This design is not about demolition, but about remembering what has been forgotten. Because understanding is only possible through memory.

Mardin Dereiçi Village holds a multilayered cultural memory through its architecture, vineyards, sacred spaces, stone texture, botanical landscape, and gastronomy. Over time, these layers have eroded one by one. The wholeness has fragmented, and the village has transformed from a physical ruin into a mental void. This project doesn’t aim to restore Dereiçi, but to make its memory readable again.

The proposed open-air museum and visitor center doesn’t present the village’s past throughobjective displays or didactic narratives. Instead, it makes memory experiential throughsensory stops positioned within and attached to the village’s existing fabric. These stops areconceived not as independent structures, but as infiltrations that touch the village’s existingpaths, voids, and structural traces.

The project consists of five sensory stops located along a main route through the village: Sight, Sound, Touch, Smell, and Taste. Each stop focuses on one sense while maintainingconnections with the others. These zones sometimes seep into existing structures, sometimes become open courtyards, and sometimes take form as semi-open spaces defined only by ground and wall relationships.

As visitors experience this route, they connect with the space not only through their fivesenses but through a sixth sense—intuition—which links them together and strengthensspatial orientation. This intuitive guidance happens through “ooze” elements placedthroughout the site. In this project, ooze isn’t a single object or linear path. It’s a system thatmoves through the village fabric in fragments, intensifying in some places and thinning todisappearance in others.

No signage, directional text, or conventional circulation diagrams are used. Instead, linearstructures designed from corten steel seep into the space, slowing visitors at points wherethey should pause. The system uses permeable surfaces in areas where visibility is prioritized, and closed surfaces where guidance intensifies. Direction becomes a bodily experience.

The visitor center, serving as both starting and ending point, is conceived as the thresholdspace of the experience. The entrance courtyard references water systems found in Syriacmonastery traditions—symbolizing the cycle of life—and acts as a transition zone thatinitiates the remembering process. The center includes workshop and exhibition areas, terraces, and restaurant units.

Unlike conventional museum layouts, this system doesn’t limit visitors or force them into a single narrative. Instead, it offers silent guidance, allowing each person to perceive the routethrough their own experience. Each visitor defines and perceives Dereiçi through theirintuitive exploration.

Ultimately, this project transforms Dereiçi Village into a living open-air museum whereremembering, perceiving, and intuitive discovery are constantly reproduced. In this design, Dereiçi exists not as a past, but as a memory space reconstructed through the senses.

“This project distinguishes itself through a radical commitment to intuition as a design driver, constructing a spatial system where orientation emerges through sensory cues rather than prescribed narratives or informational frameworks. By dissolving signage and conventional wayfinding into subtle “ooze” elements, the proposal grants visitors agency to construct their own readings of Dereiçi, allowing memory to remain personal, fragmented, and unresolved. The precision of the interventions, carefully calibrated in materiality, texture, and framing, demonstrates a rare confidence in doing less, trusting the site and the visitor to complete the experience.”

Nehali Doshi – Scape

““Ooze of the Past” curates a carefully orchestrated visitor experience through architectural, landscape, multimedia, and agricultural interventions. The comprehensive project narrates a compelling future for the “ruins” while remaining cohesive with the material context.”

Xuanyu (Alfred) Wei – Diller Scofidio + Renfro

STAY, LISTEN, FEEL
An Experiential Open-Air Museum in Dereiçi

Dereiçi, with its architectural fabric, natural landscape, and layered history, reflects the cosmopolitan character of Mardin and the cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity shaped by this heritage. Conceived with the principle ofREHYO! “guest rather than visitor,” the Dereiçi Open-Air Museum transforms the village into a lived, multi-sensory experience where heritage is encountered through presence and participation rather than observation.
The project is grounded ni the existing spatial logic of the settlement. Instead of introducing new circulation systems or isolated exhibition spaces, ti reactivates the village’s organie axis network, courtyard typologies, and everyday spatial practices. These elements are reinterpreted as experiential layers that unfold through movement, forming acontinuous spatial narrative ofopen courtyards, transitional passages, interior spaces,and gathering nodes.
Courtyards function as the primary medium of memory. Derived from traditional domestic typologies, private courtyards are subtly transformed into semi-public spaces of encounter, preserving
spatial memory while expanding collective use. Through light, sound, material, and everyday practices, the village becomes adynamic open-air museum where heritage survives not as astatic artifact, but as a continuous, embodied experience. The produced courtvard are named in accordance
ot hte emphasized sensory with hte Syriac linguistics: HAYE (Life) res, TAM’ A (Taste) rist. BÔSMA (Scent) roams, NÜHRA (Ligh) imes, QÔLÁ (Sound) eL, NESYONO (Experience) rueas, SENYA (Stay) Ras, RE’YANA (Memory) risi…
Three experiential axes form the multi-sensored journey with varius methods. The first one, by being in touch with the courtyards attach to the route, establishes sensory engagement through taste and smell, integrating wine production areas and the reactivated bazaar, where bread, incense, and local foods become part of the spatial atmosphere. The second axis, by passing through the ruins and narrow streets, emphasizes transition and sound, guiding guests through light-oriented passages, echo
spaces, and memory routes recalling daily life. The third axis, by being inside, invites inward engagement through workshops, exhibition spaces, and the Mor Yuhannon Church, deepening the
encounter with Syriac heritage. At the end of that axis, visitors reach to the museum that is renovated with mirror material, and encounter with themselves. The journey emphasizes the idea of”Finding Space of the Sprit* which is the meaning of REHYO!.

