As soon as you step into architecture school, you know that something is different, but there is always more than you know. Forget the education system you’ve had so far. Because here you will find yourself in a discussion environment like the nebula that is about to explode, where all abstract concepts have meaning, philosophy is drunk like water, drawing is finally valued. Trying to rewrite the alphabet might be the first thing you come across. There is nothing to be afraid of, you will learn beautiful handwriting. All architects will learn this first. An architect’s handwriting shouldn’t be bad, right? After this stage, you have to be attentive to all the pages that you will write because professors who like to criticize everything will not forgive this. At first, even the working environment in the basic design studio may seem like a hobby club, not a lesson to you, but don’t get too caught up in the mood because it’s really a lesson. We’re trying to lay the groundwork for something here. Please pay some attention!
A Basic Design Story
In this studio, I was given homework that I earned a lot. Thinking that I had just gotten used to the abstract world of basic design when the subject of our final assignments was explained, I said, well, apparently I wasn’t used to it. So I had a long way to go. The whole class with me had a long way to go because we were all looking at the professor explaining the subject as if looking into a vacuum. What did it mean “Looking at the City from Water”? Ok, it probably has something to do with water and we’re looking at the city, but what did it really mean? After listening to the homework explanation hoping to explain, the professor said, “Yes, that’s it, guys.” There was a second gap when he said. Because how could it be so? Have you explained anything yet, professor?, I wanted to say but I couldn’t ask. Then someone started asking.
“Are we going to build something on water?”
“Can people stand on him? So a pier or something? Or is it a venue like a cafe? ”.
Ok, it was very obvious that it wasn’t a cafe, at least it was obvious to me because it should have been something made for more subjects.
“What does it mean to look at the city, professor, should we build an observation tower?”
Questions and questions… However, the answers were always like “You decide what to do. Do not exceed 40 square meters. ”. Oh okay, some objective data at the end, 40 square meters. Then what? “Visit the coastline until a week, analyze, choose your shore, and come”. Fantastic!
We determined the day and time of the trip for the homework that we will do in groups of two. Everyone was going to meet at the weekend and we all decided to travel together. So we could get more ideas on the subject. First, we had an overview of the coastline from the ship and then spent the day touring a few shores we chose. Of course, we did not know what we were shooting, we were just taking pictures of everywhere. As the idea starts to form, it will be needed. While traveling with my group friend, we also knew each other. We did not just talk about the project while traveling for hours that day. While exploring the city together, we got into a deep conversation. When I returned home late at the end of the day, I felt the happiness of traveling and new friendships. It was worth the tiredness. This was my first achievement. Thanks to field trips, my view of the city has changed. The trips showed me to deal with the project area with its surroundings and to observe every detail from people to nature. One of the most beautiful of them is that these trips brought me good friendships.
The Next Week
The next week we were in the class with just one thing in mind and photographs of a coastal area that we had chosen. We only thought of starting from the tall and very old tree silhouette in the region. The urban fabric settling around the green immediately caught the attention of those of us who were longing for green. Even telling this to the professor was enough for us because it was important to at least catch a point. On the other hand trees and water? What could we do about it? Should we create a tree pattern like a palm island in Dubai? My current mind says absolutely no to this, but to our apprentice brains who thought so simple about design at the time, these ideas seemed brilliant. When my friend and I talked about them to the professor, “Don’t do this, you don’t need to copy what you are inspired by, just use it as a guide.” said. Yes, yes, he was right when he said so, but when I got back home I had a black hole in my mind again. Okay, I’m starting from the trees, and okay I can’t copy the trees to the water. How can I move forward from this point? I had no idea. When I look at it now, I understand why the professors used to make groups in the early days because when we had two people, our minds were working a little more. After all, the concept of brainstorming was not a futile thing, was it?
Now I See
My groupmate and I went to see the area again. Sudden trees in the neighborhood did not have as much effect as the moment. What we saw from the ship impressed us. So we decided to design something on the water where people can walk on it and then look back at the shore. However, no matter what we did, people who climbed on such a pier would stand there and watch the sea. So we decided to put up wooden barriers that were beyond eye distance so we could draw their attention back to the old tree community on the shore. Yeah, that’s it! As what we were going to do eventually took shape in our minds, I realized that our professors themselves didn’t know what they wanted exactly. Because this was nothing specific in this school.
Depending entirely on context, origin, and imagination, something else could have arisen. This was my other achievement. I would later see that nothing was clear at this school. The professors who helped with technical issues left the design in our hands. We, who had not seen anything other than solving tests until the age of 18, were acquainted with designing with a brand new education.
