Mehmet Polat Diker

Bjarke Ingels: 3 warp-speed architecture tales

2009-10-15T00:10:00.000+03:00

Danish architect Bjarke Ingels rockets through photo/video-mingled stories of his eco-flashy designs. His buildings not only look like nature -- they act like nature: blocking the wind, collecting solar energy -- and creating stunning views.

Ego without a Cause

2009-07-15T21:03:00.009+03:00

Bottom of the food chain?

I would love to thank my country not for making me work for $11.04 to $13.63 a month for 5 months but for great financial management they've shown in the period to make the economics even worse.

~~Skateboarding~~ Architecture is not a Crime?

Thank all my people for their infinite ignorance.
Consternation in your eyes caused by the new, is always inspiring.

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference."
Robert Frost

Thank you factories for CAD Monkey opportunities.
The Ego, build up by financial success, is not without a sense of irony.

Developing to developed, humanoid to human?

-Naa..
-La révolution dévore ses enfants.

I love you all with no pun intended. Really! Otherwise it would be as boring as Sweden!

Tis time again to make money to put where my mouth is..

Three Areas of the Brain that Help Us Understand

2009-07-10T04:41:00.000+03:00

The Future Sound of Speakers

2009-06-09T02:06:00.001+03:00

Atkins Proposes New Prayer Halls For Mecca

2009-05-20T12:27:00.023+03:00

Well Atkins scares the hell out of me! When you hit the profile tab on their web site a massage pops up saying "A license is required for all but personal use of this code. See Terms of Use at dyn-web.com". Easy buddy! I'm just looking at who you are as an architecture firm..

They probably jacked a code and forgot to disable the pop up :)
(You know it's not "personal use" anymore when you put it on your company web page, right?)

Anyways they as they declare are:

"We are a multinational community of 650 architects sharing a passion for excellence. Unlike many design firms, we believe that design solutions must be fitting to the time, place and culture in which they are located. We have no single “house style” – preferring instead to offer excellent, inspirational architecture and urban design that reflects our diversity and collaborative working style. In this site, you can sample our unlimited creativity."

Their unlimited creativity didn't at least help them here..
How stupid is this. What's this we have no single "house style" shit. Which architect has a single "house style"?
And why do they employ 650 architects? Why not 649 or 651? Does it sound better that way?
Design solutions must be fitting to the time, place and culture in which they are located?
Oh god I'm enlightened! This shakes the foundations of architecture as we know it today.
And the Muslimic / Religious Documentary style voice over the video puts the icing on the cake!

This is the worst "Sell Global, Pretend Local" nonsense I've ever seen!

I guess just like the code, they jacked this "who we are" from a global denim or soda company.
It could be just like this fine:

"We are a multinational community of 650 tailors sharing a passion for excellence. Unlike many denim firms, we believe that denim solutions must be fitting to the time, place and culture in which they are worn. We have no single “Jean Style” – preferring instead to offer excellent, inspirational denims that reflect our diversity and collaborative working style. In this site, you can sample our unlimited creativity."

Why do I care?
Because if no one does this kind of global blueprint sellers especially the ones that have influence over the Arab world, become so bold as to approach KAABA with a shopping mall / stadium / fancy hotel attitude!

Remove The Ottoman Arcade, bring The British Grandstand! What a nerve!!!
And when it's extended there are 48? Prayer Halls and they remove the Gateways/Minarets as well!
It's not the pointed arch that makes a building Islamic Architecture but respect, love, and praise..

atkinsdesign

Create Photorealistic 3d Models by Taking Pictures

2008-11-16T23:40:00.006+02:00

I've first seen it at Ted Conference. They were just demonstrating it at that time. Now it's open to public for free. You can both create your own Photosynths and play around with the ones created by others.

Photosynth was born of a collaboration between Microsoft Research and the University of Washington, based on the research of Steve Seitz (UW), Noah Snavely (UW) and Richard Szeliski (MR)

Photosynth is an entirely new Visual Medium. The system analyzes each photograph for similarities in textures, and builds a model based on where the photos were taken. The program then models the environment and uses that as a canvas on which to display the photos.

