First publication: The special book of the 20th anniversary events of Beykent University, which took place between 10-24 March 2017.
During my first years at Koleksiyon, I had the opportunity to work in both the project and construction phases of Bakraz Houses built in Bodrum Yalıkavak. It was my first professional construction site experience. Faruk Malhan has carefully designed every detail from the terraces of the land to the door handles of the houses. I was the only architect who was drawing at the construction site, I was preparing the application projects and giving them to the building site. Constructors would want changes in the project, I was doing it. They would want it again, I was fixing it. They would warn, “We made this different on the site,” and I was revising it. As a result, the production in question was called as ''Forget it! The project is wrong''. And I rebelled saying, "Why are you asking me to draw it if you're not going to take my work into account?" How could a design job become obsolete so quickly? I complained about my troubles to an architect friend of mine. He told me “They have breakfast on the architectural project at the construction site”. However, I saw that when there was no project, everything was stuck. This is how I found solace. It was almost as if the project was a necessary medium for discussion. It was a dialog tool.
Starting from a little behind, I would like to touch on how this "dialogue" issue in design came to be.
The act of building has existed for as long as human beings have known themselves. Certain sociological, periodical and local data have guided the construction techniques and styles. Artifacts from the prehistoric Greek, later Roman, Byzantine and Medieval periods were mostly anonymous.
At the end of the fifteenth century, thanks to the archaeological discoveries made in the Renaissance period, architectural forms belonging to the ancient period came to the fore again in art and architecture. Later, these old styles would be used again and again in various forms in the Baroque and Neoclassical periods. This enlightenment period is also the period when humanism was spoken and humanism was put at the center of the universe, after the ancient ages and the Middle Ages, when divine subjects were mostly dealt with in the art world. Leonardo's Vitruvian Man is the symbolized version of this situation. In this period, artists began to stand out among the laborers affiliated with the craftsmen's guild and became known and followed. Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Rafaello are the rock stars of their time (Western Painting History Seminar, 2012).
“The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director”, T. Chippendale, 1754
Designer, marketer, and entrepreneur Thomas Chippendale's pattern book "The Gentleman and Cabinetmaker's Director" (Chippendale, 1754), prepared in the eighteenth century, brought him many commissions and contracts. Hundreds of furniture designs are featured in the book in the styles of “Gothic, Chinese and Modern Taste” (modern taste here means French Rococo). Chippendale's reputation soon spread in Europe and America, so much so that the name Chippendale began to be recognized as a design style.
Architect Mies van der Rohe would remember him years later: “The chair is a very difficult object (to design). A skyscraper is almost easier (to make). That's why Chippendale is famous"
When we look at the subject in terms of the relationship between the designer and the user, we see that since ancient times, traditionally, the design, production and application stages have been carried out from one center. The user was initially in a completely passive role. Chippendale broke this tradition a little with the pattern book he prepared and invited the user to have these designs implemented, even to design different products according to their own taste by making use of the designs given, and to develop the works in the book.
Design-user relationship v.1
“In which style do we need to build now?”
Heinrich Hübsch
This question, posed by the architect Heinrich Hübsch at the beginning of the nineteenth century, was very meaningful (Tietz, 1998). No one had such a problem until then. “What age are we in?” "Gothic." Good, let's see flying buttresses, pointed arches.. "Did you say baroque?" Then give me sculptural forms, embellishments. However, nothing was the same anymore. After the industrial revolution triggered by the invention of the steam engine, new markets were opened, new materials and construction methods were developed, and the social structure underwent radical changes.
Industrial Loom, 19th century The Crystal Palace, London, J. Paxton, 1851
The petty-bourgeois class and high-ranking officials that emerged during this period saw themselves as the new nobility and wanted to live, if possible, in ornate, pompous dwellings with ancient columns, arches, and pediments. Revivalist (reviving period architectural styles) and eclecticist (mixing these styles together) designs came to their rescue.
“Form follows function”
Louis Sullivan
At the end of the nineteenth century, architect Louis Sullivan coined the phrase that would be a lesson to every designer for centuries to come (Tietz, 1998). The shell of the building should no longer be designed in the classical sense, but the interior spatial configuration required by the functions should have determined the form.
When we came to the twentieth century, architects such as Otto Wagner, Raimondo D'aranco, Antonio Gaudi, Victor Horta were producing works in the Art Nouveau style, which was shown as the art of the age, using floral forms and ornaments.
“Ornament is crime”
Adolf Loos
Architect Adolf Loos declared ornamentation a crime with his manifest letter published at the beginning of the 20th century (Loos, 1913). Ornament was an aristocratic, expensive and outdated practice. Wasn't the savage people in the primitive tribes always tattooed? It means that the adorned is guilty. Ornament was the playground of fine arts, architecture and industrial products had to be purified from ornament.
