I’ve been in Istanbul a week, but still haven’t visited the Hagia Sophia or the Blue Mosque.

Sounds crazy?  Well, with my internship at URBZ I’ve had the opportunity to discover the city with a completely different eye. I’ve walked through the same street through the gaze of an architect, photographer and graphic designer at different times. How did I overlook the cumba on the street corner, the wooden extension on the apartment building? Was the sign outside the old teashop always that shade of magenta?

URBZ stresses the importance of User Generated Cities, which is the approach we chose in our exploration of Istanbul. Workshop owners explained the effect of the gentrification on their businesses- responses varied from confidence in their ability to stay in the game, to less hopeful ones who resigned themselves to shutting shop and moving out of the neighbourhood. The participants spent the week using different tools to explore Sishane-Galata, interpreting the vision of the residents and integrating them into their own projections for the neighbourhood. The Mashup culminates in the production of thought provoking posters that shopkepers can chose from to display in their windows, and a walking tour of the neighbourhood to be held on Saturday afternoon.