Tekstil Teknik Dergisi Tekstil Haberleri, Tekstil Sektörü, Tekstil Teknik
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In the center, clothes will be designed by taking the needs of the disabled individuals into consideration, and another pioneer project that creates awareness and social consciousness will be animated in İTÜ.
Initiated under the leadership of İTÜ, the project is supported by 2014 Children and Youth Financial Support Program by İstanbul Development agency, private sector and various non-governmental organizations. Considering the needs of the disabled individuals the center, in which fabric, cloth and other textile designs will be produced, was opened on Monday 19 October 2015. Opening ceremony in İTÜ Gümüşsuyu Campus took place with Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karaca as its host and the President of the Republic Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his wife Emine Erdoğan’s participation. As a result of the workshop and studio works conducted within the long-term “ Textile Design Center Project for the Disabled ” project initiated by the leading characteristic of İTÜ, “İTÜ Global Textile Design Center”, where designs took place with regard to the needs of the disabled/ people with special needs, was opened. Speaking at the center’s opening ceremony, Lady Emine Erdoğan said: “It is praiseworthy for our universities to cooperate with the private sector and non-governmental organizations to touch people’s lives. This attempt made by İstanbul Technical University states a well-grounded experience looking towards the future. The reason is that a technical experience of more than two hundred years met with a contemporary philosophy in this project. A significant step was taken in the field of global textile design.” Emine Erdoğan continued: “As you all know, the phenomenon called “Global design” stands for a new point of view that acquired popularity over the last 20-30 years across the world. In fact it means “design for everybody”. According to this perspective, the people that are affected by the obstacles are not consisted merely of the individuals that can be included in the classical definition of “disabled”. Every person encounters certain limitations during their babyhood and childhood. Many people can have disabilities due to various reasons such as pregnancy, old age or accident. Therefore, we should not consider the disabled people as a small part of the society. All of us encounter physical obstacles at a certain period of our lives. On the other hand, there are also many types of disability conditions. Disabilities can be temporary or permanent as well as different humane conditions such as hearing, visual and movement disabilities. Here, because of all these reasons, the solutions we create must be for everyone and be comprehensive. This is the most fundamental right of the individuals and a necessity for democratic approach.”
İTÜ, THE UNIVERSITY OF THE FIRSTS, ESTABLISHED AN INTERNATIONAL CENTER
Feeling the pride of having such a great and important social responsibility project to be shaped and actualized for the first time in İTÜ, İTÜ Rector Prof. Dr. Mehmet Karaca said: “Disabled individuals experience great problems while using standard textile products in Turkey and in the world. “Textile Design Center Project” created as a result of this problem has a great importance for being the first in Turkey. On the other hand, it is a significant success of İTÜ not to leave such an important topic to be a project on the paper but to be actualized and to start its production via “İTÜ Global Textile Design Center”. Being the architect of many projects that provided societal added-value thanks to its experience of 242 years, İTÜ achieves a great success with a Center that produces this time for the society. The project also sets an example in terms of university, government and industry cooperation. I thank everyone, particularly the Presidency and the Ministry of Development for their contributions”.
“THE PURPOSE IS TO ENSURE THE DISABLED INDIVIDUALS CAN GET DRESSED EASIER”
Project Coordinator and the Dean of İTÜ Faculty of Textile Technologies and Design Prof. Dr. Nevin Çiğdem Gürsoy said: “Our project, since its creation, has received support from many public offices and non-governmental organizations. In this project, university, government and non-governmental organizations came together and a strong structure was created. To ensure that the disabled individuals can get dressed easier and they have their daily comfort, we hit the road under the leading characteristic of İTÜ. The first step about this subject was to organize a workshop, where academics, public organizations, non-governmental organizations and disabled individuals participated. After the workshop, it was decided to establish a center in which clothes special for the disabled individuals would be designed. While the works for the center continued, we organized design workshops joined by academics, fashion designers, physiotherapists, psychologists and disabled individuals. Various designs were developed during the workshop. We worked hard with a large group and eventually actualized the project”.
“TEXTILE DESIGN CENTER PROJECT FOR THE DISABLED”
“Textile without Obstacles” (Engelsiz Tekstil) brand is used to define the Global Textile Design. Global textile design means to make designs by taking the needs of the disabled people and the people with special needs (different body size etc.) into consideration. The clothes are easy to wear/ to clothe, easy to take care of and clean, and are comfortable and aesthetic. Designs within the scope of the project emerged as a result of the conducted workshop projects. To the workshop held in İstanbul Technical University Faculty of Textile Technologies and Design; textile engineers, fashion designers, physiotherapists, psychologists, doctors, disabled individuals and their families participated. Via this project, it was aimed to eliminate the difficulties the disabled individuals faced due to the deficiencies they find themselves in, to simplify the clothing as their fundamental needs and to provide comfort within these clothes. The aim of this project was to increase the comfort and standards of the disabled individuals or individuals with special needs by making use of the technical experience of İTÜ, and to create social awareness through the products to be produced. The next step of our project is to present the products in the clothing stores of our country under the concept called “global Design”.
“İTÜ GLOBAL TEXTILE DESIGN CENTER”
Having a developed infrastructure and state of the art technology production devices, the Center was established on an area of 180 square meters. In the Center, there can be many works of sampling including areas such as yarn and ready-made clothing. In the Center, where three different laboratories: Knit Fabric Laboratory, Textile Finishing Laboratory and Physical and Chemical Tests Laboratory can be found, there is also a Textile Design and Ready- Made Garment Workshop. Clothes that can be used easily by the disabled individuals, easy to wear and to take care of, comfortable and with aesthetic value will be designed and its samples will be produced in the Center. There were common projects with different disciplines such as electronics and machinery by making use of the long-established background of İTÜ. In the Center, research and application works can be conducted for smart textiles and new technologies in order to meet the needs of the individuals with disabilities and special needs. In the Center, also body measurements can be taken via 3 dimensional body scanning system. Required comfort and quality tests of the designed fabric and clothes can be made at the center with the present technology.