This modeling behavior is what makes it superior to photo stitching which is widely used in the architecture practice.

First of all you don't have to be as precise while taking photos as you do for photo stitching.
Only this property by itself opens up a lot of new opportunities.
For example you can model places by collecting photos from the internet even without laying a foot on the site. A group/class of people can share their photos to build a model of the site..

After all raster modeling based on the point of shoot is a smart new idea and we'll be seeing a lot of smart ways to use this new medium.

Try it at Photosynth.net

Associative Design

2008-11-13T11:51:00.002+02:00

There will be no input values but parameters in the near future.
Watch the video. It features the very interesting work of Architect Mazlin Ghazali from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The way the video has been put together is also amazing. It's like an AI computer giving you a full report on a process in another planet.

Here's Mr. Ghazali's blog.

Amazing Fallingwater Animation

2008-11-13T09:38:00.002+02:00

Fallingwater from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.

Blogger banned in Turkey

2008-10-25T17:31:00.001+03:00

I came back from vacation and found out that they've banned
Blogger.com this time.

Taskisla.com has very little traffic generated by Serious Architecture
& Design OTAKUs.

We can't reach our control panel from Turkey so technically WE ARE
BANNED.

Writing any entry to this main streamly boring web site would be in a
sense bending or breaking the law?
No one knows...

Bad bad architectural THINKING...

An Architect Unshackled by Limits of the Real World

2008-08-25T18:41:00.006+03:00

“Berlin Free-Zone 3-2,” a 1990 proposal by Lebbeus Woods for an abandoned government building in reunified Berlin. The structure, more theoretical than practical, has no assigned purpose.

From The New York Times' article about the architect. Lebbeus Woods.

Not so long ago many of the world’s greatest architectural talents behaved as though the actual construction of buildings was beneath them. During the 1960s firms like Superstudio in Florence, Italy, and Archigram in London were designing urban visions intended to shake up the status quo. These projects — walking, mechanized cities and mirrored megastructures that extended over mountain ranges and across deserts — were stinging attacks on a professional mainstream that avant-garde architects believed lacked imaginative energy.

.....

Mr. Woods, a large, burly man who still likes an occasional cigarette, doesn’t try to hide his disdain for this new reality. “Big corporations today want to present themselves as benefactors of the human race,” he told me recently, summing up the current state of affairs. “ExxonMobil runs ads about the ecology now. And architecture is part of this. It’s a business.”

It’s hard to disagree with the main thrust of his argument: that architecture has always needed a place that is wholly free of self-censorship, and that this place does not exist in the often-contentious exchange between architect and client. Most of us remember, for example, what happened to Mr. Koolhaas in the 1997 competition for a major expansion to the Museum of Modern Art. Choosing to ignore the museum’s internal politics, he indiscreetly highlighted the museum’s corporate agenda in his design. An enraged MoMA board instantly dropped him.

The pressure to smooth over anything in a design that might be perceived as threatening has only increased in recent years, as a lot of architecture has begun to look like a sophisticated form of marketing. Architects who once defined themselves as rebels are now designing luxury residential towers for the super-rich.

The greatest influence of this trend, however, may be on a younger generation of architects. Reared in an era when there seems to be an irresistible supply of work, these architects often seem eager to build at any cost. And their facility with computer software can make it easy to churn out seductive designs without digging deeply into hard social truths.

As Mr. Woods put it: “With the triumph of liberal democracy and laissez-faire capitalism, the conversation came to an end. Everyone wanted to build, which left less room for certain kinds of architecture.”

.....

Here's The New York Times' full article about the architect. Lebbeus Woods.

Letting Dead People Do Your Work for You

2008-08-03T16:21:00.005+03:00

Letting Dead People Do Your Work for You..
This definition of "Scientific Approach" by Robert Lang is the far smartest I've heard of..

Robert Lang is a pioneer of the newest kind of origami -- using math and engineering principles to fold mind-blowingly intricate designs that are beautiful and, sometimes, very useful.

