Education

This student project named Happy Ivy was lightweight but also very strong, a good start for research on fibrous structures. The 2015 group of first-year Basic Design students explains their project as; Arboriform, meaning “something tree-shaped” was the central theme of the project, however, we decided to…

This is a student project on Computation-based Basic Design at Bilgi. The group of students completed it in the 2015 Spring semester. This research was very successful in achieving its intended physical performance, which was holding on to a tree designed for (and even near…

This is an unfinished research on textile tensegrity technique, developed at Basic Design I Studio of Istanbul Bilgi University. The result was not satisfactory as a design outcome, but yet an interesting educational experiment. Students explain their project as follows: Coral reefs and corals themselves…

This project named Two Plus One explains itself very well. The students explained their motivation differently from the rest of the studio. In our Computation-based Basic Design Final Project, we are inspired by Theo Jansen’s Strandbeest sculptures, and we wanted to make our arboriform kinetic. First, we…

Student project of the first year Computation-based Basic Design I studio at İstanbul Bilgi University Faculty of Architecture. The contextual background is based on “Arboriform” which aimed to drive students’ design research process. Here is a quote from the student’s presentation: …Many of us do not…

This year’s first semester at Basic Design Studio was full of surprises. Together with Can Sucuoğlu and Birgül Çolakoğlu, we coordinated 9 student groups in their 4-week final project called “Arboriforms“.  “Arbori-” is derived from the Latin word “arbor,” meaning “tree,” and “-form” indicates a…

Again, we revisited the seamless patterns exercise this semester. This is one of the main exercises of architectural geometry class. We expected to improve students reasoning on generative patterning while they explain their processes step by step. The key element of this exercise is the usage of…

Here are some of the student works from this year’s Computation-based Basic Design Studio, centered around the captivating theme of Metamorphosis. Throughout the course, we tasked the students with pushing the boundaries of their creativity and innovation and encouraged them to construct designs that transcend…

This is an interesting material project of this year’s computation-based Basic Design II studio. Students experienced a well-known structural system tensegrity, composed of cables, joint details, and aluminum sticks. Although their overall macro form had serious problems, the exploratory process of this group was very…

Here is another computation-based Basic Design II final project. It is made of paper tubes, joined angular by nuts and bolts in order to give the desired form. This group had serious problems with project development and exploration, but anyway they managed to finish this…

A mid-15th-century Ottoman recipe, mantı is filled with pounded lamb and crushed chickpeas, steamed, and served topped with yogurt mixed with crushed garlic and sprinkled with sumac. In modern Turkish cuisine, mantı is typically served topped with yogurt and garlic, and spiced with red pepper…

Third and the final outcome of the Animate Patterning workshop is coordinated by Mehmet Ali. Students tried to develop a kirigami-like surface animation (which is also a good solution to my one-servo question) while they studies numerous variations. They ended up with this panel, ready…

Here is another student project from the three-day workshop we conducted together with Fulya Akipek and Mehmet Ali Altın. Briefly, the idea was to develop a system of cogwheels that spin together to animate an entire pattern. It was about to develop a kinetic system…

It seems that our first-year students of architecture, interior design, and industrial design take Rhino’s macro functionality very seriously. This encourages us to study algorithmic techniques more and more in the freshman year Design Computing class. Below are some of the results of this week’s assignment. They…

Here are two macros that automate some of the classical structural styles in today’s architectural geometry. They could be developed more to include joint details, however. It is a relaxing experience to study macros when the process doesn’t have algorithmic expressions (such as recursion, iteration, or…

Here is the winning team of this year’s mid-term jury competition in the first-year Basic Design studio at İstanbul Bilgi University. The challenge they undertook was called “Void by Subtraction.” Initially, the students engaged in a series of short-term exercises exploring solid and void relationships….

Together with Fulya Akipek and Mehmet Ali Altın, we’re conducting a 4-day workshop at Anadolu University, Eskişehir, between the 1 and 4th of May. We’ll be focusing on Grasshopper + Firefly + RhinoNest (the casual trio), in order to introduce some of the basic concepts…

Design Computing classes conducted a “voluntary” assignment; a “contouring” fabrication, that outputs physical prototypes of the previous parametric wall assignment. They worked very well with the corrugated cardboard in fact and extended the simple contouring exercise in Rhinoceros into a design study of patterning and transparency….

Here is one of the student’s works from this semester’s parametric modeling elective course. We refer the first couple of hours in molding of concrete as its “alive” phase. During this phase, due to various reasons concrete sweats, respires and in a way contains an inner circulation of…

While preparing the Geometry yearbook, I picked these four patterns from the 4th week’s assignment, “Seamless Patterns”. I still love to see how these patterns are generated by students with very limited knowledge of computers and geometry. There are other posts about this assignment here…