Tarlataban, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul
Istanbul, Turkey · Operator: ボアジチ大学の学生・教職員による水平型の集団（環境クラブBÜÇEKの関係者ら）
Overview
A collective garden run by students and academics on the South Campus of Boğaziçi University in Istanbul, Turkey, started in spring 2012. It grew out of a 2011 occupation protesting the commercialisation of campus food and rising food prices, where participants proposed producing their own food, and it grew vegetables from heirloom seed without synthetic chemicals. After the 2013 Gezi Park protests it influenced a wave of similar community gardens across Istanbul.
Citizen participation
Organised horizontally without a leadership structure; membership was based on turning up to the weekly gatherings in the field, and the garden was open to participants from outside the university. Activities combined heirloom seeds, permaculture techniques, seed saving and composting with food-sovereignty education.
Operating model
Not a revenue-generating operation but a volunteer-run collective. The plot was provided by the university, having been donated by a professor couple on condition that students use it. Together with the BÜKOOP consumer cooperative and a collective kitchen on campus, it formed one part of a three-way campus food system covering production, distribution and cooking.
Impact
It turned a piece of campus into space that students and staff managed themselves, worked as a hands-on site for learning about food sovereignty, and contributed to the spread of urban gardens across Istanbul. Around 2018, however, the university rectorate chained the gates so the plot could no longer be entered, and seeds and tools were lost; the activity stopped. A revival was attempted in 2019 after an alternative location was offered, but it did not take hold, and the last documented activity was in 2020. The case shows what happens when land use rests on the discretion of the site's administrator rather than on an agreement with the gardeners — the project can end regardless of the participants' intentions — a vulnerability shared by citizen gardens hosted on university and other institutional grounds.
Land tenure
The plot was donated by a professor couple on condition of student use and provided by the university, but not as a formal tenancy; around 2018 the administration closed off access.
Crops
- red leaf lettuce
- black cabbage
- celery
- fennel
- tomatoes
- corn
- beans
- strawberries
- eggplant
- peppers
- squash
- herbs
Scale
ボアジチ大学サウスキャンパス内の一区画。最盛期の中心メンバーは約25名。面積は不明。
In the media（2）
Web articles and features that cover this case.
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