Istanbul: Places of Gathering Vault Tectonics Workshop

14-18.04.2010 | Taşkışla

Instructors: Holger Hoffmann, Hans-Peter Nünning, Steffen Riegas, Eva Eylers 

Organizers: G. Çağdaş, A. Sökmenoğlu, Z. Bacınoğlu, Ö. Çavuşoğlu

For springterm’s “computational design”-workshop we want to look at Istanbul as one of today’s most important and vibrant places of intercultural cohabitation. A part of our fascination with the city comes with Istanbul’s role as a major crosscultural hub of arrival and gathering in between Europe and Asia. Historically as well as today the city shows fascinating socio-cultural, temporal and local dynamics. Having been a melting pot of cultures over the centuries, the citizens of Istanbul vividly negotiate the role and rules of their society until today. It is this specific tension between religions, societal role models and the urban body of the city that has led its inhabitants to form and build some of the most significant places of togetherness and gathering – whether these are driven by religion (such as Aya Sofya), economics (like bazars such as Kapalı Çarşı), culture (such as AKM), sports (such as Fenerbahçe Sükrü Saracoglu Stadi) or politics (like the City Hall in Şehzadebaşı).

Traditionally many of these architectural and societal icons were made from vault-structures and cupolas – sometimes housing different religions under one roof. And in history these aggregated vaults had significant structural and climatic advantages – while the grandeur of these structures resulted in very specific architectural affects. Interestingly western Modernism widely replaced the ambition to construct intricate and appealing vaulted spaces with the efficiency of flat slab structures. We think that this is a loss.

Therefore we want to use vault aggregations to formulate new spaces of gathering within the city of Istanbul.

B. Simple in geometry – rich in affects

Since nearly three decades the broad application of digital design/construction technology in architecture has widely changed the use and perception of computer software. Thus, we have seen a shift from mere drawing-tools towards mighty and very creative design tools. These tools have allowed many architects the conception and design of very complex architectural projects. And so, many formally intricate buildings have been designed and built over the past years. And many of these projects have undergone massive so-called post-rationalization-processes –  i.e. methods of (mostly) intelligent geometrical simplification, like the costly triangulation of doubly-curved surfaces.  From today’s point of view such processes, however extremely elaborate in themselves, appear to be a bit anachronistic. They seem like attempts of after-computerization of actually post-modernist design approaches.

So, the clear conception of a computation-process whose rules lead to certain formal and structural consequences is the necessary first step towards an architecture that is both structurally interesting and systematically coherent.

Thus, in this workshop you will attempt to develop strong and fresh architectural projects from fairly simple methods of parametrical definition of space-defining surface-geometry using vault typologies. And while doing so you will ideally unfold a, conceptual, historical, theoretical, or technical framework around your project that will take it beyond the mere development and application of computer-tools.

C. The task

You will work in groups of maximum four people.

Design a vault structury as a new place for societal discourse. In order to do this first define a spot within the city that you consider appropriate for such a building. Acquire a decent understanding of that place and especially its possibilities of access, its urban surrounding and its specific ambience.

Then start your project with a brief case-study-research on an existing vault-structure that is ideally located in Istanbul. Use your research to gain in-depth understanding of the main typological as well as geometrical principles of that vault. Rebuild the vault digitally (Rhino) and translate its geometry into a preferably elastic associative-geometry-model (Grasshopper/VB-Script/Python/…). Use this study to understand the inherent parameters of such a structure. Show this development in many(!) variations to show the potential manifestations of such a digital “machine”.

Now use potential external parameters, such as light, wind, access, occupation to develop the previously “generic” design-model further: define at least two different conditions (‘poles’) that inform the surfaces or component variations as “external parameters”, such as: filtering of light (light + dark), structural heaviness (light+heavy), variation of spatial conditions through structural densification/expansion, etc. Create variations of structural/formal transitions inbetween the poles. Develop a ‘tectonic’ strategy to solve the surface construction as well as the interconnection of different surfaces. Finally design one(!) result that illustrates your project as good as possible.

Present your project using

. 2D-/3D/4D-diagrams

. all relevant drawings

. all physical-(sketch)-models

. one large-scale plywood-model

The focus of the workshop rather amplifies the importance of the design process and its intelligence than a purely result-driven approach. The constant oscillation between analytical research and methodological invention, between interdependencies of potential behavior and geometry, between contextual field and elastic prototypical object favors a rather cyclical than linear understanding of design processes.