“This proposal offers a compelling conceptual narrative supported by carefully crafted spatial sequences and evocative architectural moments. The project successfully balances sensitivity to the site with a controlled and legible intervention, making it both intellectually rigorous and architecturally convincing. While less experimental than some entries, its consistency and precision justify its recognition.”

Murat Çağlayan – Mardin Artuklu University

Regardless of scale, physically emptying a space does not erase what once existed within it. What remains are not only structural fragments but perceptual traces embedded in memory. The traceability of remnants begins with awareness of oneself and one’s surroundings. From the room we inhabit to the walls enclosing it, each element becomes part of the remnant. By addressing the concealed lived experiences of Dereiçi, the project seeks to read historical traces embedded in every wall fragment, while making visitors aware of their own presence and the fact that remnants continue to live around us.

The route is conceived as a formation shaped through reflections of the past produced by mirrors placed alongside remnants, allowing the experience to remain personal and singular. Each spatial sequence enables the completion of a memory. Revealing the route’s potential in a direct manner shapes the trace the design leaves on the site. Thus, the route is not merely a circulation line, but a line of witnessing through which the village’s hidden orientations, ruins, and thresholds are made visible.

The approach to each memory space derives from intuitive directions embedded within the village’s texture, not predefined axes. Reading spatial intentions suggested by each house and structural remnant forms a fundamental design strategy. Circulation is conceived not as a guiding system, but as one that listens and responds. Material transitions are treated as expressions of temporal stratification. In this way, the route transforms into a continuous line of reading between past and presenta route of time.

Selected materials aim to multiply existing traces. Mirror surfaces dissolve boundaries by reflecting surroundings, rendering visible what is remembered behind what is seen. The mirror establishes a threshold, adding physical witnessing to memory. Semi-transparent polycarbonate surfaces occupy a grey zone between visibility and enclosure, filtering light and blurring silhouettes. This ambiguity references the abandoned village, where the past persists through fragmented memories. As light changes, these surfaces transform, rendering space time-sensitive.

In contrast, white concrete-like surfaces define a zero point free of traces. Used in the Visitor Center, this material constructs a neutral perceptual state where memory is not yet activated. Its monolithic character enables a spatial reset. The route begins here, entering a circulation line where layered memory unfolds.

A continuous flow connects the Productive Garden, Creative Ruins, Mor Mete Church, Protestant Church, Amphitheatre, Platform of Remnants, and the Bazaar. Vineyards are introduced into the orchard, while the bazaar offers purchasable fragments of history. Spatial transformability is expressed through weddings in the amphitheatre and roofs serving as kite-flying spaces. At the Platform of Remnants, time is articulated through layered flow, reinforcing the coexistence of movement and witnessing.

The Visitor Center serves as the reference point. Together with the building masses, circulation anchors the route. Designed to reflect spatial neutrality, the Visitor Center works with open voids to create subtle plays of light, reinforcing a calm perceptual state.

“The proposal demonstrates a sensitive approach to the theme of ruins, moving beyond preservation towards reinterpretation. The use of the proposed materials act in coherent manner as a spatial strategy to multiply readings of the ruins and amplify the dialogue between past and present.”

Foteini Kanellopoulou – Arup

Dereiçi is not an abandoned village, but a space of suspended time. Its ruins testify to a completed cycle of life, where memory has become denser than matter. The open-air museum does not aim to restore what has been lost, but to listen to the silence lingering between the stones.

The architectural experience unfolds as a series of moments – a gradual passage from the present to the past, from noise to contemplation. This journey begins even before entering the village – in the Visitor Center, a threshold rather than a mere building. Its white architecture, free of symbols, acts as a light screen that clears the gaze. History is allowed to unfold, leaving visitors alone with anticipation. The white surface becomes a canvas on which the ruins gain expressiveness, while the warm stone of the village speaks more clearly because nothing competes with it. This is a silent acknowledgment of the primacy of the authentic.

Beyond the threshold lies the historical core of Dereiçi. Movement through the village is organized as a journey through layers of time. The main route, Path of Shrines, connects sacred sites of Islamic, Syrian, and Protestant traditions, not as opposed forms, but as overlapping layers. Traveling from one sanctuary to another becomes a spiritual and cultural pilgrimage – toward understanding the complexity of the place, not toward doctrine.

Off this main path, quieter, intimate routes – Strata of Everyday Life – lead into the residential ruins, where history loses scale and becomes private. Attention shifts from events to traces: a broken wall, a threshold, the line of a water channel. These trajectories return the visitor to the everyday life that once thrived here, making loss tangible not to the mind, but to the body.

Encircling the village runs The Path over Time, a contemplative route tracing Dereiçi’s perimeter. Like a barely audible whisper, it guides along the ruins, creating a rhythm of stone and space where each form holds meaning. The path offers pause, reflection, and immersion, allowing the village to be felt in its fullness.

Life returns to Dereiçi through presence. Traditional crafts act as quiet resistance to oblivion: in the hands of artisans, stone, clay, and fabric regain meaning without disturbing the silence, weaving themselves into the ruins. The past is not staged – it continues in gesture, material, and repetition.

At the heart of the project is acceptance of the tragic beauty of the ruined. The ruins are not symbols of decline, but testimonies of dignity and resilience, existing between human will and nature’s indifference, between memory and disappearance. Architecture frames this condition, allowing the village to speak for itself. Despite silence and emptiness, Dereiçi continues to live – not as a reconstructed village or conventional museum, but as a space of internal experience, where time slows and memory becomes visible.

“The proposal weaves together multiple routes and embedded programmatic elements across the site for activation while maintaining a strong respect for the ruins. At the same time, the outer route establishes a frame for the site and a dialogue with the internal activities and other paths. Overall, the proposal demonstrates an understanding of how contemporary intervention can support the experimental and cultural continuity of the site.”

