Since 2008, the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Architects Antalya Branch has been working intensively to bring the World Architecture Congress, held every three years, to Antalya in 2023.
It is anticipated that mass tourism will continue to develop in the coming years, though perhaps not as strongly as today. Meanwhile, alternative forms of tourism will also make their presence felt over the next fifteen years—both through their positive and negative impacts.
In this context, during the 2020s, it will be necessary to make new and accurate projections for the future by comparing mass tourism with the alternative tourism that is expected to emerge in response. Such comparison and evaluation will inevitably bring forward the need to assess tourism-related urban planning, tourism architecture, and built environments more seriously.
Over the next fifteen years, Antalya is expected to be one of the most vibrant cities globally in terms of tourism, tourism architecture, and urban development. This makes the city a fitting candidate to reflect the dynamism of these changes and trends.
From this perspective, Antalya is a candidate to host the UIA 2023 Congress. With nearly 1,000 tourist facilities of various types and classes, as well as its ample conference infrastructure, natural and cultural heritage, and touristic attractions, Antalya is fully prepared to host UIA 2023.
In preparation for this, the Chamber of Architects Antalya Branch has been organizing annual international symposia on the themes of Ecology – Cultural Tourism – City as part of its roadmap toward 2023.
In parallel with these efforts, our branch has also set out to establish a biennial architecture event in Antalya, taking inspiration from examples in prominent tourism cities like Venice. The aim is to organize an Architecture Biennial every two years in our city.
Accordingly, the first edition of the IABA – International Architecture Biennial (ANTALYA), nationally focused yet open to international participation, is being held on October 26–29, 2011 in Antalya—a city whose qualities we described at the beginning of this statement.
The Biennial aims to create a space where architects, artists, and architecture enthusiasts from Turkey, the region, and around the world can sincerely express and share their experiences, dreams, achievements, struggles, and solutions—regarding buildings, cities, and urban problems from a wide range of perspectives.
Architect Osman AYDIN
President, Chamber of Architects Antalya Branch