Image as a narrative in architecture

Günümüz görsel kültür ortamında indirgemeci bir yaklaşımla tek katmanlı olarak ele alınan imge kavramının zihinsel soyutlama yeteneğini zayıflattığı, düşünsel üretimin araçsallaştırılmasına neden olduğu düşünülmektedir. Bu bağlamda, mimarlıkta eleştirel düşünceyi tetikleyen imge kavramına farklı disiplinlerin penceresinden bakmak, farklı kavramlarla onu yeniden anlamlandırmak gerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada, nesnel biçimden zihinsel kurgu temsiline uzanan geniş bir yelpazede anlamlandırılan imge sorunsalı, eleştirel bir bakış açısıyla irdelenmekte ve mimarlıkta ilişkisel bilginin üretimine yol açabilecek bir okuma yöntemi önerilmektedir. Gündelik dilde görüntü ve biçim yerine kullanılan imgenin, biçime indirgenen yüzeysel algılama ve düşünme süreçlerine karşın imgeyi bir “anlatı olarak okuma”nın mimarlık bilgisinin üretimi için alternatif bir yaklaşım olabileceği tartışılmaktadır. Anlatı, zamansal deneyimin özelliklerini gösterdiği ölçüde yapılı çevrenin olay örgüsüne gönderme yapar. Anlatı olarak imge, bütüncül bir bakış açısı ile elde edilen mimarlık bilgisine ait “büyük resmi” bir olay örgüsüne dönüştürür. Herhangi bir yapılı çevreye ait imgenin katmanlı yapısı ve bu katmanlar arası ilişkileri bir olay örgüsüne dönüştürme sürecinde anlama, doğrusal düşünme biçimi yerine ağ ilişkisi ile temsil edilen karmaşık bir düşünme biçimini zorunlu kılar. Bu çalışmada imgeyi bir anlatı olarak okuma yöntemi, ilişkisel bilgiye ulaşmada bir örneklem olarak Kayseri Sahabiye Mahallesi imgesi üzerinden önerilmektedir. Tikel bir durum olan Sahabiye Mahallesi örneklemini genellenebilir kuramsal bilgi ile ilişkilendirerek deneyimleme; diğer bir deyişle, yapılı çevrenin katmanlı imge okumasını - tikel ve genel arasında gidip gelme hareketiyle eklenerek çoğalan ilişkisel bilgiye dönüştürme stratejisi, tezin kendine özgü yöntemini açıklamaktadır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Görsel kültür, imge, eleştiri, ilişkisel bilgi, anlatı / olay örgüsü. This study, proposes a method for the use of the "image" in architectural criticism, which is perceived as problematic of being a single layered, reductionist concept and dominating the mental processes figuratively. In everyday language, it is being used to define a wide spectrum of meanings from figural to the mental and expresses the thought, representation and criticism. For this reason, to redefine the concept of image as a narrative became necessary, in the field of architecture. In this study, it is argued that, reading the image as a narrative will recover the concept being shallow and reductionist, as it is understood extensively. It is thought that, reading the image as a narrative can be used as a key concept to generate the architectural knowledge from the built environment. In this context, it is thought that understanding and interpreting the "big picture" of architecture can be presented according to the holistic approach. Consequently, the image is presented with its multi-layered properties and the relations between these layers are important in understanding the meaning of the concept, which emerges within the network relations. This relationship requires both a mental process that will include the subject's background and priorities and the affordances of the environment. The narrative of the image is therefore thought to be emerged as the interactive relationship of the object and the subject. It is thought that, the cities, as living spaces having cultural codes, cannot be understood only by syntactic and analytic methods. Togetherness of the subject and the object is needed in order to solve the puzzle like structures of these environments. In such an understanding, the researcher has to experience the research area using her intentionality and try to find out the relations hidden among the layers of the environment. These relations can be considered as "a fold", as a Deleuzian concept, which allows all the layers reflect each other, and make visible the other. The intentionality of the researcher caused by the synergy of these relations will produce a fertile ground for exploring new layers of meanings that cannot be seen only by looking at. Image, considered as a mental construct, represents the subjective thought and the knowledge of the phenomenon can include many meanings. In architectural criticism, it is important to recognize the word as a loaded concept, and not to prefer or stick one of the meanings. According to the holistic approach, none of them is more important than the other, and the whole is greater than the parts. Reading the image of Sahabiye District in Kayseri as a narrative has been considered as an exemplar in this study. It is difficult to explain how to read the image of Sahabiye District as a narrative because of its multi-layered and complex structure having too many cultural codes superimposed within old and new environments. To recognize the experiential, cultural, historical, textural and social contrasts in the district makes its image multi-layered while reading the image as a narrative. The inexhaustibility of contrast (Ross, 1994), proposes an unlimited energy resulting from the tension of the opposing but complementary concepts. This tension makes each of these concepts being visible simultaneously. Sustainability referring to both continuity and change which represents contrast is another concept facilitates reading the image of Sahabiye District. The researcher, as an old resident of the district has a sustainable experience in there. The first-person phenomenological research method (Seamon, 2003) is adapted in this research in order to understand the deep meaning of this experience. Multi layered character of the image of this district, besides the empathic devotion and the theoretical background of the researcher makes the image of the Sahabiye District an exemplar give rise to relational knowledge. In this research, it is emphasized that reading the image of a build environment as a narrative can be translated to a generalized and sustainable knowledge which is contextual and specific to this environment. Reading the image of Sahabiye District as a narrative therefore exemplifies the proposed method based on web of events which is open to critical knowledge. As an exemplar, narrating Sahabiye  District will give rise to an in-between reality concerning singularity and multiplicity and having a potential to move between a specific and general knowledge. As a result, reading the image as a narrative in architectural environments introduces some possibilities for translating the multi-layered structures of the cityscape to critical knowledge that can be used for preservation and gentrification projects. Keywords: visual culture, image, architectural criticism, relational knowledge, narrative / web of event