Foteini Kanellopoulou – Arup

KAPI derives its name from the Turkish word kapı, meaning door—a fundamental architectural element that signifies passage, threshold, and encounter. Beyond its literal meaning, the door represents welcome, dialogue, and shared life, where private and collective realms intersect. In the context of Dereici, Mardin, kapı becomes a metaphor for the village’s social fabric, symbolizing relationships between neighbors, generations, and memories shaped by openness, trust, and mutual presence.

Set within the layered landscape of Dereici, the project reimagines architecture as a shared threshold rather than a singular object. The central architectural intervention—a visitor centre carved from red pigmented concrete—establishes both a physical and symbolic entry point to the site. Grounded in the region’s iron-rich soil and stone heritage, the building is defined by a deep arched void that reinterprets the door as a spatial condition of encounter. Its shaded and permeable ground level mediates between street, landscape, and interior, allowing the visitor centre to open itself to public life while preserving the traces of abandonment and memory embedded in the village fabric.

The interior spatial organization of the visitor centre draws inspiration from the Shahmaran myth, shaping an experience of descent, concealment, and guarded knowledge. At its heart, a monumental stacked form rises vertically, recalling both the stratified stone formations of Mardin and the mythical well associated with Shahmaran. This central element anchors movement and vision, fostering inwardness and contemplation. Carefully controlled top lighting descends along the red concrete surfaces, producing a strong interplay of light and shadow that evokes the atmosphere of a deep, hidden chamber. Circulation unfolds gradually around this core, mirroring the myth’s narrative in which wisdom is revealed through time, proximity, and patience.

Extending beyond the visitor centre, KAPI transforms the abandoned village of Dereici into a contemporary open-air museum through adaptive reuse and spatial reprogramming. Rather than introducing isolated architectural objects, the project reactivates existing buildings and ruins by re-dividing and re-purposing them to restore social, cultural, and economic continuity. The guiding material and conceptual reference is telkari, the traditional filigree metal craftsmanship of Mardin. Perforated corten steel elements reinterpret the logic of telkari at an architectural scale, functioning as spatial devices that filter light, air, and movement while introducing new inhabitable layers within stone structures.

The site is organized into five interconnected zones—Educational, Commercial, Historical, Social, and Natural—each responding to existing conditions and future potential. Educational spaces support local learning and craftsmanship; commercial areas activate the main street with local production; historical zones preserve and reinterpret deteriorated structures; social spaces create communal gathering areas; and natural zones reconnect the village with its landscape, ecology, and viticultural memory.

Through the integration of architectural threshold, myth, craftsmanship, and adaptive reuse, KAPI reclaims Dereicias a living cultural environment where memory, daily life, and collective belonging converge.

“The visitor centre is striking and successfully operates as a landmark.”

Selim Atak – Atölyemekan

Constellation of Memories understands Dereiçi as a lived landscape shaped by architecture, belief, agriculture and diaspora. The abandoned village is approached as a spatial archive in which buildings, ruins, paths and open ground collectively carry memory. The project establishes an open-air museum that unfolds through movement, use and presence, allowing meaning to emerge over time.

The proposal is organised as a constellation of five places distributed across the village and its surrounding terrain. Each place addresses a specific condition embedded in Dereiçi’s identity, while together they form a coherent spatial system. These locations are connected through existing routes and visual relationships, forming an itinerary that structures the experience of the village. This itinerary offers a clear experiential logic while remaining non-prescriptive. Orientation and recognition guide movement, allowing wandering, detours and individual readings to coexist with an underlying structure.

A shared architectural language reinforces this system. Subtle corten steel elements act as beacons that provide orientation across the site. Their consistent material establishes recognisability and continuity, while variations in form, scale and placement respond to local conditions. Architecture remains restrained and legible, allowing ruins and landscape to remain the primary carriers of meaning.

The constellation is structured as an emotional and spatial sequence. The itinerary offers the most coherent experience when followed, while remaining open to deviation. The sequence unfolds through five distinct phases:

Wandering plays a central role throughout the project. The itinerary functions as an underlying framework rather than a fixed route. Visitors who follow it encounter a gradual emotional progression, while those who deviate experience fragments of the same narrative in a different order.

An essential ambition of Constellation of Memories is to create value for both visitors and the local community. All interventions are accessible and usable by residents, supporting daily life, workshops, gatherings and seasonal events. The open-air museum functions as shared infrastructure rather than a tourist-only destination.

Constellation of Memories proposes an open-air museum experienced through movement and use. Dereiçi remains a ruin, while its spaces gain renewed relevance through orientation, activity and shared presence. The project establishes a durable spatial framework that supports reflection, return and continuity within the evolving life of the village.

“The project proposes a constellation of measured and collectively grounded interventions, capable of generating orientation, continuity, and value for the local community; the architecture of the follies is particularly compelling and thoughtfully articulated.”

Francesca Porro – Stefano Boeri Architetti

This project approaches Dereiçi Köyü in Mardin not merely as a physical settlement, but as a living memory The design process was shaped through site visits, personal observations, and direct interactions with the current inhabitants, rather than solely by an abstract concept.Although the primary concern of the remaining residents of Dereiçi is the deterioration of the village’s fabric, they have clearly expressed their fear that excessive interventions may compromise its identity. This sensitivity became one of the fundamental starting points of the project.

The design approach focuses on understanding and making visible the existing spatial relationships rather than imposing a new order onto the village. Courtyards, streets, open spaces, ruins, and inhabited areas are treated not as problems to be solved, but as values to be read. Architectural decisions were developed through unobtrusive interventions that harmonize with the existing context, avoiding the interruption of Dereiçi’s historic and collective memory–based values.