Weissenhof, Stuttgart, L. Corbusier, P. Jeanneret, 1927 Fred & Ginger, Prag, F. Gehry, V. Milunic, 1996
According to Le Corbusier, one of the pioneers of modern architecture, our houses should have been designed in accordance with mass production, with the technology of the time, just like cars, planes and ships.
He also found wall decorations, carvings and inlays "immoral". According to him, besides the engineers who created miracles with a pragmatist approach, "architect gentlemen" were still conservatively in their places (Corbusier, 2011).
The great master came up with very radical and innovative ideas for his time, and with his professional love and provocative style, he produced designs that were far from convincing in the fields of architecture and urbanism, some that were far from convincing, some that opened up horizons for his contemporaries and architects of future generations.
Although the manifestal views of the modern period have been criticized by some for years that they lead to visually boring results and impose some impositions on the user, they have formed the basis of many architectural elements that we accept and adopt as standards today.
When we come to the twentieth century, we see that among the designers who started to be recognized and famous as individuals after the Renaissance, there are stars who create cult objects, shape the design world by writing manifestos, and have followers around the world. Over time, these great designers and "starchitects" gained extraordinary fame, money and power.
On the other hand, some artists tried to give new meanings to everyday objects in different contexts. This opening, which made an artistic impression in its time, would coincide with the strict economic and environmental realities we will face towards the end of the century: recycling, reusing, sharing and reusing. This trend actually questioned capitalism, the reputation of the designer, and the concept of "high and expensive art".
“Less is more”
Mies van der Rohe
In the mid-twentieth century, Architect Mies Van Der Rohe put forward this view (What did Mies van der Rohe mean by less is more?, 2014). Necessary materials, simple lines, smooth surfaces. A basic principle brought by modernism before, would be well consolidated in the minds with this word, and it would turn into a style under the name of "minimalism" in the future.
“Less is boring”
Robert Venturi
Venturi, one of the pioneers of postmodern architecture, responded to the "less is more" view with the phrase "Less is boring" (Venturi, 2002). Postmodernists sought happiness in maintaining the forms of the past, but they did so with a playful approach that did not take styles seriously, rather than with the eclecticist and "revivalist" understanding of the nineteenth century. The result was – albeit deliberately – some ridiculous structures.
In the period between the two world wars, the plastics industry was developed with the search for alternatives to precious materials that were increasingly difficult to supply. After the war, this production potential was made available to the market. Designers explored the new possibilities these materials bring. Speed, accessibility and economy were achieved by making the design cheaper.
One of the major innovations in the furniture industry was the production and sales concept that came with the furniture company Ikea in 1953. (Zhuang, 2015) Using economical materials, disassembled, compactly packed furniture can be transported and assembled by the user. In this way, while the products were made at a considerably cheaper price, contemporary design examples could be used in many more homes.
Ikea “Billy”, Gillis Lundgren, 1979
The assembly catalogs supplied with Ikea products are an integral part of the design. Thanks to these smooth graphic works, which enable the user to set up the product at home with little effort, the foundations of "experience design", which will become a vital method in marketing in the future, have been laid.
Designer – user relationship v.2
In his Autoprogettazione book, the architect Enzo Mari has opened to the public the furniture designs that everyone can make using simple and inexpensive materials with their own means (Mari, 2014). It was the socialism of design in the twentieth century, an anti-capitalist, almost anarchist approach. Mari was guiding and inspiring people who were not designers, telling them “Look, you can do this too” or even “You should actually do it yourself”.
Autoprogettazione, Enzo Mari, 1974
At this point, it is worth comparing the pose of Enzo Mari in the photo above with the pose of Mies Van Der Rohe, which we saw earlier. The period of "monologue", which was dominated by the works and manifestos of great and famous designers, was increasingly being replaced by a "dialogue" environment.
Designer-user relationship v.3
“Form follows fiction.”
Bernard Tschumi
Towards the end of the 20th century, Architect Bernard Tschumi pointed out the impossibility of determining the functions of the building clearly by an architect alone. Architecture had to be more open to imagination and flexibility of use than ever before (Tschumi, 2012).
Villa Giulia, Giacomo Barozzi da Vignola, Rome, 16th century.
In a classical sense, the architectural design approach is to try to bring the most optimal "solution" to a certain "need" within the possibilities. Functional expectations, environmental effects and other data are evaluated, physical spaces are created. “Architectural concerns” are taken into account, design decisions are secured. In other words, it is an almost "totalitarian" act.
However, places exist not only with their physical existence, but also with the activities they stage.
These activities can change in quantity and quality over time, this is not a new issue. However, as social communication and information sharing increased due to technological developments, the objects we use, the places we live in, the cities we live in changed at a dizzying speed and at a radical level. Our social activities have become largely unpredictable, unorganized and uncontrollable.
Space Event Movement, Bernard Tschumi, 1977 Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Herzog & De Meuron, 2016
Architectural issues such as roof and façade setup, insulation, and environmental design, which were previously solved from a single center, have now become separate areas of expertise, and especially large-scale projects have become inextricable without the "co-creation" process established with the cooperation of these experts. Today, this process is established between architects, engineers, experts and artists in charge of different fields of expertise, as well as colleagues working in the same field of expertise, regardless of place and time.
