The Academy’s program is comprehensive, rigorous and tailored to individual researchers with varying backgrounds, interests, and experience. The semester focuses on history, theory, and analysis in architecture and urban design, and emphasizes the exploration of architecture as a mode of cultural production.
The program aims to develop researchers’ understanding of the built environment and its engagement with broader social, political, and ecological systems, while simultaneously developing their conceptual and technical abilities in design, representation, and applied technology.
The Academy’s one-semester program consists of two distinct phases:
1. Analysis
2. Design
During phase 1, researchers learn the tools of architectural representation and analysis while investigating a specific building or site in Istanbul. The participants begin by researching their site, and developing an intimate understanding of its past and present conditions through the use of a variety of representation techniques.
In the second half of the term, researchers are expected to develop a conceptual response to their site, and create an architectural proposition for its transformation.
The program’s focus on Istanbul allows researchers the opportunity to immerse themselves in one of the world’s most dynamic cities, and to engage directly with the urban conditions in which their projects are to be situated.
The use of a variety of design and presentation media encourages dynamic interpretations of a city in constant transformation.
The Academy is a non-degree granting organization. Upon completing their research projects, each participant will receive a certificate.
After each period, the completed research based projects are going to be published in book format. Additionally, summerized versions of the projects will be shared with the public via periodic publications.