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MİMARLIKTA BİR DENEY ALANI OLARAK EKOTOPYA: AUROVİLLE ÖRNEĞİNDE MEKÂN KURUCU BAĞLAMSAL ÇERÇEVELER ÜZERİNDEN SOSYO-MEKANSAL BİR İNCELEME

Year 2025, Volume: 13 Issue: 3, 317 - 333, 30.09.2025

Abstract

Ekotopya, çevre etiği, sistem eleştirisi ve ütopyacı kurgu perspektiflerinden ele alındığında, mimarlık ve kentsel tasarım alanında giderek daha fazla tanınan bir araştırma alanını tanımlar hâle gelmiştir. Bu kavram, yalnızca çevresel bir idealin ötesine geçerek; ekolojik dönüşüm, toplumsal hayal gücü, kültürel yeniden yapılanma, teknolojik uyum ve ekonomik alternatiflerin bir arada örgütlendiği çok katmanlı bir yapıyı temsil eder. Bu bağlamda, çalışma, ekotopya vizyonunu mekânsal üretim merceğinden ekolojik yaşam pratikleriyle ilişkili olarak eleştirel biçimde değerlendirmeyi amaçlar. Ekotopyayı oluşturan bağlamsal çerçeveleri tanımlar, bu çerçeveler arasındaki ilişkileri analiz eder ve bunların mekânsal kurgular üzerindeki etkilerini inceler. Ekotopya kavramının tarihsel, kuramsal ve pratik boyutlarda ele alındığı bu çalışmanın ilk bölümünde kavramın tarihsel gelişimi ve düşünsel temelleri incelenir; ikinci bölümde mekân kurucu bağlamsal çerçeveler tanımlanır; üçüncü bölümde ise Auroville örneği bu çerçeveler doğrultusunda değerlendirilerek mekânsal oluşumu deneysel yönleriyle birlikte analiz edilir. Bu yaklaşımla, ekotopya doğa ile bütünleşik yaşam biçimlerinin mekânsal olarak analiz edilmesi ve kurulması için eleştirel ve işlevsel bir araç olarak yeniden konumlandırılır. Ekotopyanın deneysel doğasını vurgulayan bu perspektif, yerel bağlama duyarlı, eleştirel ve yaratıcı tasarım yaklaşımlarının geliştirilmesine zemin hazırlar ve mimarlık ile kentsel tasarım alanlarında yeni kuramsal ve uygulamalı araştırma yolları açar.

References

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  • [31] URL-1. Auroville. (2025). Welcome to Auroville. https://auroville.org Bhatia, B. (2014). Auroville: A utopian paradox. Columbia University Academic Commons. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8RR1X4S
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Ecotopia as an Experimental Field in Architecture: A Socio-Spatial Analysis on Space-Constructing Contextual Frameworks in Auroville

Year 2025, Volume: 13 Issue: 3, 317 - 333, 30.09.2025

Abstract

Ecotopia, approached through the lenses of environmental ethics, systems critique, and utopian fiction, has come to define an increasingly recognized field of inquiry within architectural and urban design. It represents a multilayered construct in which ecological transformation, social imagination, cultural restructuring, technological adaptation, and economic alternatives are collectively organize moving beyond a mere environmental ideal. In this context, the study aims to critically evaluate the vision of ecotopia in relation to ecological life practices through the lens of spatial production. It identifies the contextual frameworks that constitute ecotopia, analysing the interrelations among these frameworks and how they influence spatial configurations in practice. In this study, which examines the conception of ecotopia across historical, theoretical, and practical dimensions, the first part explores its historical development and intellectual foundations; the second part defines the space-constructing contextual frameworks that shape space; and the third part examines the Auroville case within these frameworks, assessing its spatial formation with attention to its experimental aspects. Through this approach, ecotopia is repositioned as a critical and operative tool to analyse and construct nature-integrated ways of living in spatial terms. Highlighting the experimental nature of ecotopia, this perspective provides a foundation for developing locally responsive, critical, and creative design approaches, and opens new theoretical and applied research avenues in architecture and urban design

