Selected Works/2017

Selected Works/2017 Kutay Biberoglu

Contents Curriculum vitae

1 Library as Third Space 2 Metaphor as Provocation 3 A New Ground for Refugees 4 Avenue A Subway Station 5 NecroTurris 6 Chair Design for the New Mexico City Airport

Kutay Can Biberoglu 509 West 112th Street, 2W New York, NY, 10025 929-343-7137 biberoglu.kutay@columbia.edu

education

experience

Columbia University, GSAPP Masters in Architecture

New York, NY 08.15 - 05.18

Middle East Technical University Bachelor of Architecture

Ankara, Turkey 08.10 - 01.15

Columbia University, GSAPP Graduate Teaching Assistant in Visual Studies

New York, NY 09.16 - Current

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Intern Columbia University, GSAPP Visual Resources Collection Archives Fernando Romero Enterprise (FR-EE) Intern

prizes& honors

Mexico City, Mexico 06.15 - 09.15 Ankara, Turkey 06.13 - 08.13

Ozaltin Construction Trade&Industry Construction Intern

Ankara, Turkey 06.12 - 08.12

MediaCat Online Featured in the “Top 50 Most Creative People of 2015”

Istanbul, Turkey 03.16

ISOVER Multi - Comfort House Students Contest 2015 Second Prize, National Stage Archi-World Academy Global Student Competition 2013-2015 Winner, Selected by Fernando Romero

Astana, Kazakhstan 05.15 Istanbul, Turkey 04.15 Munich, Germany 12.14

ISOVER Multi - Comfort House Students Contest 2014 First Prize, National Stage

Istanbul, Turkey 04.14

Association of Architecture Education Student Awards 2013 Encouragement Award

Istanbul, Turkey 11.13

Akçansa Cement Industry Student Design Competition First Prize

Istanbul, Turkey 05.13

SOLARTR 2014 International Solar Conference and Exhibition Forum Speaker, Young Professionals and Sun

Izmir, Turkey 11.14

Intercollegiate Solar Energy Technologies Workshop Report Author, “Shared Dream, Shared Future”

Izmir, Turkey 11.14

ISOVER Multi-Comfort House Students Contest Member of the team representing Turkey, 10th International Edition

skills

New York, NY 01.16 - 05.16

Uygur Architects Intern

ISOVER Multi-Comfort House Students Contest 2015 Special Jury Award, 11th International Edition

leadership

San Francisco, CA 06.16 - 08.16

Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, Vray, AutoCAD, 3ds Max, Adobe Suite, ArcGIS, Revit Fluent in Turkish and English

Bucharest, Romania 05.14

Enclosed spaces/stacks, archives, study rooms and children’s reading space

1

Library as Third Space

Exploring the duality of ‘library as a realm of introspection’ versus ‘library as a realm of public activities’.

Academic, New York, Spring 2016 Instructor: José Aragüez Coined by the sociologist Ray Oldenburg, third place denotes the public and social realm that belongs neither to home (“first place”) nor work (“second place”). Oldenburg alerts us to our declining social capital, the increased privatization of public space and the urgent need for this neutral ground where public debate and interaction can occur freely and informally.

In this regard, the project explores a third space where the private and the public are nested within each other. Both formally and programatically, these spaces complement each other by creating a set of different experiences throughout the building. Core masses and the negative space that surrounds them create different spatial conditions; confined vs. open, private vs. public, dull vs. dynamic.

The design idea embraces a simple cubewithin-a-cube geometry as a single module.

The evolution of the design process is based on how the core element can be manipulated to define the negative space around it. Several modules come together to work as a whole, while creating a set of organizations to establish different experiences in between the morphed geometries. The configurational logic achieved by the distribution of the prisms are directly related to the program.

Book stacks, archives, quiet study rooms are placed inside the confined cubes, while all the public activities are in the negative space defined by the prisms.

Suspended masses

Concept diagram

Unraveled facade/gradation of transparency

Enclosed programs/introspection

Interstitial spaces between masses/public realm

Inhabiting on top of the masses/open public programs

Building situated on site

Longitudinal Section

Second and third floor plans

Core studies

2

Metaphor as Provocation

A housing project in the Bronx that explores a physical manifestation of infrastructure at the scale of the body.

