DYO Announces Winners of "İzmir: Tarihin Renkleri" Awards

Winners announced for AURA Crea: "İzmir: The Colors of History" competition, realised through collaboration between DYO and AURA İstanbul. In the competition where AURA İstanbul Certificate Program participants created designs to establish identity-defining spaces in İzmir, the KINTSUGI project and Participation, Design and Play: Marketplace projects were deemed equally deserving of first place. The winners of the AURA Crea: "İzmir: The Colors of History" competition, organised for AURA İstanbul Certificate Program participants through collaboration between DYO and AURA İstanbul, were announced following project presentations and jury evaluation. The KINTSUGI project by Sümeyra Didar Akın, Muhammed Eker and Özlem Kurtcu, and the Participation, Design and Play: Marketplace project by Serra Utkum İkiz, Gülce Halıcı and Dilara Uçar were deemed equally deserving of first place. These designs were developed by five groups working on five focal points identified along a route created across İzmir's historic Smyrna Agora and the Basmane district.

Designs That Enhance and Strengthen the Historic District

AURA İstanbul Certificate Program participants embarked on creating identity-defining spaces in İzmir through the use of paints and colours during workshop sessions and the competition, working in groups on designs applicable to public spaces. Participants, who also conducted a site visit on 9-10 February with contributions from İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, TARKEM, UNESCO İzmir and Citta Slow Türkiye, worked on designs capable of adding colour to the district bearing traces of history. The jury members—Mine Aşcı (Architect, İzmir Sustainable Urban Development Network Board Member), Gürol Sözen (Painter, Art Historian), Mehmet Mutlu Uysal (DYO, General Manager), Emre Tuncel (DYO, Marketing Director), Evran Kurutaç (TARKEM, Projects Manager), Ahu Sönmez (TARKEM, Architect) and Erhan İşözen (AURA İstanbul, Board Member)—paid attention to the selection of colours used in digitally prepared designs being contextually related to the chosen public space, creating a spatial composition that strengthens the unifying quality of the area, emphasising the transformative and ameliorative properties of colour in space, and most importantly, resulting in an implementable design. They announced their decisions following project presentations. Winning project members received Apple iPad 10.2 and Apple Pencil under DYO sponsorship, while other competition participants received Arketon Book Sets and LAMY fountain pens as gifts.