References

  • [1] Alberro, H. (2020). Ecotopia Rising: An Ecocritical Analysis of Radical Environmental Activists as Ecotopian Expressions Amid Anthropocene Decline (Doctoral dissertation, Nottingham Trent University).
  • [2] Alberro, H. (2021). Eco-utopias: Reimagining ecological futures. Environmental Politics, 30(1), 1–20.
  • [3] Bookchin, M. (1988a). The ecology of freedom: The emergence and dissolution of hierarchy. Palo Alto, CA: Cheshire Books.
  • [4] Bookchin, M. (1988b). Toward an ecological society. Black Rose Books.
  • [5] Callenbach, E. (1975). Ecotopia: The notebooks and reports of William Weston. Banyan Tree Books.
  • [6] Dryzek, J. S. (2005). The politics of the earth: Environmental discourses (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.
  • [7] Gandhi, M. K. (1909). Swaraj or Indian Home Rule. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House.
  • [8] Gorz, A. (1980). Écologie et liberté. Paris: Galilée.
  • [9] Guattari, F. (1989). Les trois écologies. Paris: Galilée.
  • [10] Guha, R. (2000). Environmentalism: A Global History. New York: Longman.
  • [11] Guha, R. (2006). How Much Should a Person Consume? Environmentalism in India and the United States. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  • [12] Haraway, D. J. (1991). Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge.
  • [13] Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Duke University Press.
  • [14] Jazeel, T. (2023). In the shadow of ‘the city’ yet to come: Auroville, developmentalism and the social effects of cityness. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 47(2), 258–278. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13165
  • [15] Latour, B. (2004). Politics of nature: How to bring the sciences into democracy. Harvard University Press.
  • [16] Leopold, A. (1949). A Sand County almanac, and sketches here and there. Oxford University Press.
  • [17] Levitas, R. (1990). The concept of utopia. Oxford: Philip Allan.
  • [18] Levitas, R. (2013). Utopia as method: The imaginary reconstitution of society. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
  • [19] Lovelock, J. (1979). Gaia: A new look at life on Earth. Oxford University Press.
  • [20] Majumdar, A. (2017). Auroville: A city for the future (ebook). Element.
  • [21] Margulis, L., & Sagan, D. (1995). What is life?. University of California Press. [22] McHarg, I. (1969). Design with Nature. Natural History Press, Garden City, NJ, USA.
  • [23] More, T. (1516/2002). Utopia (Trans. Paul Turner). London: Penguin Classics.
  • [24] Morton, T. (2016). Dark Ecology: For a Logic of Future Coexistence. New York: Columbia University Press.
  • [25] Mumford, L. (1961). The city in history: Its origins, its transformations, and its prospects. Harcourt, Brace & World.
  • [26] Naess, A. (1973). The shallow and the deep, long‐range ecology movement. Inquiry, 16(1–4), 95–100.
  • [27] Neutra, R. (1954). Survival Through Design, Oxford University Press, New York
  • [28] Parker, I. (2018). Auroville: city of the dawn, city of the future, now. Teknokultura: Revista de Cultura Digital y Movimientos Sociales, 15(2), 379–386. https://doi.org/10.5209/TEKN.59078
  • [29] Shiva, V. (1988). Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Survival in India. New Delhi: Kali for Women.
  • [30] Spash, C. L., & Guisan, A. (2023). A future social-ecological economics. Real-World Economics Review, (96), 2–15.
  • [31] URL-1. Auroville. (2025). Welcome to Auroville. https://auroville.org Bhatia, B. (2014). Auroville: A utopian paradox. Columbia University Academic Commons. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8RR1X4S
  • [32] URL-2. Bookchin, M. (1987). Social ecology versus deep ecology: A challenge for the ecology movement. The Anarchist Library. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/murray-bookchin-social-ecology-versus-deep-ecology
  • [33] URL-3.Callenbach, E. (2006). 30 Years of Ecotopia. Retrieved May 28, 2011, from http://ernestcallenbach.com/Lectures.html
  • [34] Venkitaraman, A. K., & Joshi, N. (2022). A critical examination of a community-led ecovillage initiative: A case of Auroville, India. Npj Climate Action, 1(1), 15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44168-022-00016-3
There are 33 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Architectural Design, Sustainable Architecture
Journal Section Architecture
Authors

Sinem Ozturk 0009-0008-5848-864X

İrem Küçük 0000-0002-5725-6002

Publication Date September 30, 2025
Submission Date June 2, 2025
Acceptance Date July 1, 2025
Published in Issue Year 2025 Volume: 13 Issue: 3

Cite

APA Ozturk, S., & Küçük, İ. (2025). Ecotopia as an Experimental Field in Architecture: A Socio-Spatial Analysis on Space-Constructing Contextual Frameworks in Auroville. Gazi University Journal of Science Part B: Art Humanities Design and Planning, 13(3), 317-333.