Throughout this process, personal experiences, historical research, and on-site investigations were evaluated collectively. Culturally significant architectural typologies directly informed the design decisions that shaped Thresholds in Between. For this reason, the project embraces the idea of a living environment developed through social, historical, and architectural processes.

Material choices were also shaped by this approach. Stones sourced from the village, corten steel that emphasizes the sense of accumulated and memorable traces, and living surfaces together create an architectural language that responds to its surroundings. The use of Syriac letters in the visitor center and at specific moments within the ruins references the Syriac language, which once existed in this region but is largely forgotten today, aiming to connect historical memory with contemporary spaces.

The project proposes experiencing the space through routes designed for two different user profiles: former residents who were forced to leave the village and later returned, and first-time visitors. Although these routes begin from different starting points, they intersect at shared thresholds, equalizing the experience. In this way, architecture becomes less a tool for telling or explaining, and more a framework for listening and reflecting.

This work is less a “transformation” project for Dereiçi and more an architectural approach that advocates learning from the place and existing alongside it.

“The project is appreciated for its sensitive reading of existing spatial relationships, prioritizing thresholds, courtyards, and lived experience over formal imposition. Its strength lies in the careful balance between material restraint and cultural expression, particularly through subtle references to memory and language, while its impact remains deliberately modest in architectural visibility.”

Murat Çağlayan – Mardin Artuklu University

Dereiçi is a landscape where time has seeped through collapsed walls and scattered stones, merging life and death, architecture and nature into a single, fluid stratum. Today, the village is defined not by its former functional order, but by its ambiguous territoriality—a state where boundaries are blurred and meanings overlap. This project begins with the recognition that this very disorder is the most authentic identity of Dereiçi. Rather than attempting to restore the lost boundaries of the past in a conventional manner, we intervene by positioning a translucent roof over the disordered landscape to redefine this flow as a unified, sensory realm.

The roof serves as an essential architectural device that dissolves binary oppositions. Under its expanse, the rigid distinctions between interior and exterior, or the past and the present, begin to fade. It does not enclose the ruins; instead, it binds them together into a singular landscape. The sensations of sunlight and wind are amplified through the translucent material, allowing the village’s remains to be perceived not as static exhibits, but as a living landscape that continuously transforms with the passage of time.

The project’s program—comprising an open-air museum, a chapel, walking paths, and a visitor center—is not confined within a single structure. Instead, these elements are scattered across the ruins, forming a continuum of semi-exterior spaces. As visitors explore at their own pace, the ruins themselves act as exhibits, backgrounds, or places for quiet contemplation depending on the perspective. The paths guide the flow of movement without enforcing a strict sequence, mimicking the rhythm of the village’s original alleyways. Every step reveals a new layer of time, creating scenes where the past and present subtly fold together.

Key architectural moments, such as the chapel positioned along the axis linking the Orthodox church and the mountain, allow visitors to pause and confront the landscape directly. The journey concludes at the visitor center, which is partially embedded in the ground to harmonize with the terrain. It serves as a threshold that seamlessly connects the experience back to daily life. Ultimately, Dereiçi persists as a single state—a “living present” where what has vanished is not felt as an absence, but as a continuous, accumulating experience beneath the intervention of the roof.

“The proposal is driven by a single, clear idea that is implemented with elegance rather than complexity. While several other projects adopt a similarly restrained approach, this one stands out through the strength of its presence and conceptual clarity.”

Selim Atak – Atölyemekan

The architectural concept of the “loop” emerges from the village’s own history. Dereiçi embodies interrupted cycles—of community, ritual, and agriculture—set within the enduring stone fabric of Mesopotamia and the spiritual notion of “eternal return.” Our design seeks to complete this unfinished circle, not through reconstruction, but by creating a path that makes these latent cycles tangible once more.

Three Loops, One Journey

The open-air museum is experienced as three interwoven paths, each a loop echoing a facet of village life:

All paths converge at the Visitor Centre, the symbolic and physical nexus.

The Visitor Centre: The Nexus

The Centre crystallizes the concept. A circular courtyard at its heart, wrapped by a helical staircase, forms an inner loop that mirrors the outer village paths. A footbridge spans the road, directly linking the Centre to the village, completing the historical and physical circle.

A Philosophy of Gentle Presence

Existing structures are stabilized with minimal, honest interventions—such as weathering steel panels on crumbling openings. Interiors remain untouched; sand and dust are preserved. Ruin is honored as the primary exhibit, where new elements act as quiet annotations, not erasures.

Conclusion

This project is an invitation to walk through layered time. It initiates a new return, where the visitor’s journey weaves personal experience into the enduring cycles of memory, stone, and spirit in Dereiçi.

An Open-Air Museum of Materialized Memory
Dereiçi, Turkey

In Dereiçi, the true loss is not the collapse of stone, but the disappearance of the life that once animated it. The heritage of this ghost town resides in the air people breathed, the alleys they traversed, and the rooms they inhabited. Void Archive rejects nostalgic reconstruction. Instead, it proposes an architecture of excavation—one that treats absence itself as the primary material.

The project reads negative space—the volumes left behind by decay—as a mold. By casting form into this invisible atmosphere, the proposal materializes what has vanished. These new interventions do not imitate what once stood; they are fossils of the lives that once filled these architectural shells.

A Curated Journey Through Five Scales of Absence

Archive I: The Excavated Path (Trace of Flow)
Two continuous circulation loops organize the site as a solidified record of human flow. Like water finding its course, the paths contract into narrow channels threading through ruins, then expand into broad pools for gathering where buildings once stood.

Archive II: The Solidified Dwelling (Trace of Occupation)
The Visitor Center emerges as a monolith cast from the volume of a former residential cluster. In deliberate inversion, once-private rooms become dense service cores, while former voids—streets and courtyards—are enclosed as sunlit public halls.

Archive III: Kinetic Movement (Trace of Vertical Circulation)
Translucent structures register the kinetic volumes of ruined staircases, capturing the choreography of daily ascent and descent. By materializing the void of human movement, the design invites visitors to inhabit absence itself, granting access to upper levels previously lost to time.

Archive IV: Woven Shadow (Trace of Enclosure)
Suspended fabric structures reintroduce enclosure, their contours shaped by the traces of courtyard walls below. Woven with traditional techniques and ancestral patterns, the fabric filters light and reanimates the site’s spatial memory.

Archive V: Fragmented Artifacts (Trace of the Intimate)
Integrated into the trail and walls, site-specific artifacts are cast into monolithic stone. These hollowed impressions—looms, vessels, footwear—transform the memory of daily life into tactile, excavated voids.

Through these interventions, Void Archive transforms Dereiçi from ghost town into living monument. By revealing absence, it enables rebirth—inviting new footsteps through ancient thresholds, new voices into silent courtyards, new life into spaces that remember. Visitors do not merely observe what was lost, but participate in what can be again.

Dereiçi is neither resolved nor reproduced.

In that sense, RELIC considers Dereiçi not as a preserved and static heritage site, but as a living and transforming place carrying traces of decay, continuity, and change. The relationship between what is existed and proposed is built not on the concept of destruction or imitation, but coexistence and multi-layering.

RELIC tells the story of Dereiçi not through objects, but through routes, intervals and framed landscapes. The proposal is structured around a multi-layered circulation system that transforms the village into a spatial narrative. Rather than introducing new paths, the routes rely on two strong traces that are already present: the peripheral path surrounding the settlement and the main spine that cuts through the village, linking the square to the all three churches. Around these lines, different layers of experience unfold: the Ground Loop, following the settlement edges; the Spine, connecting the visitor center, square, churches, and viewing terrace; the Ruin Route, where traces of abandonment intensify; and the Living Route, representing the continuity and life itself.

The Visitor Center is situated at the threshold of the village, across to the square. Through its relationship with the existing square, it acts both as a starting point and as a new layerintegrated into the village. Main design approach draws inspiration from Dereiçi’s masonry stone texture and its monolithic physicality embedded in the valley. It adopts the existing 7-meter level difference across the site, integrating natural topography into the spatial organization. Exposed concrete is preferred in the tectonic expression of the visitor center, as a contemporary interpretation of the village’s enduring structural language, abstracting the monolithic stone buildings. The rectangular threshold block in the front takes the visitors inside through a ramp to the fragmented volumes arranged around a courtyard. While inward-oriented, the articulation of the center frames the landscape of the village and makes a monolithic reflection of the village from across.

Within the village, RELIC reveals the existing fabric through new experiences without disrupting its rhythm. Avoiding a reconstruction, interventions form a new spatial layer that activates existing voids. Platforms, parasitic structures with diverse functions, landscape insertions and open public spaces accompany the ruins, creating a sense of multi-layered timeline with new forms of occupation.

Additions do not appear as polished new objects, but as layers that join the continuity of the settlement, adapting over time. The tectonic language of the interventions is lightened and materialized through corten. With its rusting, oxidizing and weathering surface, corten is not a finished material; like Dereiçi itself, it changes, darkens, leaves traces and develops its own patina. Its controlled “decay” echoes the fragility of the ruined stone shells, reflecting the evolving spirit of the village while forming a visible yet non-dominant interface.

Through these strategies, RELIC aims to transform Dereiçi from a place that was only related with a gaze of others into a spatial narrative and an interactive open-air museum experiencedthrough movement.

“WALKING THE PALIMPSEST”

In Dereiçi Village, time is not merely a phenomenon left in the past; it remains present on the surfaces of stone, within voids, and in silence itself. This project approaches architecture not as a means of producing a newnarrative, but as a quiet companion that makes existing traces of time legible. The visitor does not simply move through a settlement; with eachstep, they pass through different states of time. Walking becomes less a physical act and more a sensory relationship formed between past and present.

Within this context, architecture deliberately withdraws. Walls are not completed, voids are not filled, and silence is not interrupted. Path, pause, and view become more significant than the building itself. The memory of stone is not revealed through architectural gestures, but through waiting, slowing down, and observing. For this reason, the project seeks not to produce spaces, but to design how time is felt within space.

The primary structure of the project is formed by the Primary Spine, whichfollows the village topography. This spine begins at a threshold buildinglocated at the site entrance, perceptually monumental in character. Ratherthan functioning as a central orientation hub, this initial structure operatesas the first threshold of the temporal experience. From this point onward, the spine unfolds as a continuous walking system, connecting a sequenceof temporal conditions ranging from the present to abandonment, from spaces of faith and collectivity to living silence.

Along the Primary Spine, three workshops and three visitor-relatedspaces are distributed as spatial thresholds rather than being gathered in a single centre. These structures may be embedded within existing abandoned or partially collapsed buildings through adaptive reuse, or implemented according to one of the proposed placement optionsdefined by the project. The system allows these spaces to appear multipletimes across the site, multiplying moments of pause, waiting, and re-orientation for the visitor.

The workshops are conceived as spaces of awareness rather thanproduction. The Reading the Wall Workshop is located exclusively withinexisting ruined structures, enabling a direct reading of the stone’s memory. The Time Mapping Workshop functions as an enclosed space whereexperience is recorded, while the Threshold & Waiting Workshop spatialisesthe act of waiting through both reused structures and new architectural frames. Visitor-related spaces outside the workshops address essentialneeds such as orientation, nourishment, and remembrance, without ever overtaking the experiential narrative.

