Workshop Experience in the City with Architecture-Urbanism Students or “Making the City a Toy”

When the intensive programs of the faculties of architecture and urban planning, consisting of theoretical and practical courses, are supported by activities based on the student's own experience, much more positive results are obtained in terms of individual development during the education process. In this context, events such as conferences, panels, seminars, exhibitions, workshops, etc., which are held in parallel with the aforementioned program intensity throughout the education process, seem valuable in terms of students' meeting with various actors involved in architectural production and the development of their perspectives on architecture. The workshop study, titled "Making the City a Toy", was created with this foresight, was carried out with the students of the Department of Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning at MSGSÜ in 2014 and 2016 in parallel with the İKSV design biennial, and is planned to be held every two years from now on. This event aims to increase students' interaction with the city by making observations in the city as part of their architecture and urban planning education and establishing relationships with various actors in the city. In this article, the subjects targeted in these workshops, which have been held twice so far, and the final stages of the studies will be presented, and the educational role of the workshops held in this direction, outside the formal scope of architectural education, will be conveyed. The aim of this presentation is to expand the discussions on the contribution of the studies put forward in the city-architecture interface to the educational process.