Interview with Research Assistant Gökçe Uzgören on Interior Architecture and Environmental Design

Gökçe Uzgören, a research assistant at Istanbul Gelişim University's Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design, provided answers to questions regarding her academic career, international experience, and academic studies.

1. First of all, hello dear Gökçe Uzgören, can you introduce yourself? How did you get into academia?

Hello. I had the opportunity to have long conversations with my professors about the academic career during the long hours of project classes, since I studied in a department where the applied courses are quite intense. In my first years of university, as a student who loves to ask questions, research, read and write, I thought that academics was one of the professions that would make me the happiest, and as a matter of fact, I haven't had a different future plan in my mind since then. All my plans developed towards academia.

2. In the past months, you have carried out studies at Dublin City University as part of the Tübitak Project. On this occasion, we congratulate you once again. Can you tell us about the starting point of the project?

Thank you very much. Between 15 January and 15 July 2023, I was in Dublin, Ireland, to continue my research project titled "Regulating Short-term Rentals: A Comparative Study on The Effect of Housing Airbnb on The Effect of Housing Sector in Dublin and Istanbul" under the supervision of Dr. Valesca Lima, within the scope of TÜBİTAK 2214-A Overseas Doctoral Research Scholarship. Originally, I am continuing my thesis on the effect of short-term rental platforms on the hyper-commodification of housing at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University Urban Planning Doctorate Program. Although the focus of my thesis work is not the legal-administrative dimension of the mentioned rental platforms, as a researcher examining the effects on the housing market, as a result of my thesis, I aim to develop planning proposals for the regulation of these platforms by city administrations. The way to do this is to analyze how other city governments are handling these platforms and what they are doing about regulation. There is no legal regulation for short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb in Istanbul, which is the working area of my thesis. Dublin introduced a regulation called “short-term letting regulations” in 2019. In fact, the starting point of this research project was “What can Istanbul learn from Dublin regarding the arrangement of short-term rentals?” poses a question.

3. If you need to evaluate the project process, what would you like to say? Can you talk about your work in this context?

I can say that everything went as planned, except for the first two months I was in Ireland. The reason why the first two months were a bit more challenging for me was that both the difficulties of adapting to a new city and the ethics committee approval form you had to get from the Research Ethics Committee of Dublin City University was much more detailed than the forms in Turkey and it took more time than I expected. Coming to the research.. In the project, I basically aimed to examine (a) the effects of Airbnb use on the housing market in Istanbul and Dublin, and (b) the regulations that different stakeholders in the city government have set to protect residences and neighborhoods from the increasing professionalization and commercialization of Airbnb. For this purpose, I conducted semi-structured interviews with four different groups of participants. In these talks; I tried to understand the difficulties faced in terms of (i) actors involved in the regulatory process, (ii) implementation tools, (iii) implementation methods, (iv) mode of control, (v) level of success, and (vi) enforcement-enforcement. The project is not yet complete, but as a result of the project, I aim to evaluate the effects of Airbnb use on the housing market in Dublin and Istanbul, taking into account the internal dynamics of the cities (population, socio-economic, spatial, cultural components, etc.), and to develop urban policies and conceptual planning proposals for Airbnb use for Istanbul.

4. Finally, we would like to learn what your time in Dublin has contributed to you, and can we get your suggestions for those who want to realize similar projects?

As a doctoral student doing research in the field of social sciences, I can easily say that this project has made a significant contribution to my academic career. Most importantly, the contribution of having experienced the scientific research process in a different country, from the most basic paperwork to the most complex field research stage. Although I have experienced the disadvantages of not having enough knowledge about bureaucratic processes from time to time, I can say that I continued the project in accordance with the work schedule I had planned before going to Ireland. Apart from the research, it was also very enjoyable to live in a different country for six months and get to know new places and people. One of my greatest luck was that Dublin City University attaches great importance to internationalization in postgraduate education and that almost all doctoral students are students from different parts of the world. In this way, I met wonderful people and researchers from many different countries, from Iran to America, from Spain to India. I have always met nice people and I feel very lucky in this regard. I can recommend students and colleagues who want to carry out similar projects to follow all scholarship options regularly. If you are a researcher working in the field of social sciences, I suggest that you research beforehand what policies the country you are going to have regarding the requirements of your research method. In order not to waste time.. I wish success to everyone who will go abroad with similar scholarships.