There were several reasons for situating ourselves in Istanbul for these investigations during the inaugural year of the Masters Course; given its vast scale, population (15,000,000) and liminal geographic and cultural conditions, it would mean that we could not attempt to be ‘comprehensive’, and an overall question as to how we might consider developing a series of architectural explorations in a City so remote from our own cultural experiences. This also meant that our pedagogical approach might rely on speculative question­ing rather than something more assertive or pre-determined. In another way, we recognised that both Istanbul (like Cork) is also a “SECOND-CITY”- Istanbul reduced to this position in 1923 following a political shift by the Turkish National Movement to form the new capital in Ankara, notwithstanding the fact that Istanbul had served as the capital of the Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261). Primarily however, we set about to understand its ‘otherly’ conditions- those indexical aspects of its cultural, spatial and topographical complexities that did not seem to yield to straightforward first readings, and therefore wholly attractive to a series of architectural investigations.

Jason M. O’Shaughnessy, MArch Programme Leader, CCAE, Cork School of Architecture.

The theme of the MArch—City as Palimpsest—applies both to Istanbul and the students’ work. The profusion of models, drawings and artefacts indicate a strong commitment to expressive aesthetics, tactile materiality and the poetics of contemporary urbanism. Found objects are incorporated and transformed, indicating the relevance of the past to the present, and the effects of one on the other. Instruments and devices pervade the display but, rather than dry machines, they are means to understand the self in relation to society and to cultivate the personal and collective imagination. Among its many successes, the MArch programme recognises that the buildings and cities we inhabit are infused with myths, which affect how and what we perceive. Exceptional architects are exceptional storytellers, weav­ing a narrative that convinces the designer as well as the users. A city also needs ‘creative myths’ that allow its inhabit­ants to understand it collectively and imagine its future. The same challenge applies to the Cork School of Architecture, as the works produced in this MArch programme so evocatively recognises.
 

Professor Jonathan Hill, Director of Design, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.

This year’s graduates have laid the foundation for an incredibly exciting future for the Masters and undergraduate programmes at CCAE and we hope that the year group is excited about their next ventures. While the future is anything but clear for architects it is evident from talking to this remarkable body of individuals that they have gained an ability to think critically through the act of designing. It is important that they use this skill to question how they want to practice as an architect. We would say to them - try not to lock these projects in your attics, take them with you into your next stage as designers. Do not be dismayed if it takes a while for that job to come through, keep working, making and doing. If we can offer you any advice we will have to borrow the words of Dylan Thomas to do so: “do not go gentle into that good night”.

James A. Craig and Matt Ozga-Lawn, STASUS.

What emerged as the students progressed during the year, was their willingness to explore a range of architectural investigations. Often this meant challenging preconceived ideas of simply giving form to ideas, and developing design methodologies and work practices that questioned the notion of a contextual architecture, by constantly investing a range of scenario’s by which we might re-consider the term itself. There is a distinct achronological aspect in the way the projects emerged throughout the year- follow­ing the return from Istanbul with an assortment of ‘bounty’ of found objects, narratives, fragments of journeys, intense interactions and conversations, and sometimes just fleeting memories, the design theses projects were constantly being second-guessed and re-read through these lenses so that the final ‘position’ can rarely ascribed to the normal linearity of the design process or indeed one defining moment in time. Instead the students triangulated themselves against an immeasurable number of chartings that prompted exciting new propositions for Istanbul. Given the diversity and overall quality of each of these proposals, it is necessary that each student gets to illustrate and describe their own project and thesis interests in this book- it would be unfair and also too impractical to try to attempt to highlight any one individual project, being so diverse as they are and the diversity in approach and the reification of individual preoccupations. What one cannot leave to go unnoticed and be impressed by however, is the coming-together of these works in the final exhibition and in this visual dossier. Seeing the works develop each week can be sometimes frustrating- above all one needs a resilience that allows questions to emerge and situate their relevance on an ongoing basis, and ‘enjoy the making of the thing as much as the thing itself’. It is (quite literally) only when the dust gets swept away that we see the final realisation of all the ef­fort, probings, and attitudes that have preoccupied all of us over the course of the year.

Jason M. O’Shaughnessy - ISTANBUL City As Palimpsest

MArch Programme Leader

ISTANBUL City As Palimpsest, publication now available

CCAEMArch12 at IDW, Istanbul 27th-20th November 2013 

CCAEMArch12 at TAB, Tallinn 4th-30th September 2013 - All welcome!

Masters exhibition in darc space, Dublin on the 26th of October - All welcome!