Many Lives of Architecture

Arch 402 is the final studio of the bachelor’s degree education in Bilkent. Being the graduation studio, it aims to increase the autonomy of the student, and provide some introduction to further specialization areas in architecture. Students are expected to define their own design problem, plan and conduct their own research accordingly. The studio requires a high degree of initiative on the student’s side. The definition of the design problem as well the planning and conduct of the research phase and the final design proposal are all equally important parts of the process.

The scope and definition of each project is to be developed by the students. Although there are no strict boundaries of these definitions, the relevancy and consistency of the proposals are subject to the instructor’s guidance and approval. It is expected that each project has a high degree of complexity resulting from either the site selection, program definition or the issue (theoretical framework). The project definitions are built on the trilogy of site-program-issue. Every semester one of these components is defined by the studio instructors to provide a common ground of discussions. In Spring 2024 the graduation studios worked on the theme of Many Lives of Architecture, questioning the longue durée of the design proposals.

Once the ground is broken, the site will never be the
same. The actions we take to be able to adopt the
environment to our own human limits are highly
invasive. Acts of building are very difficult, if not
impossible, to take back. Once built, a building may
stay at its location for hundreds of years, it may
change over time, sometimes it may stay still. Even if a
building is demolished its pieces travel around, they
keep existing independent of their previous role, they
gain new roles or meanings. Multiple things can be
built at a place. Sometimes one building is built on
top of another. Multiple layers co-exist informing each
other. Sometimes we try to decrease the permanent
nature of building. Some buildings are made to
disintegrate into nature or to be dismantled and used
elsewhere. Architecture and time have a strong
relationship, one that we tend to overlook.
In 2024 Spring semester ARCH 402, worked on the temporal aspect of architecture.