Studios

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 believe and even do not want to believe in the compatibility of natural phenomena with things done by humans. Nature eliminates unfitted environmental factors while generating new potentialities from it. In our project, “symbiosis”, “tropism”, “branching”, “holding”, “rooting”…

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 shape or form. Therefore, we can understand “arboriform” as an adjective describing something that is tree-like in appearance, structure, or form. For example, one might use the term “arboriform” to describe the branching pattern of…

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 compass and ruler constructions. However, we didn’t keep this rule limiting their creativity too much. In this activity, we tasked students with developing a personalized method to create custom tessellations, drawing inspiration from “Islamic patterns“….

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 conventional limitations and embody the essence of shapeshifting systematic wholes. The metamorphosis concept catalyzed their artistic exploration. Then, urged them to delve deep into the realm of design possibilities. A pivotal aspect of this studio…

We are back! Here are some Revit components I’ve created for a project. These and other cool downloads can be found at revitcity.com

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 successful. *Students: Deniz Ağaoğlu, Fatma Sezgin, Serkan Ateş, Aysel Abasova, Kardelen Kıroğlu, Sedat Tolga Kalcıoğlu, İlayda Yörük, Nikol Sergici, Kıvılcım Dişli, Uğur Polat

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 inspirational prototype. *Students: Abdullah Selim Buldu, Ecem Aksoy, Lachyn Tuliyeva, Neda Khorshidi, Selenay Geyik, Sevgi Yücel

It is the geometry of Mantı components, that enable quick cooking for its ingredients (usually meat) but also is a structurally stable form. I’m excited to see this transformation as a structural capacity, half folding, and bending behavior of these shells. Two years ago, one of the final projects of our computation-based Basic Design studio experimented with similar forms to see how a relatively weak surface material could be transformed into a structurally better one. I don’t know if this similarity…

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 explicated the modeling process of their prototiles into macro codes, ready to be molded. Zeynep Dutipek developed the macro to reconstruct her prototile with different parameters. She also had a smile there (if you watch carefully) Meltem Bayrak…

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. Alongside the studio sessions, they honed their digital modeling skills through Architectural Geometry courses. Their task was to create a contoured structure within a restricted 8m3 volume. Through various iterations using clay and foamboard prototypes,…