Academic, New York, Fall 2016 Instructor: Mario Gooden In collaboration with Jesse McCormick The Bronx holds a disproportionally large number of storage units. The Bronx is Manhattan’s closet. The Bronx holds the freight-rail depots that mediate the flow of goods from the continental united states. The Bronx is Manhattan’s mailbox. Hunt’s point has the largest food distribution facility in the world. The Bronx is Manhattan’s refrigerator, while across the street is the third largest water treatment facility in the city. The Bronx is Manhattan’s bathroom.

The building context of Mott Haven in The Bronx, is the product of secondary value, and functions, in a scalar sense as the served space to the service space of more affluent parts of New York City. In this context, how can this

quality be understood, and benefitted from, in terms of housing? As we depend on more mechanics to sustain our way of life, how can we live with the physical manifestation of the vast infrastructure that is of a scale much beyond that of human comprehension?

The answer as it turns out is quite literally.

By condensing all of the service space to the center of the unit, and combining it with the structure and the vertical circulation, The Core, is the architecture, structure and infrastructure. And as the project contains no walls, the core exists as the element that the entire project metaphorically and literally revolves around.

View of the eastern block from the Grand Concourse entrance

Section CC 1’=1/64”

Ground plan 1’=1/64”

Individual Plans 1’=1/32”

Structural study model Staggered floor slabs provide lateral stability

Section AA 1’=1/64�

Conceptual study model

Section BB 1’=1/64”

View from the eastern block courtyard

Plan configurations 1’=1/32”

Individual Plans 1’=1/32”

Spatial section

Upper level plan 1’=1/16”

Individual Plans 1’=1/32”

Domestic mosaic

Exploded isometric drawing showing temporary refugee accomodation on top and public program spaces on water level

3

A New Ground for Refugees

A proto-pier on the East River that engages asylum seeking communities.

Academic, New York, Fall 2015 Instructor: Nahyun Hwang In 2014, the UN reported that for the first time since World War II, the number of refugees worldwide exceeded 50 million people.

Recently, with the increased number of Syrians seeking for asylum, like many other countries, the United States is increasing its refugee quota; thus the methods for welcoming and accomodating these communities is becoming a more relevant issue every day.

As thousands of refugees flee their homelands and settle in new countries, they suffer from identity loss, isolation and in some cases discrimination. After provided with shelter, security and health services, these communities need to be able to sustain communication through social exchange. They need time and help to build a new life, learn the culture and language and contribute to their new communities as confident individuals. The project intends to address the issue of this

transition period, through the design of a proto-pier on the East River that works as a centralized refugee accomodation hub, as part of the Office of Refugee Resettlement Program.

The refugee center project is imagined as a transitory complex for welcoming and accomodating refugees. Potential programs to be housed under the Resettlement Program are temporary housing, legal advice offices, classrooms, community market, restaurants, cafes, common recreational spaces, exhibition spaces and an auditorium. Built on the East River, the project explores water as a new ground. The horizontal grid of Manhattan is projected onto the river and re-structured as a three dimensional grid. The structure is influenced by the pier pylon remnants, frequently observed around Manhattan Island.

Aerial view

Accomodation/ common space

Accomodation/ common space

community space

Finding a new ground

Connecting the city with water

160

Second floor level - temporary refugee settlements/Common spaces

80

40

20

0

160

Third floor level - temporary refugee settlements/Common spaces

80

40

20

0

Individual Plans 1’=1/32�

Section cut taken from the excavated space

Storefront Taking Buildings Down Competition Entry

4

Avenue A Subway Station

The project intends to uncover and speculate on an unorthodox relationship between religious architecture and NYC’s subway system.

Academic, New York, 3-week project, Fall 2015 Instructor: Nahyun Hwang Early American settlers considered churches as symbols of commitment to the lands they inhabit. Sacred space was an indication of their intentions to build a long-lasting community and held a deep meaning to the well-being of urban communities.

The project explores two different spatial qualities; a typical New York City subway station and a vacated church. These spaces are connected with an underground path in order to create an alternative exit to the existing Avenue A subway station.

The project takes a stance within the argument that in urban contexts religious architecture is used less and less by the population. They suffer from diminished use, get abandoned in some cases and become spaces that are no longer perceived by the public as building a culture that values authentic community.

Considering the very dense and dynamic population of NYC, transportation hubs become condensed focal nodes in urban settings and sustain themselves as contained, compact and highly automated systems.

Strictly timed train schedules, ever-flowing lines of crowds passing through turnstiles and predefined programs act as a literal representation of this automated system.

The idea is to puncture this strictly defined underground “machine�, to create a threshold where a sudden release of the flow into a new space starts; the experience of transitioning from fast-paced to slowpaced, small to large, loud to silent, cold to warm, crowded to abandoned.