A Holistic approach for understanding the housing quality in contemporary world

Paper presented at the XXXIII IAHS World Congress on Housing, 27-30 September 2005,"Transforming Housing Environments through Design", University of Pretoria.There is a growing dissatisfaction with the housing environment concerning its quality in contemporary world. As a solution to this problem, a holistic research strategy based on understanding the reciprocal relations between objective attributes and subjective evaluations of housing quality is proposed. A new way of seeing and thinking is required in order to understand the reciprocal relations which are grounded on a holistic approach to housing quality having the superimposed layers of social, technological, cultural, perceptual and spatial dimensions. The evaluation criteria of quality thus takes its roots from the interwoven results of both actual, physical properties of setting and perceived, experienced phenomena. In other words, the deep meaning of quality can be understood by interlocking relations of subjectivity and objectivity. The aim of this paper is to introduce this holistic approach for understanding the housing quality and its possibilities for transforming housing environments through design. In this context, the research project [1] entitled “The Evaluation of Spatial Formations in Housing Environments” can be considered as an exemplary that is guided by a holistic approach to research strategy for understanding the housing quality. According to this approach, the user responses, the effects that causes these responses and their reflections to the physical world / housing environment and the affordances of the environment, all relates to each other within a pattern relations creating ambiguity and functions as an agency. Each agency shouldn’t be researched independently for understanding housing quality since they represent an ontological experience having the real world constrains.Authors of papers in the proceedings and CD-ROM ceded copyright to the IAHS and UP. Authors furthermore declare that papers are their original work, not previously published and take responsibility for copyrighted excerpts from other works, included in their papers with due acknowledgment in the written manuscript. Furthermore, that papers describe genuine research or review work, contain no defamatory or unlawful statements and do not infringe the rights of others. The IAHS and UP may assign any or all of its rights and obligations under this agreement

Mimarlıkötesi Tasarım Paradigması [Transarchitectural Design Paradigm]

In order to better understand the world of multiplicities and to be able to project towards the future, there is a necessity for transmodality. Transdisciplinarity concept that involves transmodalities appeared at the end of the past century, allowing rhizomatic readings in between and beyond disciplines and information multiplicities. The basis of the knowledge created by transdisciplinarity is in life and is an intuitive knowledge that contains criticality, based on experiences. The use of transmodality in the emergence of creative thought in design is through transvergence as a design methodology. Transvergence has the potential to create unexpected designs that are beyond their time. For that matter, the product of transarchitectural design is the avant-garde of architecture. The transarchitectural design experiments that emerge the conceptual framework of this thesis should be seen as exemplars as of Kuhn’s. These exemplars aim to produce, research and make as in poiesis the architecture of information age that allow real time becomings in actual and virtual as a projection towards future. In this passing moment, transarchitectural design approach uses digital design methodologies that have transdisciplinary character, as a techne in order to make poetically. While doing so it produces its own epistemology and hence becoming a paradigm. The transarchitectural design experiments emerge with transvergence, which defines new world making that embodies unexpected becomings, hence proposing unlived experiences. The microcosmos created is composed of fragments as patterns and as portals that connect these patterns to one another. The transarchitectural spatial experience, first by shocking the experiencer creates an awareness (erlebnis) and later on by engagement, the experiencer begins to understand a new world of becoming and embodied within it (erfahrung)

Discovering the Urban Identity as a Paradox within the Context of Globalization

The concept of identity could be understood and interpreted as a paradoxical term within the context of globalization. A phenomenological enquiry within the transmodern paradigm is carried out according to the theoretical background in this research. As far as Deleuze is concerned, there can only be an “identity of difference”, thus the urban identity should be reinterpreted as a paradoxical term. The paradoxes of urban identity are discovered through the concepts of becoming, palimpsest and place-memory in Istanbul, here inquired as an exemplar. In three fragments of Istanbul, namely, Beyoglu, Levent-Gultepe and Kuzguncuk the actants (both human and nonhuman), in Bruno Latour’s words, produce unique relations giving rise to a constant transformation. The relations emphasized within the transmodern paradigm are discovered through transdiscursive readings in the chosen fragments. Transdiscursive readings are carried out with a holistic approach and through the relational theory. As a result understanding the urban identity as a paradoxical term could open up new ways of thinking –and acting– in architectural and urban design based on constant transformation