Workshop: Living Heritage – Samandağ, April 2027

Putting community-led planning into practice in Samandağ

Applications are now open for the workshop: Living Heritage in Samandağ 2027: Putting community-led planning into practice, in  Hatay, Türkiye. The workshop is jointly organised by Architecture Sans Frontières UK, Hatay Deprem Dayanışması Derneği (Hatay Earthquake Solidarity Association), and Mekanda Adalet Derneği (Center for Spatial Justice), in collaboration with Architecture Sans Frontières Germany. 

Building on three years of work in southern Türkiye following the earthquakes, and the previous Change by Design workshop in Samandağ in 2026, this edition offers an opportunity to learn about and put community-led planning into practice through a live, place-based project. 

Taking living heritage as a lens through which to approach reconstruction, participants will work alongside residents and local networks to explore how local priorities, knowledge and everyday practices can inform design proposals, create opportunities for collaboration, and contribute to a more socially and environmentally just recovery.

The workshop forms Stage B of the independent learning course Challenging Practice: Essentials for the Social Production of Habitat by ASF-International.

About the Workshop

More than three years after the 2023 earthquakes, reconstruction has profoundly reshaped Samandağ through mass displacement, land expropriation and large-scale housing developments. While much has already been determined, there is still room for residents to shape what comes next.

Building on participatory work with residents in 2026, this workshop will focus on Mağaracık, a neighbourhood in Samandağ experiencing rapid change as new state mass housing developments transform its formerly agricultural landscape. Thousands of new residents are expected to move into the area, bringing challenges but also opportunities to shape a more inclusive neighbourhood.

Working with residents, grassroots organisations and local professionals, participants will explore local priorities, from safe and sociable public spaces and places to gather, to support for local livelihoods and meaningful participation in decisions affecting the neighbourhood. 

Together, participants will develop proposals for a small public-space project or temporary intervention. The aim is to explore how community-led planning can translate local knowledge and priorities into tangible improvements, recognising and building on the local living heritage, while strengthening the relationships and collective capacity needed for more inclusive reconstruction.

How you will learn 

This is a collaborative, action-learning experience grounded in the realities of a neighbourhood undergoing rapid change. Participants will explore the possibilities and challenges of participatory planning in practice, through a concrete shared project, working alongside residents and local partners. 

Bringing together people with different professional backgrounds and experiences, the workshop will create opportunities to exchange knowledge, test ideas and reflect critically on how planning and design practice can better respond to communities’ needs. 

Who should apply? 

We invite architects, planners, designers, social scientists, activists and artists to join a multidisciplinary action-research team exploring how community-led planning can shape post-disaster recovery. 

Participants will work alongside residents and local partners to understand neighbourhood needs, develop design proposals and explore how these might be put into practice. The process will also seek to bring long-term residents and newcomers to the new housing estates together to consider their shared environment and build connections. 

In order to facilitate effective communication between workshop participants and the local community and support the meaningful involvement of local residents in the workshop, priority will be given to applicants who speak Turkish and/or Arabic and have experience working in Türkiye. 

What you will learn 

 By the end of the workshop, participants will have had the opportunity to: 

• Apply participatory methods to understand residents’ needs, priorities and experiences of neighbourhood change. 
• Translate local knowledge into design proposals that respond to everyday practices and community priorities. 
• Explore routes from ideas to implementation, including the roles of residents, professionals and public institutions. 
• Reflect critically on the possibilities and limits of community-led planning in post-disaster reconstruction. 

Participants will contribute to developing proposals for a public-space intervention in Mağaracık and take away approaches and insights that can inform their own work in other contexts.

Apply now

Workshop: 5–10 April 2027, Samandağ, Hatay, Türkiye

Applications open: 9 November 2026

Application deadline: 29 January 2027

APPLY NOW