Design in the Age of the Super-Wicked Problem: New Models for Ecotone Edge Between Land and Water

The OzU Fall Workshop, lead by Prof. Sulan Kolatan, is a one-week workshop along with supporting lectures that will take place in Istanbul, between September 16th and 20th, 2013.

The workshop will give participants opportunities for acquiring digital design methods, in order to address current eco-systemic issues concerning architecture and the city. While cities like Istanbul are facing historically unprecedented problems, an equally unprecedented repertory of digital tools gives us opportunities to smartly address these problems. To this end, students will learn how material issues can be linked to abstract methods in “designerly ways”. Students will learn to construct topological space and deploy parametric adaptation.

The intent of the workshop is to develop new design models for a transitional urban edge between land and water.  A concrete urban location will not be given so that students are free to exclusively focus on designing alternative forms of boundary. The notion of Ecotone and the significance of a transitional edge in ecological terms will be explored in lectures and discussions.

The workshop is dedicated to Bruno Latour’s theoretical argument that we are too obsessed with distinguishing between what is constructed and what is unconstructed. It would be more productive, Latour argues, if we instead obsess with distinguishing between what is badly constructed and what is well constructed.

Objectives:

1. Collaboration between students of architecture from different classes and universities, who will be organized in mixed teams.

2. Application of contemporary design methods.

3. Production of a series of explanatory 2D and 3D audio-visual material, which will "concretize" projects realized by the student teams.

4. Exhibition of the produced material at university campuses during two months following the workshop.

5. Publication containing information in relation to the workshop process and the produced material.

Calendar:

Deadline for application: 28th  August 2013 / 17.00
Acceptance of applications: 29th August 2013 / 17.00
Fee payment deadline: 1st September 2013 / 17.00
Workshop: 16th – 20th September 2013

Quota for workshop: 15 students
Venue: Ozyegin University Cekmekoy Campus,
Fee for participants: 690 TL (355 US Dollars)
Fee including: Workshop, lunch, certificate,
Credits: 3 ECTS
Applied to: serap.ozcelik@ozyegin.edu.tr , orhan.hacihasanoglu@ozyegin.edu.tr

Accommodation and transportation responsibilities belong to participants.

SULAN KOLATAN

Sulan Kolatan is the Principal of KOL/MAC LLC New York, an architecture and design firm she co-founded with William J. Mac Donald. She is currently Adjunct Professor as well as Director of the Istanbul Program at the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design at Pratt Institute. Her firm has been internationally acknowledged as a leader in digital architecture and technologically innovative design. Sulan Kolatan has received numerous academic and professional honors and awards, including the “40 under 40” award given every decade to the 40 best architects under 40 years in the USA. Most recently her Inversabrane project was nominated for the Zumtobel Environmental Award (Austria) and the INDEX Award (Denmark). In 2004 KOL/MAC LLC received the great honor to represent the United States at the International Architecture Biennale in Venice. KOL/MAC LLC projects are represented in the permanent collections of elite cultural institutions including the MoMA New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou Paris, the FRAC Orleans and the Architekturmuseum Frankfurt, Germany. In 2011-12 she was invited by the Mayor of Istanbul to serve as distinguished Juror for the following competitions in Istanbul: The International Urban Competition for Yenikapi Archeopark, The National Architectural Competition for a new TV Tower and The International Architectural Competition sponsored by ThyssenKrupp for an Education and Research Center for Natural Disasters.