Pınar featured on SHE IS COOOL
SHE IS COOOL is a platform founded by Carolien Ligtenberg to celebrate, empower and inspire female creatives and forward-thinkers. It is a growing community which showcases the incredible potential of female designers and entrepreneurs. In March 2022, I was featured on SHE IS COOOL with a generous introduction from Carolien Ligtenberg: “What I am impressed about is Pınar’s intellectual and precise way of working. Applying the theme of ecological and social justice to spatial assignments. To do this, as a young female designer with a Turkish background, she shows her firmness and social engagement.”
Below you can read the full interview.
CL: What inspires you or interests you?
PB: My inspiration and interest lie in the ‘urban’ – everything that has to do with the ‘city’, and I mean this in the broadest sense of the term: The quality of urban built environment, the economic and political forces that shape this environment, the social forces at play between different groups of inhabitants, and the sustainability challenges that will need to be answered within the cities. Combining research and design is essential for me – creating spatial solutions and strategies, through innovative methodologies, as an answer to socio-economic or ecological questions regarding the urban environment. My focus is on pursuing the question of spatial justice in the city, and how urbanists can effectively contribute to achieving more of it. I am inspired by working closely with people from other disciplines such as landscape architects, anthropologists, social geographers, and economists.
CL: What impact do you want to make?
PB: I think we should all be working towards a professional practice and a political system where, instead of growth or economic profit, justice is the principal consideration and evaluation criterium in urban policy making. To this end, in each project I try to pose the question of how we, as spatial designers, can create more just urban environments. I try to outline what spatial justice means and constitutes of, to express why it is important to approach the project from this perspective, and finally to define project-specific parameters that serve as a ‘spatial justice compass’. The impact I would like to make, step by step and in collaboration with others- is to introduce the notion of justice into urban design and policy making processes. Complimentary to this, I hope to contribute to defining a broader role for spatial designers in the making of our cities. I believe it is important to have designers involved in urban processes earlier, already at the time of formulating questions and making decisions. Furthermore, they should stay involved longer in these processes and in contact with various stakeholders. This way strategic and wholistic design can have a stronger influence in the shaping of the urban environment.
CL: Where do you get your energy from?
PB: Where I get most of my energy from is interaction with others. This includes personal interactions such as spending quality time with my family and friends, as much as professional interactions, such as having a good debate with someone I work with on a topic of common interest or establishing a connection with someone I work for, whether that be a client or a resident. Secondly, I get energy from setting out on a new experience or taking on a new role. If I can evolve continuously inside the profession, get a chance to look at the built environment from different perspectives that different roles offer, that is when I feel sharp and energetic. Finally, I get energy from being an entrepreneur, feeling the freedom while setting up projects and deciding at every step what I would like to work on next and with whom.
CL: Can you give us some small advice or share a lesson?
PB: I often perceive a sense of superiority and arrogance in Dutch politics towards most of the rest of the world. Unfortunately, I believe this feeling is also present in the society. One hears or reads often that Dutch are proud of having been tolerant to other nationalities living in the Netherlands throughout history and still today. Tolerance is a problematic word. It implies there is a group that tolerates and another that is tolerated. In that sense it can be patronizing. If we want to achieve the ambitions set by almost every municipality in the Netherlands regarding inclusivity and social cohesion, then we need to look at this differently. Instead of approaching this topic with a focus on including or tolerating certain groups, we need to emphasize the importance of all groups being recognised and respected equally. The importance of a diverse society where differences are cherished, perceived as valuable and rich rather than threatening or problematic.
See the original posts here.