Sharing some thoughts here: I recently had the opportunity to give a guest lecture at Professor Sebnem Yalinay's Basic Design Studio, Istanbul Bilgi University, focusing on wood this semester. While sharing my experiences in designing and working with wood, including my time at Sobokuya, with second-year students, this lecture prompted me to reflect on my past career choices.
Regardless of whether we work for prestigious design firms, focus on social values and nonprofit clients, or produce so-called commercial architecture after graduation, we encounter the same strict constraints when it comes to sustainable building, material selection, and detail development. The main reasons for this are cost requirements, liability issues, and regulations.
I believe that as architects, our scope is not solely expanded through our individual efforts in each project. We need trailblazers but also collective action. This perspective helps me understand why innovative architectural practices like Material Cultures, think tanks like Bauhaus Earth, and Kontextur voices angelika hinterbrandner and Katharina Benjamin excite me more than most planning firms.
The career choices I mentioned earlier, such as leaving a great firm in Berlin and spending some practical months in Japan, reflect my search for my place within the architectural practice. Although this search is not yet complete, I feel that the possibilities are already expanding. It remains exciting!
