Gökçeada Design Forum for Social Development - Territorial Design in Action, Çanakkale, Turkey

Since 2014 OzU/İID has been conducting a comprehensive social design initiative in Turkey. The Gökçeada Design Workshops take place every summer in Gökçeada, an island with different communities in the North Aegean Sea. The workshops aim to utilize design as a creative and innovative tool in order to address local social and economic problems in the island. The ultimate goal is to contribute to the island’s sustainable social development process. Through community involvement, participants propose new products and services based on Gökçeada’s cultural and natural resources. Students, scholars and designers from all around the world have participated in this annual event since 2014.

Following our experience in the Gökçeada Design Workshops on social development in the biggest and demographically diverse island in Turkey, we are now excited to organize the first edition of the Gökçeada Design Forum for Social Development focusing on different examples of territorial design projects from Turkey, and the world. The organizing committee of the forum invites all designers, researchers, scholars and practitioners to share their experiences in territorial design and/or the use of design for social development at rural or urban scale.

Keynote Speaker:

Terry IRWIN, Professor / Head of School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, USA.

Mugendi H M'Rithaa, President Emeritus, World Design Organization (WDO), Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa