Neighborhood Kulturpark: Aya Katerina Church Installation

In 1922, a devastating fire swept through İzmir, destroying much of the city's Armenian and Greek quarters. The fire, which started near Saint Etienne Church in the Armenian neighborhood, burned for four days and obliterated approximately 25,000 buildings across a vast area of the historic city center.

Among the losses were at least 15 churches—Orthodox Greek and Armenian houses of worship that had anchored their neighborhoods for generations. Aya Katerina Church, built in 1857, was one of these casualties. It wasn't just a religious building; the church gave its name to the entire neighborhood, reflecting how deeply these institutions were woven into İzmir's multicultural urban fabric.

After the fire, the destroyed area was gradually transformed into Kültürpark in the 1930s—a massive public park that erased the previous street grid and settlement patterns. Today, few traces remain of the cosmopolitan neighborhoods that once thrived here. The churches, synagogues, houses, shops, and streets that made up pre-fire İzmir exist now only in photographs and memories.

We created a low-tech AR experience using transparent acrylic panels printed with a photograph of the church's facade. The magic happened through precise positioning—when you stood at the designated viewing point and looked through the panel, the church image aligned perfectly with its actual historical location in the landscape behind it. The transparency allowed current reality (palm trees, park visitors, modern buildings) to show through the historical image, creating a layered view of past and present occupying the same space.

This forced perspective technique meant the church only "appeared" in its correct position from one specific angle. Move too far left or right, and the alignment broke. This constraint became a feature—it created an "aha" moment when visitors found the sweet spot and suddenly saw the church materialize in its original location.

The installation was up for several days during İyi Tasarım, creating conversations among park visitors about İzmir's lost architectural heritage. The transparent overlay technique—showing past and present layered together—made the abstract concept of "lost heritage" tangible and immediate.