Blueprint’in Mayıs-Haziran 2014 sayısında İstanbul konulu dosyanın yazarı Irmak Turan’dı. İstanbul’un içinde bulunduğu hengameden bahsederken öne çıkardığı mimari pratiklerden biri de PAB idi.
POST-WORLD’S END ARCHITECTURE: ISTANBUL
Words: Irmak Turan
Istanbul is in turmoil. While not the only Turkish city to experience disquiet among the populace, this ancient place is, it could be argued, facing greater upheaval in its urban fabric with mega expansion plans that include a new airport, a new bridge over the Bosphorus, the demolition of whole communities and relocation of inner city schools. But as this fifth instalment of Post World’s End Architecture reveals, there are some architects and designers-cum-activists trying to tackle the city’s problems with positive action.
PAB Architects - Design for future learning
Until now, public schools in Turkey have been notoriously standardised, shoddy structures. As part of the central government’s recent education reforms, public high-school buildings in city centres will be reappropriated for other purposes and the pupils will be relocated to new campuses outside of the cities. Since last year, the education ministry has been holding a series of competitions to develop designs for these massive facilities. While the social impact of the school reshuffling is debatable, the situation presents an opportunity for architects to inform the country’s school standards for the better.
PAB Architects, an emerging Istanbul-based practice, is aiming to do just that through its new online database Ögrenim Mekanlari (Learning Spaces). The website is a growing collection of learning space-design principles, illustrated through a simple visual language, alongside examples of PAB’s own experience of designing school buildings in Turkey, including the recently completed Ayhan Sahenk Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technologies. While many questions about the future schools remain unanswered, the firm’s ongoing projects serve as a starting point to direct the discourse towards high-quality building standards and innovation for future learning.
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