Discourses

​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…

This paper investigates the integration of robotic fabrication into first-year undergraduate design education, particularly in a basic design studio. Traditionally, robotic technologies are not introduced at this level due to perceived skill gaps among novice students. The study demonstrates the potential and strategies for incorporating robotic arms into early design education through an experiment conducted at Istanbul Bilgi University. The experiment involved 32 students from various design disciplines, divided into control groups using hand-held tools and test groups using a…

The SpaceChase plugin for Grasshopper focuses on initiating dynamic capabilities to Space Syntax theory by introducing the “Dynamic Canvas” model along with real-time editing capabilities in an interactive physics-based environment. Therefore, SpaceChase is a software development project for “Mekan Dizimi Tasarım Uygulaması” (no:119M082) under the ARDEB 1001 program of TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). Architectural design, as a cognitive activity, has always been fed by architectural knowledge based on practice and theory, and it has been questioned how creative…

This is the new paper with Meryem Nurefşan Yabanigül, published at Automation in Construction. It is also Meryem’s master’s thesis. This study is about testing the production of curved surfaces with non-linear robotic hotwire cutting and shape memory alloys. Below is the abstract of it: Robotic arms are being used by construction firms and schools of architecture around the world in design/build research and material studies. Some of these studies utilize robotic hot wire cutting (RHC) as an efficient production…