ASF UK's work in Antakya, in Türkiye's Hatay province, supports community-led recovery after the February 2023 earthquakes, advocating for a reconstruction that puts people at its centre. As part of the Change by Design programme, we have been running public forums, community planning workshops and action research with local communities, civil society organisations and local authorities.
Our work centres on "living heritage": the dynamic interplay of places, people, practices, knowledge, artefacts, events and memories, tangible and intangible, that sustain a community's culture. This approach recognises how people have shaped their neighbourhoods and cities over time, through everyday practices, adaptation and mutual support. It also widens who counts as knowledgeable, bringing into planning conversations the perspectives of marginalised communities and the everyday places and practices that official plans often overlook.
Living heritage links reconstruction to livelihoods and social practices, planning and land rights, landscape and ecological restoration, and memory and belonging. By offering common ground for residents, grassroots groups, civil society organisations and local authorities to engage with one another, it supports Antakya's inhabitants in advocating for a participatory reconstruction.
