Transformation of Space in the Memory of Place: Dissolving Boundaries

(Bursa Setbaşı – Yeşil – Emirsultan Historical Axis Urban Design Ideas Competition: Purchase Award)

The Yeşil Külliye – Hocataşkın – Emirsultan corridor is more than an urban route; it is a stage where memory awakens once again. Time seeps into the texture of place; boundaries dissolve, space transforms. The unseen becomes visible, the abstract becomes tangible. Each step is the re-embodiment of the past within the present. The design establishes a new equilibrium between conservation and transformation, the everyday and the monumental, the local and the visitor. Instead of fixing the identity of the area, it embraces changeability as a value; making discovery and surprise an inherent part of the heritage.

Nature is invited back onto the stage not merely as an environmental backdrop but as a structural actor; accessibility becomes more than a technical requirement, turning into a fundamental condition for collective participation in public life. Livability takes shape through safe, cool, shaded streets; continuity through the flow of green and pedestrian networks; resilience through nature-based solutions; accessibility through universal design; sustainability through the integration of water, soil, and plant cycles; and diversity through a richness of programs and users.

The aim is to reimagine the Yeşil Külliye – Hocataşkın – Emirsultan axis as a living urban laboratory—bridging historical depth with contemporary life, reawakening memory within the flow of daily rhythms, and creating a place to be continuously rediscovered. It is to form an urban fragment that breathes beyond time; binding past to present, the ordinary to the sacred, silence to crowds.

Life and space continue their coexistence, beginning anew each day. The voice of the past mingles with the footsteps of the present.