Re-Discussing Urban Design Profession and Education in the Post-Pandemic Era

The study aims to discuss the weaknesses of urban design discipline in the context of education in Turkey and the approaches that can be taken to overcome these weaknesses. Two main data sources were examined in the study. The first data source is various webinars, çevrimiçi seminars and workshops that focus on changing and transforming vocational training, organized during the Covid-19 pandemic. The second source of data is the number and variety of urban design courses of planning schools in Turkey. The findings of the Urban Design Workshop organized by the authors and the Urban Design Commission of the Izmir Branch of the Chamber of City Planners in 2016 were also discussed in this context. It is possible to group the questions on the agenda in three groups; (1) deficiencies in urban design education, (2) scale of urban design education, and (3) difficulties encountered in professional life after urban design education. As a result, urban design education needs to adapt to structural changes in the current crisis environment. Uncertainties regarding the quality of urban design education, its relationship with different disciplines and its future continue. The study developed suggestions for overcoming such ambiguities and for a more flexible education model.