The architectural language is defined by a restrained approach that doesnot compete with stone, but exists alongside it. Lightly elevated pathways, platforms that glide without touching the ground, semi-permeableshading elements, and seating perceived as extensions of the stone itselfallow architecture to recede so that stone may speak. What emerges is not a fixed ensemble of buildings, but a system of repeating spatialthresholds unfolding over time. The project does not seek to reconstructDereiçi, but to make its accumulated silence readable.

Have you ever heard music that took you back to a distant memory? That reminded you of a happy moment? A sad one? When was the last time you smelled something that reminded you of a specific moment or place in your life?

Appealing to the senses often has more resonance than using words alone. Memory is activated by the body. This is the theory behind phenomenology. As French philosopher Merleau Ponty explains: “We are not outside observers: our bodies are immersed in the world, and it is through them that we understand it.” This school of thought considers lived experience to be at the heart of our relationship with the world.

So, rather than introducing Dereiçi to the public through text, we invite them to discover it through their bodies. Throughout their journey, visitors are confronted with architectural structures and devices that awaken their five senses. The ruins become an experience, where stone dialogues with the individual, the inert with the living.

The invocation of the senses then allows us to highlight a particular concept: memory. The aim is to unearth the village’s buried stories and bring them to life for the public. Walking in the footsteps of Dereici residents, visitors discover their living environment, the village’s architecture, and local skills. The tour consists of a series of sensory flashbacks. Divided into five sequences, it gradually revives the memory of Dereici, starting with the inert (silence, ruins, absence) and ending with the living (craftsmanship, voices, the sound of bells). Visitors move from a contemplative state to ultimately becoming actors in their own experience.

Perception and memory intertwine. They turn the ruins into a “medium of memory.” Our project allows us to transmit and raise awareness of Dereici’s past, but also to open up a new and vibrant future: what happened in these streets? What are the traditions of the inhabitants? Which ones have been lost and which ones remain? And how can we rethink these elements to write the history of tomorrow?

Dereiçi is not just a built environment, it’s above all a living place. In this project the approach is to enhance the existing fragments of history by respecting and reviving them. We propose to highlight the invisible and unbreakable bonds between the inhabitants and the village where the identity of Dereiçi lies.

This project aims to revitalize the village by reintroducing the traditional crafts that once flourished there: coppersmithing, goldsmithing, tapestry, stone carving, and miniatures.

Craftsmanship is a material language that is not constrained by communication barriers and allows for the transmission of culture and heritage. The inhabitants of Dereiçi and neighboring villages will have the opportunity to come and share their techniques and potentially sell their products. Visitors will be able to interact with the locals, and participate in certain activities. The experience will be not only visual, but above all human, and that is where memory resides.

The open air museum is punctuated by red structures and workshops scattered throughout the village like a constellation. It is a free course with no labels or written signage, where visitors can wander through the ruins, from place to place. The color red present on the structure and the pattern on the pavement guides visitors throughout the visit and contrasts with the surrounding

environment while referring to the craft of tapestry making.

This project encourages visitors to venture beyond the main roads to discover the village in its entirety ona human scale : by diverting the main access road to the village, Dereiçi becomes a pedestrian village. A community garden has taken the place of the road to revive the agricultural activities in the village. It also enables visitors to discover the region through its flora.

The village of Dereiçi is proposed not as an archaeo-logical site frozen in the past, but as a place wherelife is still present just beneath the surface of the stones, waiting to be reawakened. The stones removedto clear the paths are collected, transformed into lime plaster, and reused in the various buildings alongthe route. The visitors can also walk through the ruins. Throughout the visit they will encounter the history of the village in their own way, discovering its traces rather than being guided through them, and thus participating in the living transmission of its memory.

This experience becomes a witness to memory, a me-dium for stories passed down without writing: those carried by words, objects, techniques, and crafts-manship that have survived the centuries.

The town of Dereici, where human activity has come to a complete halt, is reinterpreted as a place in which living plants continue to inhabit time on behalf of people. Even after human presence has faded, vegetation persists—growing, weathering, and repeating seasonal cycles—quietly carrying and accumulating the memory of time embedded within the ruins. Through these continuous processes, plants become living witnesses to the passage of time, sustaining the town’s temporal continuity in the absence of human life.

As plants gradually envelop and complement the remains of architecture, fragments of former landscapes re-emerge. These vegetated ruins evoke traces of past lives, atmospheres, and everyday activities that once animated the town. At the same time, the roots of plants penetrate walls and foundations, not only transforming the appearance of the ruins but also stabilizing and protecting them from further collapse, creating a delicate balance between decay and regeneration.

By integrating vegetation into ruins that remain in various states of decay, this project positions plants as mediators that generate new relationships between humans, ruins, and the natural world. Through these mediated interactions, diverse connections arise—between people and people, people and ruins, and ruins and plants—forming a network of places where different temporalities overlap and shared atmospheres are produced.

These spaces encourage collective experiences through engagement with the human senses. While visual perception provides the primary framework for encountering the site, elements that stimulate hearing, touch, smell, and taste are carefully woven throughout, enabling humans, ruins, and plants to coexist and experience time together.

Our open-air museum begins not as an act of something new, but from an attitude of respecting the silence and memories that already exist. Rather than adding another mass to the Dereiçi, the project seeks to respect the site through an architecture that operates quietly and almost invisibly.

