a contribution to such a worthy cause.

One of the most notable areas to see improvement is the public transportation service, which has been made free of charge. The abolishment of transportation charges has apparently generated a greater number of users, which has in turn created a demand for new bus stops.

Plankton Project designed such a bus stop to accommodate the needs of its end users and manufactured this on site, under the guidance of local craftsmen.

Beyond facilitating the construction of a much-needed public amenity for the people of Ovacık, this volunteer effort has also provided an opportunity for students and recent graduates of architecture to gain practical on-site experience. For enabling the design team to engage in a design and build scenario and for making it possible for them to observe the interaction between the actualized product and its end user, while working in such a different geography, makes this project even more valuable.

Images from the design and construction process on site

Durak Ovacık on Press:
- Açık Mimarlık on Açık Radyo, October 15, 2015
- Istanbul Art News, No:14, October, 2015
- XXI Architecture and Design Magazine, ‘Architecture as a Possibility’, December 2, 2015 Ovacık’ta bir imkan olarak mimarlık
- Mimarizm Mimarlık ve Tasarım Yayın Platformu, ‘A Product Questioning the Possibilities of Architecture from Plankton Project: DURAK ovacık’, December 2, 2015 Plankton Project’ten mimarlığın imkanlarını sorgulayan bir çalışma Durak Ovacık

Exhibiton:
- Architecture Agenda 2016 Exhibition, held by Arkitera Architecture Center, hosted by Studio-X, Istanbul link
- Solidarity Architecture Exhibition held by Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), January, 2017

Plankton Project Team Ovacık: İrem Yılmaz, Ezgi Küçükyörü, Uğur Latif Çelebi, Eylül Şenses, Hasan Umut Kutkut, Dilşad Aladağ, Ezgi Çiftçi, Hüma Şahin

All images: Plankton Project