Jakub Duda

Postmortem, or ‘after-death’, is an analysis or a discussion of an event after it had occurred. One could argue that the city of Kahramanmaraş, having been severely damaged by the Türkiye-Syria earthquake in February 2023, stands now at a precipice where an ill-conceived approach to reconstruction may cement its’ metaphorical demise. As government officials promise hundreds of thousands of homes built in one year and celebrate record-breaking humanitarian aid efforts, residents live among “empty lots that used to be their neighbourhood, […] waiting for private reconstruction, doubtful that they will be able to find somewhere they can afford to live amid a nationwide housing crisis and rising inflation.” Profit-driven urban development has reared its ugly head in many urban regeneration projects in Türkiye over the years. The recent earthquake appears to be yet another excuse for land expropriation, commodification of space and further displacement. Not to mention lackluster building code enforcement which only exacerbated the vulnerability of cities during the disaster.
Placed within this context, the project aims to explore an approach to post-disaster reconstruction which prioritises preservation of cultural identity and creation of differential social space, while providing autonomy in housing construction. Through championing the superiority of use-values over material-values, the project aims to establish a more socially sustainable and human-centric rebuilding process.