The main program and circulation of the open-air museum are placed below ground. Spaces embedded along the terrain gently uphold the village shaped by stone and earth over centuries. In doing so, the landscape of the village, the ruins, and Tur Abdin “the Mountain of Those Who Pray” remain the primary above ground.

Intervention at ground level is kept to a minimum. Circulation follows existing alleys and paths, guiding visitors without disrupting the village’s structure, while only the most minimal architectural elements hint at the presence of the underground visitor center and the open-air museum.

Materials are drawn from the local architectural language. Restrained architectural elements, based on honey-colored limestone, coexist materially with the village.

This project neither seeks to return the village to a fixed past nor to hastily frame it within the present. Instead, it creates a space where past and present can coexist, proposing an architecture that listens rather than speaks as a living landscape of memory.

Dereiçi has been described as a modern ‘ghost town’. A place only in memory. But how could we bring this long and storied memory back to life? The ‘path of reconciliation’ proposes an architectural intervention for connectivity across roads and mountains, as well as time and memory. A path to bridge not only sharp divides in the topography, but also the beautiful and sometimes hard memories of history. The ‘path of reconciliation’ aims to provide the town of Dereiçi with a physical and meta-physical footbridge into the future, and in doing so provides a strategy for managing slow tourism as a stimulus for sustainable growth.

Our vision is rooted in the deep connectivity between time and place. We emphasize the genius loci—the spirit of the place—where the threads of human culture and the natural landscape weave together.

The valley’s east-west orientation dictates the rhythm of daily life. The town awakens with the morning sun and is bathed in the “golden hour” as light arrives from the west in the late afternoon. This alignment has also shaped the town’s spiritual architecture. The Monastery of Mor Abay sits on the northern ridge, facing south, while the other religious buildings rest on the southern ridge, looking north. Between these elevated sacred sites, the town itself flows along the valley floor and climbs the slopes, creating a physical dialogue between the people, the land, and the heavens.

The Footbridge The core intent of this proposal is to heal the fracture in the town’s landscape. Currently, the “worldly axis”—the East-West provincial road—physically severs the town in two. The “Path of Reconciliation” serves as a restorative counter-narrative: a footbridge and walkway designed to reinforce the historic “spiritual axis” running North-South. By providing a physical solution to traverse the road, the project re-stitches the connection between the sacred hillsides.

Form and Materiality Visually, the intervention appears as a distinct, narrow ribbon cutting through the environment. Constructed from Corten steel, the path utilizes a consistent U-shaped profile that unifies the diverse terrain. This materiality allows the structure to act as a constant thread; it maintains its identity whether it is hovering above the everyday bustle of the road or slicing deep into the mountain topography.

To the North: It establishes a direct, linear connection to the Monastery of Mor Abay, emphasizing clarity and direction.

To the South: It transforms into a bridge, offering safe passage across the road while framing a new perspective looking down upon the historic ruins.

The Genius Loci: The Visitor Center The linearity of the path is deliberately interrupted by the “Loop”—the Visitor Center. Embedded into the landscape, this structure anchors the project’s genius loci. Within the protective curve of the loop lies a “secret garden,” a secluded void designed for rest, reflection, and meditation.

Integration While the project includes a public square to facilitate interaction with the town’s existing fabric, the path itself retains a transcendental character. By lifting the circulation above the road and cutting into the quiet of the earth, the design creates a space that is physically integrated with the village but spiritually elevated above the mundane.

The village of Dereici in Tur Abdin is an architectural palimpsest in which centuries of cultural and religious influences have intertwined into a single fabric. Here, every doorway, ruin, or alley preserves the memory of successive civilizations. This is not a frozen past, but a living space where modernity enters into a dialogue with the inherited.

      The project is based on the idea of integration: architectural intervention does not displace the past, but makes it readable. The visitor center at the entrance to the village becomes a device for “reading” the palimpsest – a starting point that reveals the structure of the place. His image is inspired by a patchwork quilt: several volumes, each referring to a specific era, are connected by a translucent structure symbolizing the permeability of historical layers. This is not a dominant feature, but a neat architectural seam in the fabric of the village.

    The materials support the idea of respectful implementation: concrete is a modern interpretation of stone solidity, glass is a symbol of transparency and transition, Corten steel is a hint of time and aging that does not conflict with ruins. Gravel trails refer to rural routes, enhancing the physicality of the experience.

    Routes do not dictate a rigid trajectory, but offer narratives. The first one forms the spiritual landscape through sacred points: churches, monasteries, mosques. The second one – through the market square, residential areas and houses – reveals everyday life. The third ascends to the observation deck, allowing you to see the village as a relief of cultural layers. These routes, like the patchwork, can be combined to create your own travel fabric.

   The project does not reconstruct, but updates. Architecture becomes a system of annotations, where form, material, and route emphasize context and memory. The visitor center is not a center of power, but a sensitive nerve that transmits an impulse of careful perception. This is an attempt to talk not about the past, but with it.

ECHOES OF FAITH (OPEN-AIR MUSEUM)

Tracing the Path of a Fragmented Heritage:A Guided, Accessible Path Through Sacred Sites and Domestic Memories

The path traces the footsteps of those who once lived in and inhabited the village, yet through the project it becomes a guided and accessible experience for visitors. Starting from the museum, the route allows visitors to follow the memory of the village, connecting sacred sites, domestic spaces, and everyday areas into a coherent journey.

A Walkable Route: The pathway is formed by a metal grid walkway that reveals the ruins below, allowing visitors to visually connect with the layers of history. Elevated sections provide panoramic views of the complex, while at certain points the path gently descends to the ground, giving visitors the freedom to explore the ruins independently.