Nomad, Martin Ballendat, 2012
The modern working system is also mostly "activity-based", meaning that instead of constantly being in the same place and producing work, temporary teams are formed from different people according to the requirements of the "work", meeting in places that change depending on the situation or working individually. Therefore, much more optimization and flexibility is needed in the use of space compared to the past.
Depending on all these developments, what is expected from furniture design today is more adaptability, adjustability, customizability, integratability, accessibility and economy.
“Oblivion” Koray Malhan, 2015
Could designers, beyond designing for change (multi-purpose), also accept the unknown and increasingly "undesignedness" of the activity?
“In the future everyone will be world famous for fifteen minutes”
Andy Warhol
Warhol's 1968 prophecy came true in the twenty-first century (Warhol, 1968). Thanks to mobile technology, internet and social media, everyone has become able to open themselves to the world and enter the lives of famous people. Through open-source software and social platforms, self-publishing and blogs, the “throne” of the designer, artist and producer has been made public. So much so that many big brands that failed to bring their products personally closer to the user through experience design were left out of the competition.
Designer-user relationship v.4
In a world where everyone is a designer and everyone is an artist, how could designers take the law in their hands?
Familiar chord sequences and scales from cultural background give one an idea of how a melody can continue. Music has been written and performed within the framework of these patterns throughout the ages. The general approach is based on the fact that a composition starts with an introduction and main theme suitable for a certain key, makes the listener curious and excited with some "turns" and "side paths", and finally relaxes by returning to the main theme (coming home). Musicians improvise freely – albeit partially – on this basic infrastructure (Taşkent, 2016).
Contrary to Goethe's saying "Architecture is frozen music", "fluid" volumes, which can host possibilities, functions that can change with unpredictable time, can be handled through arrangement, as Tschumi puts it. (Tschumi, 2012).
Thanks to today's information technology, the "parametric design" method has come to the rescue so that designers can cope with this uncertainty on much larger scales. Computers have now gone beyond being a tool for design, they have become a part of design. With this method, certain environmental and functional inputs shape the design and a suitable basis for the necessary changes can be prepared.
Product designers, on the other hand, go to design “elements” on which people can make variations, just like in music. The user has now become an integral part of the “co-creation” process as well as experts working in various disciplines. It is characteristic of the contemporary design approach that users are encouraged to use products in different and unexpected situations and to change layouts (Malhan, 2015).
The design activity requires making subjective choices between opposing objective data such as time and cost, originality and functionality, expectations and possibilities, dreams and realities.
Suggestions are the most powerful weapon of designers in this process. We cannot force employers, implementation team, or users to accept our ideas directly, but we can engage them in dialogue. This is half win. There is a great benefit in not getting too hung up on personal design decisions and trying to see the issue from the perspective of others. What a master without academic education will say can be as important as the opinions of an architect with a PhD. ideas that sound strange at first can lead to innovative and interesting results.
Co-creation, or dialogue, seems to play a more vital role than ever before in the global and contemporary design world.
© Can Taşkent, 09.06.2017
Sources
Chippendale, T. (1754). The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director.
Batı Resim Sanatı Tarihi Semineri. (2012). Atölye Modern.
Corbusier, L. (2011). Bir Mimarlığa Doğru.
Loos, A. (1913). Ornament und Verbrechen. Cahiers d’aujourd’hui.
Malhan, K. (2015). Açık İş (Opera Aperta) / Alldesign 2015 Konuşması. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d47XAT3nM1w
Mari, E. (2014). Autoprogettazione.
Zhuang, J. (2015). Instructions on how to assemble a future IKEA. http://justinzhuang.com/posts/instructions-on-how-to-assemble-a-future-ikea/
Taşkent, C. (2016). Mutluluğu Tasarlamak. XXI Dergisi, Temmuz – Ağustos sayısı. http://www.cantaskent.com/2018/12/04/mutlulugu-tasarlamak/
Taşkent, C. (2004). Boşluğu Yeniden Tanımlamak. Viyana Güzel Sanatlar Akademisi Diploma projesi http://www.cantaskent.com/2018/12/17/boslugu-yeniden-tanimlamak/
Tietz, J. (1998). Geschichte der Architektur Des 20. Jahrhunderts.
Tschumi, B. (2012). Red Is Not A Color, Architecture Concepts.
Venturi, R. (2002). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture.
Warhol, A. (1968). Andy Warhol Sergisi, Stockholm Modern Sanatlar Müzesi. İsveç.
Phaidon UK Web Sitesi. (2014). What did Mies van der Rohe mean by less is more? http://uk.phaidon.com/agenda/architecture/articles/2014/april/02/what-did-mies-van-der-rohe-mean-by-less-is-more/
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