mural terrain

studio blog of 4th year students' | mural terrain unit  | arch401 fall 16-17 | ayşen savaş . funda bütüner . pınar yazdıç in cooperation with arzu gönenç sorguç . onat öktem | METU | ankara

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Studio vibes

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Studio environment

photo credit : ceren topaloğlu

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project brief | mural terrain

prepared by ayşen savaş . funda bütüner . pınar yazdıç . in cooperation with arzu gönenç sorguç . onat öktem

In contemporary European cities, citadel walls remain not only as historical heritages need to be protected but also as architectural elements defining space in the urban milieu. Historical city wall identify a mural zone that is formed and deformed by their existence. This condition first transforms them into vertical surfaces – architectural objects and also support them to create a horizontal terrain – landscape. Thus, rather than being a border, boundary, limit or a series of constraints, city walls emerge as urban zones, where possible interaction between new cities and historic has been constructed.

 In the case of Ankara Citadel, mural zone covers two contrasting landscapes between the historic town and the still developing city: a green zone, where the wall exists as continuous, linear object and a brown, rocky landscape, where the wall is dissolved into a three dimensional terrain. However, in both settings, mural zone emerge as a potential urban environment in need of architectural programming. Recent restoration and rehabilitation projects around and within the citadel walls in Ankara caused their partial demolition and created irreversible structural damages. Continuation of similar interferences could easily cripple or destroy these architectural heritages.

 Therefore the objective of this studio is to write an architectural program that will help the projection of this unusual landscape. Your proposals will be related to the transformation and/or protection of the existing landscape; and its architecture will be limited to a defined number of functions help the maintenance of the projected landscape. Therefore, we will study, research and discuss ‘Wall Architecture, on order to reach at the end, not a mere architectural product but also its spatiality.

 Besides the regular attendance to the lecture series students are expected to participate in a workshop that will be organized in cooperation with the Computational Design Studio. The methods developed for the analysis and understanding of the site will also help the development of the individual design proposals.

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Beginnig of the term_Project brief handout respresented by instructors