Landscape Heritage in Post-Earthquake Cities
The Palimpsest of Antakya
A. Yazıcı (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
E.A.J. Luiten – Mentor (TU Delft - Landscape Architecture)
T.N. Broekmans – Mentor (TU Delft - Urban Design)
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Abstract
This thesis reimagines the post-earthquake landscape of Antakya as a living archive where traces of history, destruction, and resilience coexist. Once layered with the imprints of successive civilizations, the city was largely erased by the 2023 earthquake, exposing the fragility of its built heritage yet revealing the endurance of its landscape. Through the lens of the palimpsest, the project interprets the terrain of Antakya not as a void left by loss, but as a surface inscribed with memory and potential. The landscape, conceived as a library, becomes the medium through which the city’s fragmented narratives can be read and reconnected. By identifying and reactivating the spatial, ecological, and cultural traces that remain, the design aims to transform absence into a tangible presence and render the invisible layers of the past perceptible once again. The thesis ultimately proposes that landscape architecture can serve as a means of reconciliation between heritage and transformation, guiding the city’s rebirth through its enduring ground.