The Great Game - Istanbul | Design Summer School

An architecture summer school played as a game.

21 graduate students from Italy, Turkey, and Kosovo assume the roles of competing urban actors — municipalities, developers, civic collectives, infrastructure agencies — and negotiate the future of Kartal, a district in active transformation on Istanbul's Asian shore.
The methodology — developed at Politecnico di Torino, finalist for the 2024 EAAE Pedagogy Awards — has previously been played in Detroit, Stazzema, Kiruna, and Belgrade. Istanbul is the next gameboard.

Main coordinator: Alp Arda, Politecnico di Torino (DAD) & Tsinghua University

Partner institutions & teaching team

• Politecnico di Torino — Department of Architecture and Design (DAD): Alp Arda · Michele Bonino, Valeria Federighi, Edoardo Bruno
• AURA Istanbul: Yılmaz Değer, Sinan İzgi, Seda Altan
• Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University: Güldehan Atay, Kumru Çılgın, Dilvin Hazal Akkaya Usman
• UBT College Kosovo: Lendi Osmani, Shqiprim Ahmeti, Binak Beqaj

• Poster (4 MB)
• Brief (903 KB)
• Info and applications online