A Skeptic's Guide to being Religious

2008-08-01T13:57:00.006+03:00

Reed Kroloff on Modern and Romantic Architecture

I'll write soon..

Shop Architects

I'll be writing less

2008-07-15T21:33:00.002+03:00

I'll be writing less from now on..
We are moving to our new home and I'll be completing my military obligation..

Thanks for your understanding..

Pritzker Prize Buddies

2008-06-19T10:52:00.001+03:00

A discussion with Pritzker Prize Winners Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid and Renzo Piano.

Space Navigator

2008-06-18T00:21:00.014+03:00

Space Navigator from 3dconnexion changes the way you navigate in 3d programs.

Imagine the sensation of reaching into your display and grasping your 3D model. Or flying through three dimensional scenes. Whether you're creating dazzling 3D models or exploring virtual worlds, a 3D mouse enhances your digital life and sets your imagination free.

Enhances sh*t I say: (Review added 29 Aug. 2008)

You'll see many (paid) reviews saying it's a steal for $50. Let me tell you my story of getting this device.

Bullsh*t #1: I've checked their website and contacted their dealers in Turkey. The people I've talked in both firms didn't even know they had such a device. In the second firm they hopefully found someone that remembered that they were a distributor.

Bullsh*t #2: I've found out that these firms were in fact solidworks retailers. They had no intention in selling Space Navigator. When a client asks for a discount they give one as a gift instead. But they didn't hold themselves from charging me $100 + %18 = $118. (I'm still getting spam from the program that comes with the navigator to upgrade my $50 licence to $100 licence. Suckers! I've paid $118 so give me the licence and refund my $18. Or stop bugging me!)

Bullsh*t #3: To be fair I've waited more than a month to write a review. It's NOT faster NOR more accurate than the middle mouse click and ALT, CTRL or SHIFT (what ever the program uses). PERIOD. It's only more fluent in the movement. So only possible reason a Power User needs a Space Navigator would be for a presentation purpose only. You know.. You can navigate as fast as you want but a spectator will have a sea sickness watching the same screen. I like this gadget. But I'm some sort a geek and like most of the gadgets anyway.

Bullsh*t #4: Biggest bullsh*t of them all! Do you know why 3dconnexion sells this device for $50?

You expect from a company who markets a CAD device for such a low price, to work hard on bringing better drivers and supporting the wishes of their users. Can you believe that the only generic driver for this gadget is written by a USER and you can only find it somewhere in their forum? And ofcourse 3dconnexion doesn't support this driver. Well they have another strategy in their minds.They have other models with the exact same parts of the Space Navigator and some additional buttons or a screen for $300 and $400. For selling these highly overpriced devices they want the CAD software companies and Microsoft to recognize them! They want their own standart, category.. what so ever!

For this reason they're flooding the market with the $50 toy and the advertisements of how this thing "enhances your digital life and sets your imagination free". And whenever a user asks for something they're redirecting them to the CAD companies telling them there's nothing they can do. (Remember a user in their forum can, but they can't.)

Their toy sure did set their imagination free!

Space Navigator used in Sketch Up:

Quote of the Day

2008-06-17T00:39:00.001+03:00

I'm at the center of the universe.
I'm a point.
Every direction is a way for me..

Mustafa Alpay YILDIZ
06.16.2008

Nasreddin Hodja had a similar saying.
One of my best buddies upgraded that unintentionally in a daily chat..

Near Death Experience Architecture

2008-06-10T13:38:00.006+03:00

Frank Lloyd Wright, Hilla Rebay, Solomon Guggenheim
at the unveiling of the model for the Guggenheim Museum, August, 1945
www.westporthistory.org

Ol' Frankie (Frank Lloyd Wright) once said:
"Space. The continual becoming: invisible fountain from which all rhythms flow and to which they must pass. Beyond time or infinity"
"The space within becomes the reality of the building"
"Space is the breath of art"

He was an exaggerator, a provocateur and an arrogant.
He's the most hated one by his colleagues. Architects try to silently underestimate Ol' Frankie when ever they can. But thank god none has the pingpongs to do so boldly!

