Discourses

The question of how form emerges in architecture has always been one of the most fundamental debate topics of computational design. When I was a graduate student, we used to examine how abstract language structures made of words and rules turned into spatial and geometric systems. In this post, starting from the reflection of linguistic theories on architecture, we will talk about the logic of discrete aggregation that we study in the first year Design Computing courses. At the same…

We would like to share that our collaborative research on earthen architecture was featured at the Pavilion of Türkiye at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Ceren Erdem and Bilge Kalfa around the theme “Grounded” (Yerebasan), the exhibition reimagines earth as a living archive, natural intelligence, and a dynamic laboratory for contemporary spatial practices. Together with Fulya Akipek and our interdisciplinary teams, we contributed to the pavilion with three architectural prototypes: Digital design and fabrication…

The group exhibition 2 Years 10 Meters, curated by Natalia Schmidt, opened on April 24, 2024, at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. My name was also included in the exhibition due to the projection graphics in Didem Yalınay’s artwork Intra)/value. This was another step in Didem’s long-term project. She hated being called a “Digital Artist.” She produced wonderful works with Seçkin Maden. I was fortunate enough to accompany her as a modest collaborator on one of her pieces….

​In this article, I will attempt a small intervention in contemporary artificial intelligence discussions with an old philosophical example. Our hypothesis is this: ​”Artificial intelligence is very powerful at defining and reproducing existing patterns. However, experiencing that which is not there, absence, negation, and nothingness, as a lived condition belongs exclusively to human consciousness.” Jean-Paul Sartre, in his famous “Cafe Example” from his 1943 work “Being and Nothingness“, describes the experience of someone entering a crowded cafe to find a…

The logic of computer programming has fascinated me since childhood. The same way of thinking also lies behind design mathematics, which is now my main field of interest. Searching for the simplicity behind things, looking for the fundamentals, and identifying the most meaningful basic elements has always been my greatest challenge. With this intention, Designcoding went online in 2011. I tried to share my research, some student work, and news. While learning computational geometry, I wanted to teach it as…

The Hilbert Curve is one of the results of David Hilbert’s vision of mathematics as a network of symbolic systems. Defined in 1891, this curve is a fractal that fills a two-dimensional plane with a one-dimensional line in the limit. It exhibits self-similarity. It emerged from representing higher-dimensional spaces through continuous, lower-dimensional entities. A curve that grows within a bounded area remains continuous but non-differentiable. Yet it possesses infinite length. Perhaps no one will ever truly see or fully grasp…

Below is the first paper of my son, Mete Yazar. It is about a mathematical and geometric exercise of calculating the surface area of an arbitrary shape (a classical guitar’s body panel). He did a good job in utilizing Bezier/de Casteljau curves and generating the parametric equations of the piecewise curve. I helped him to validate the results by using rhinoceros CAD software. Therefore, it seems that his calculations are correct. In this paper, we attempted to calculate a guitar’s…

This is the latest reel video of the Online Virtual Studio (OVS) project. We conducted it together with Oğulcan Üneşi and Serkan Uysal since 2022. We tried to develop a tool for online and blended education in architectural studios. The tool has specific features tailored for design studios. İstanbul Bilgi University Scientific Research Fund partially supported this project. This video showcases the latest toolset OVS provided. The tool takes some interaction concepts from gaming and incorporates them into the needs…

There are cognitive, technological, and pedagogical ideas and experimental studies on architectural design education in virtual environments. In the existing literature; new software tools were developed, add-ons to existing software were developed, or software prototypes were developed and tested on various platforms such as game engines. In the distance education model, currently, there is no stand-alone software, specifically developed for the needs of architectural design studios. Similarly, there is no generally accepted pedagogical approach in this field yet. Virtual Environments…

This is a return to the Swirly Flames tutorial I made in 2013 here. Since then, Photoshop changed a bit. There is no more Variations tool. Therefore, I had to use other tools such as Color Balance, Hue/Saturation, Inverse, etc. to achieve the same effect. It is still cool for me, personally, although we are in the age of AI-generated images now. It is not the visual result only, but the memories it carries until today. Nowadays, I am translating…