Design Studio 11 Master of Architecture (MArch RIBA Part 2)

TUTORS: Clare Carter & Dusan Decermic

Konstantiniyye: Dream City

DS11 has a long-track record in European city research, exploring the evolving role of both public buildings and space.

Continuing our research since the publication of The Intrinsic and Extrinsic City, in alternate years DS11 examines the extreme south and north of the European continent.

As a fitting end to our European adventures, this year our work took us within a whisper of the Bosphorus to the eastern extreme of Europe, at a gateway to the troubled Middle East. Istanbul sits inside modern Turkey, a country which has seen major political shifts in recent years. A member of NATO but not the EU? Current politics oscillate between national expansion and some delicate, fluid positioning within contemporary, combustible geopolitics in the wider Middle East. Is this a European city or something that escapes definition and usual classification?

Istanbul has obsessed historians and conquerors for centuries. A golden prize worth thousands of lives. We immersed ourselves in this sometimes melancholy city, whose golden age has perhaps ebbed away, only to be replaced by the numbing inevitability of neo-liberal non spaces. We embraced the exotic, ghostly past, capturing the atmosphere of this extraordinary place.

Having researched and seen Istanbul at close quarters during our field trip, students responded to this complex and layered palimpsest of a city with a range of socially and economically engaged projects, in some cases requiring a mini urban master plan. The engaging and fascinating possibilities of this city generated a range of projects, mostly on the periphery of the ancient centre. Proposals included: ‘Rebirth of the Bosphorus’, a new science monitoring station and fish market; ‘Burred Narratives’, a new experimental library; ‘Instrument of Convergence’, a seismic sensing station; and ‘Sonic Voids’, a temple to prevailing winds on Marmara Sea.

We thank all our students, external critics and academics for their generous support throughout the year.