To tell the truth I'm not a die heart fan of most of his works either. But I know to appreciate him, as The Architect. His courage, his self esteem, his vision..

There was this hatred going on around him when he was alive too. He had to run away from cops once just because he fell in love.
The architects declared their hate for him late his career and our Ol' Frankie Shut 'em Down with his Guggenheim N.Y.

Now that building to me is The Ninth Symphony Presto composed in concrete.
(You kick a fallen man with the rest just for the fun of it. And that fallen guy changes your chemistry by his creation. He's infact a giant leap for mankind.)

This is why haters today should endure in silence. Because he can kick bottoms no matter if he's dead or alive.

Weapons of Mass Deception won't suffice for such a Statement!

Today we have this mediocre, this magazine architecture.
Starchitect wanna be's are after creating buildings that can give one or two good photos. This became the way of drawing attention.
Not the quality of space. Infact no one talks about the space anymore.

Can you imagine any architect today, who's just been asked for a house by a waterfall, persuading the client to a deeper understanding of human and nature?

Space:
When I was in high school they used to teach us Space as the ultimate emptiness that surrounds all the planets and stars.
Today Physicists say that with all the strings wiggling and the spacetime woven in it's fabric, Space is far from emptiness. Infact there's more going on in the space than what's happening in the stars and planets!

Sounds like Ol' Frankie? Wright?

A good architecture is drawing a movie. A movie that defines a living within.
You put all the ingredient into the project to kick start life.
Good architecture seeks this mystery. Not a beautiful corpse that looks good in magazines.

Both scientifically and architecturally, Space is the habitat of life.
Easy to say. Hard to swallow.
Some are aware of it, some become after a near death experience, some just can't..

Stairs over The King's Pathway

2008-05-31T19:00:00.002+03:00

El Caminito del Rey (English: The King's pathway) is a walkway or via ferrata, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Álora in Málaga, Spain. The name is often shortened to El Camino del Rey.

15 minutes of Architectural Fame

2008-05-30T00:42:00.004+03:00

Read the original article on Eikongraphia here first!

With all the nonsenses such as Starchitecture-fame-celebrity,
the idea of pop hit the architecture scene.

As it's some sort of a challange for masses to acquire a taste for architecture, the professionals choose their 15 minutes of fame rather than good architecture.

Is there a need for an architect to suggest/think of/design Binoculars in front of a building, Death Star in Dubai or a Putter shaped golf course?

New Age Land Art - Biggest Drawing in the World

2008-05-27T19:46:00.005+03:00

With the help of a GPS device and DHL, artist Erik Nordenankar have drawn a self-portrait on the planet.
The idea is simple:
He put a GPS device in a briefcase and mailed it via DHL with precise travel instructions over the course of a 55 day period.
After the journey, the GPS data formed a virtual self-portrait of the artist that spread over 6 continents and 62 countries covering nearly 70,000 miles.

For more info on this project visit artist's website

Happy birthday Walter Gropius

2008-05-18T05:55:00.017+03:00

Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (May 18, 1883 – July 5, 1969) was a German architect and founder of Bauhaus.
Along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, he is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of "modern" architecture.

It's really fascinating that the same geography gave birth to the two opposite, yet both powerful ways of thinking, Nazism and Bauhaus, almost simultaneously.

--text added--
This reminds me what Kofi Annan (United Nations Secretary General), said in 2006 about religion:
"If there is a problem, it is not with the faith, but the faithful. It is not the text, it is the way we interpret it."
(As a Secretary General you don't expect him to say "Dogma of anykind kills you guys!", do you?)

Faith at that era, roughly speaking, was the perfect machine. The radically simplified forms, the rationality and functionality, and the miracle of mass production.

Both faithfuls Nazis and Bauhaus believed in the same thing.
Nazis seeking perfection in racism, and mass production in creating mindless citizens through propagandizing.
Bauhaus on the other hand, working on reconciling art/ individuality with mass production and seeking perfection in the relationship of usefulness and beauty.

Same faith, different faithful huh?
The rest is history. We've desperately tried to figure out what to do with the perfect machine till we nuked each other.
(I bet the guy who invented toothbrush, poked his buddy's eye out with it first!)