As a response, the project intends to speculate for a new use that disregards the religious function and tries to adopt a new meaning for the spatial characteristic of a church. It intends to open up the interior space to the dense subway network of NYC, which has a very opposite spatial dynamic.

Project site

Existing Avenue A subway station and Immaculate Conception Church

Longitudinal axonometric section

Existing Roof Structure

Tensile Cables

Employee Access

Lost&Found Items Exhibition

Circulation Ramp

Physical model/section cut taken from the excavated interior space

Excavation and connection to the Avenue A subway station

Archi-World Academy Global Student Competition 2013-2015 Winner Listed in MediaCat’s “50 Most Creative People of 2015” Featured in “Popular Science Turkey” May 2015 issue

5

NecroTurris

A critique on consumerism and mass narcissism through the design of a futuristic graveyard typology that belongs to a dystopian scenario.

Competition, International, January 2015 Archi-World Academy Global Student Competition In collaboration with Burak Ilhan A consumerist society always looks for a new market to abuse and invent new needs that will feed its endless satisfaction. The world is getting to a point where the validity of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is no longer viable. Our ego has replaced our basic needs.

The population of the world is estimated to reach 10 billion by the end of the 21st century; but the issue of overpopulation is only one side of the coin. No matter the rate at which our population grows, the fact is that the number of the deceased grows exponentially.

Today, graveyards are beginning to occupy a large amount of space. In the future where vertical growth is mandatory, graveyards must be re-designed as 3-dimensional structures

that are compatible with the evolving urban fabric. This future interpretation of graveyards will possibly introduce a new architectural typology. A new market is rising for the sake of getting closer to being immortal.

In the light of these assumptions, the project intends to create a scenario for a future dystopian community, where the graveyards become part of public leisure activities and commercial elements. Although the concept is designed as a prototype that can be repeated in different contexts, the project is imagined in a certain city. Being the second most populated and one of the less developed countries in the world, the scenario best fits in the context of the slums in Mumbai.

Population growth over the last 500 years China, India, Africa, Latin America, Western Europe and USA 1.400.000.000 China 1.200.000.000 India

1.000.000.000

Africa

800.000.000

600.000.000 Latin America Western Europe

400.000.000

United States 200.000.000

0 1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000 Source: Angus Maddison, University of Groningen

2070

2100

2200

Case Study: Space needed for 100.000 graves

100.000 people housing

In Bukit Brown cemetery Source: http://bukitbrown2060.wordpress.com/2011/12/

Share of US income gains going to top 1 percent at highest level since 1920 Bottom 90 percent

%70

Top 1 percent

%60 %50 %40 %30 %20 %10 1960-1969

1976-1979

1982-1989

Source: CBPP calculations based on data from Piketty&Saez

1992-2000

2000-2007

Exhibition space Public complexes are designed in the form of high rise landmarks in which cemeteries are exhibited

Product placement Top earning companies to sponsor the installation, maintenance and other costs of a cemetery room to promote their products to thousands of visitors

Night Club

Service Shaft

+44.0

Private Cemetery

Observation Deck Administration

+57.0

Cemetery

Shopping Mall

+105.0 Underground Cemetery

Section BB

+136.0

6

Chair Design for the New Mexico City Airport

In collaboration with Knoll & Kartell

Two separate chair designs to be used in the New Mexico City International Airport, in collaboration with Knoll and Kartell.

Professional, Mexico City, Summer 2015 FR-EE Individual work under Fernando Romero’s supervision In collaboration with Knoll

In collaboration with Kartell

The carbon fiber organic mesh structure originates from a focal point, embraces the undulating form and sweeps down to the ground as a single surface with no joints or interruption. The surface of the chair flows in such a way that the back and arm support is optimized.

Influenced by the Acapulco Chair, the design embraces what Mexican culture is associated with; creativity, warmth and joy.

Supported merely by the outer mesh membrane, the chair possesses an extremely delicate and light appearance.

The translucent molded polycarbonate, as revolutionized by Kartell, alters the perception of the chair by revealing the hollow interior behind the curves. The section of the form has been designed in order to achieve a comfortable and leaned back sitting position, similar to the Acapulco Chair.

Knoll - Design evolution

Knoll - Design evolution

Kartell - Design evolution

Kartell - Design evolution

Knoll 3D-Printed prototype

Kartell 3D-Printed prototype

Knoll Final form

Kartell Final form

Kutay Biberoglu 2017