To partake in the sustainable actions, and become a pillar in sustainability movement, we collaborated with Levi’s for our very first Sustainable Urban Hacking Workshop. We teamed up with volunteer designers from various disciplines to hack 12 different urban furnitures in Nişantaşı area.
We had gathered more than seventy portfolios thanks to the open call we did for artists from all over Turkey. We kicked-off the Sustainable Urban Hacking Workshop after an elaborate evaluation of the portfolios with 12 designers. The workshop was split into six main steps: Meeting with the team, exploring the area, designing with waste materials, production and application. We had waste jeans, 3D printers, scanners and various maker tools in our toolbox.
Our main objectives include the following: to leave trace marks in the urban memory with a focus on upcycling and recycling concepts, to raise awareness on sustainable public space approach, to serve UN’s Sustainable Cities and Communities goal, and to have urbanites participate in transformation activities for their cities.
We made use of waste pairs of jeans that had been collected in Levi’s stores.
By doing so, we wanted to make encourage people to get creative in using materials to be upcycled.
At the end of the workshop, we had 12 unique urban furnitures revamped with jeans and 3D printed items.
A Hybrid Workshop: Online and Offline At Once The workshop took place during pandemic;
so we had to be creative. We completed the first three steps online, using digital tools like Zoom and Miro to meet up, explore the area and start the design process. As for the production and application steps, we went back offline with limited number of participants for
safety reasons. Thanks to the process, this workshop carries the badge of being the first hybrid workshop of Onaranlar Kulübü.
From Digital Design to Physical Application
The digital designs created by volunteer designers were brought to their physical forms using 3D printers, laser cutting machines and maker tools, and then mounted on the urban furnitures by Onaranlar Kulübü team members. In addition to hacking urban furnitures, we also had mural artist Abdullah Sarışen with us to hack some of the walls in the area.