Anyway..
Happy birthday Walt! We love you!
Wish you could see us downloading individual ringtones to our mass produced cell phones, manufactured by the perfect machine we call chinese cheap labor!

C.A.D. Computer Aided Delusion

2008-05-16T00:42:00.006+03:00

Just watch the video above! This is an unbuilt Theather Project proposed by Mies Van Der Rohe.

When did you see an architect thinking about the core of something last time?
Rethinking what we belive to be the only way?
Does our newly found tool, C.A.D., make us tools?
Did we start beliving, what we need is a super-cost-efficient machine and what we want is an eye-candy, a visual masturbation for brain?

Just asking myself.....

Tool:
One who lacks the mental capacity to know he is being used.
Someone who can't think for themselves.
Someone who tries too hard. A poser.
A fool. A cretin. Characterized by low intelligence and/or self-steem.

Delusion:
A fixed false belief that is resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact.

Skateboarding to Architecture

2008-05-13T17:48:00.013+03:00

At last I've found another SKATEBOARDER ARCHITECT!
You must listen to the Dr. Iain Borden's podcast "Skateboarding to Architecture" to revise your idea of urbanism.

And if you're dedicated to Architectural Thinking, put your Blockbuster Card to good use once and get "Dogtown and Z-Boys" documentary.
This will make you look at the questions like:
What is culture?
What is a living design?
What does life in Urban Environment mean?
What is the influence of an architect on people's lifes?
in a different and wider perspective!

"two hundred years of
american technology
has unwittingly created
a massive cement
playground of
unlimited potential.
but it was the minds of
11 year olds that could see
that potential."
craig stecyk 1975

"skaters by their very
nature are urban guerillas:
they make everyday use of the
useless artifacts of the
technological burden, and
employ the handiwork of the
government / corporate
structure in a thousand ways
that the original architects
could never dream of"
craig stecyk 1976

Dr. Iain Borden is Director of the School of Architecture, Director of Architectural History and Theory and Professor of Architecture and Urban Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Educated at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UCL, University of London and UCLA, Iain is an architectural historian and urban commentator.
His wide-ranging historical and theoretical interests have lead to publications on, among other subjects, critical theory and architectural historical methodology, the history of skateboarding as an urban practice, boundaries and surveillance, Henri Lefebvre and Georg Simmel, Renaissance urban space, architectural modernism and modernity, contemporary architectural practice and theory, film and architecture, gender and architecture, body spaces and the experience of space.
His photographs have been widely published both in his own publications and those by other historians and architects.
Iain is a frequent contributor to conferences and exhibitions and has lectured widely around the world.

Want to find out more about Biomimicry?

2008-05-13T16:24:00.006+03:00

I've been using and promoting to my colleagues Norbert Hoeller's weblog Clippings ever since I've discovered it.

Clippings is a great blog sponsored by Biomimicry Institude, full of news and information.
Norbert Hoeller is open to contributions and very kind on giving credits!

http://biomimicry.typepad.com/

You can also reach my original post here.

Remperor builds Deathstar!!!

2008-05-11T19:15:00.017+03:00

Well well! If your city planning is a JOKE, if you think Disneyland is a good planning example, then people propose you such Projects!

Rem Koolhaas from OMA and his Ras al Khaimah Convention and Exhibition Center ladies and gentlemen!

Dead Star designs Death Star!
Remperor designs Death Star!

I haven't seen any architectural review on this project! Everybody just makes fun of it!
So I'll be the first one writing a proper review! Here's a design flaw I've found:

"An analysis of the plans provided by Princess Leia has demonstrated a weakness in the Convention and Exhibition Center.
But the approach will not be easy!
You are required to maneuver straight down the trench and skim the surface to the point.
The target area is only two meters wide.
It's a small thermal exhaust port, right below the main port.
The shaft leads directly to the reactor system.
A precise hit will start a chain reaction which should destroy the station.
Only a precise hit will set off a chain reaction.
The shaft is ray-shielded, so you'll have to use proton torpedoes."