Our Architecture Students’ Installation OCCA at Rezan Has Museum

The installation project titled “Parametric Design: Minimal Tectonics” was produced as a result of a three-stage research. In the first stage, students conducted “form-finding” experiments using the soap film technique developed by Frei Otto in the 1960s and produced different curvilinear surfaces. In the second stage, the surfaces produced were transferred to codes and derived using parametric modeling tools. In the final stage, the selected form was described on flat parts using digital fabrication algorithms and laser cut from forex sheets and joined with rivets.

The design, which contrasts with the historical texture of the museum, takes its form from the Ferrea Occa (Glass Sponge) species, which forms four branched connections. These Hexactinellid sponges, which some experts consider to be the longest-lived living form in the world, were studied and documented by German biolog Ernst Haeckel in 1904 as part of his Kunstformen der Natur (Artistic Forms of Nature). In the design of the installation, two hedron geometries similar to the form of the sponge are combined and differentiated through branches facing in different directions. The surface geometry, which is divided into strips, is formed by connecting black inside and white outside strips and fixed by hanging from two different points with steel ropes.

Project Team

Project Coordinator Sabri Gökmen

Fabrication / Manufacturing: Muvaffak Ali Akyüz, Louis Folkens, Fatma Yeşim Kızılbulut, Özce Özköse, Melike Ayyüce Güneş, Mustafa Ilgaz Aluç, Şevval Büşra Özmen

Grafik / İmajlar: Abbas Khan, Mohammed Jarrar, Ahmed Barzan, Ali Ozan Güven