Accessible Experience: The path provides accessibility and a structured reading of the site, guiding visitors to the most spiritually significant points while offering clear viewpoints over the complex. At the same time, it leaves the possibility to freely wander through the ruins, creating a balance between structured guidance and open exploration, allowing visitors to experience the dialogue between memory, heritage, and the living presence of the ruins.

Museum Stations: Along the path, small museum stations serve as extensions of the main museum and visitor center. These nodes provide services, seating, and more in-depth explanations of the site, supporting the museum while offering a richer understanding of the village’s history and cultural significance.

Respectful materials: The railings and added structures are made of corten steel, a material that naturally transforms over time, adapting to the environment and the gradual changes of the site.

U.NITED F.AITHS O.ASIS (VISITOR CENTRE)

Embracing the Circle of Memory:An Open Museum Ring Balancing Heritage, Landscape, and Human Experience

Conceived as a space of arrival, orientation, and encounter, United Faiths Oasis is a circular museum defined by an open and incomplete ring, establishing a clear architectural landmark within the landscape. The elevated main level is supported by a system of slender pillars, generating a shaded and permeable ground plane that encourages movement and informal gathering while maintaining visual continuity with the site.

Central plaza and panoramic circulation: At the core of the composition, an open central plaza functions as a shared and neutral space, welcoming visitors. A continuous panoramic walkway follows the perimeter of the ring, offering wide visual connections toward the surrounding landscape and nearby sacred sites, reinforcing the dialogue between architecture, territory, and spirituality.

Light and materials: The roof is articulated through a sequence of inclined corten slabs, allowing soft, diffused light to filter between them and animate the interior spaces throughout the day.

Architecture as an Act of Healing and Remembrance

When I first encountered photos of Dereiçi, I had no idea how deep its spirit, history, and culture truly ran. After watching a documentary and researching the village, I felt a profound urge to experience it firsthand. I explored the site in every way possible, discovering that this place existed long before the architectural norms. I chose to respect that—to step beyond my own preconceptions and simply take a slow, observant walk through the landscape.

The journey begins in the north at a warm and welcoming visitor center, designed to encourage guests to explore the outdoor areas of the site. Although the footprint of the building occupies only 25% of the plot, it efficiently houses all essential functions while intuitively directing people toward the ruins. Crucially, certain areas—such as the tunnels—remain accessible 24/7.

From this point, the main path continues toward the southern part of the village. I designed a system of accessible ramps that allow everyone to navigate the topography while fully preserving the integrity of the historical remains. My intervention is intended to be like the visitors themselves: a temporary touch upon the ruins, rather than something that competes with them, or challenges them.

It is a journey of respect. By listening to the wind and remembering Dereiçi as the “Eden of Southern Turkey,” I sought to evoke the past without interfering with what remains today. The experience is for everyone; it is sensory and immersive, based on feeling, touching, hearing, learning, and the simple act of walking.

This project embraces slow tourism in its purest form. It invites visitors to slow their pace and perhaps discover a bit of themselves while exploring the village. This relationship—built on respect, understanding, and tolerance—is a healthy way to bridge the past with the present. It honors the current state of the site while preparing us for a future that is already just around the corner.

This approach does more than just complement the site; it weaves the spirit of Dereiçi into the hearts of everyone who visits.

Living Ruins: Concept and Visitor Experience

Today, Dereiçi is often described as a ghost village. Yet unlike many abandoned settlements, this place cannot be considered lifeless. Here, life has not disappeared but rather paused, leaving traces of different times and languages. For centuries, Syriac Christians of various traditions and Muslim communities shaped a layered cultural landscape, where coexistence was an everyday reality.

The project approaches Dereiçi not as an object to be restored or reconstructed, but as a living system of memory. The site is saturated with inscriptions carved in stone, traces of agricultural labor, and ruined yet still legible structures of dwellings and religious buildings. These traces do not form a linear narrative; they exist simultaneously. The landscape of Dereiçi can be understood as a palimpsest, where new inscriptions do not erase the old ones but coexist with them.

This idea is articulated through a system of three paths – Stone, Water, and Light – each representing a distinct language of memory. Stone records linear history through architecture, craftsmanship, and writing. Water embodies movement and cyclical time, referring to agricultural practices, gardens, and vineyards. Light addresses the metaphysical dimension – faith, inner experience, and shared notions of the sacred and the eternal.

In this way, the open-air museum is conceived as a path. Visitors choose one of the routes and follow it, gradually unfolding meanings. Each path connects key locations within the village and incorporates site-specific installations interpreting the essence of one of the three elements.

While developing the concept, we approached Dereiçi not as a museum about the past, but as a place actively present in the contemporary moment. This perspective defines the visitor experience: people come here not only to acquire historical knowledge, but to engage in a bodily and aesthetic encounter with the site. Touching ancient ruins, feeling stone pavements beneath one’s feet, and slowing down become integral parts of an experience that is personal and reflective, offering a chance to reconsider time and one’s own position within it.

The visitor journey begins at the Visitor Centre, where guests receive essential information and can explore exhibitions narrating the history of the place through artifacts and the memories of former residents. Regardless of the chosen route, visitors reach the Square of the Three Churches, envisioned as a venue for performances; the archaeological park, where paths pass through and above the ruins; and the market square, hosting a crafts center for workshops and local production.

By introducing specific functional elements, the project also considers the future of Dereiçi. The market square may evolve into a platform for local producers, while the crafts center and surrounding buildings can function as an art residency. The Visitor Centre is designed as a multifunctional space for cultural and educational events.

Ultimately, the project proposes a model for working with disappearing settlements in which heritage preservation goes beyond conservation or static museification. Such places are understood as open systems where architecture acts as a mediator between past and present.