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by Ezgi Çiftci

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This publication includes selected works of Ezgi Çiftci between the years 2014 and 2018.

All photos are taken by Ezgi Çiftci, unless stated otherwise.

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INDEX Chapter 1 In Quest of Alternatives

5

Sharing and Producing Together

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Rethinking of The Space

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Chapter 2 Documenting as A Way of Understanding

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Glorifying The Process 24 Chapter 3 Architecture Safari 35

LEGEND P r o j e c t

N a m e

You can have quick information about the project

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CHAPTER 1 As an architecture student, if you want to be involved in a creative work, there comes a time when hardworking is not enough. As you close to graduation, you start to review the usual possibilities of your first career steps, and if you are lucky, you see a nightmare. I don’t think that there is any profession, which is well recommended in terms of established practice and marketing climate in the field, but for architecture industry the environment is the reason for the hate. Hefty sums that have been got through labor exploitation, overworking which kills the motivation and the competitive environment are the first things come to the mind, but even the bigger problem is how this money oriented way of looking to architecture destroys creativity. Any of the architecture students who have been convinced to be an actor of design investigations, urban 5

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DURAKovacık, JUNE 2015 © PLANKTON PROJECT; (PAGE 8) DURAKovacık, JUNE 2015 © AKIN GEDİK

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researches and creative implementations by the academies during their study, has dreamed of ending up counting toilet tiles and calculating costs in an architecture office.

Thankfully, it is impossible to think of a better source of motivation than frustration and misery. The seeking for an alternative is possible only under adverse circumstances; the idea of P l a n k t o n

P r o j e c t

is appeared

exactly in this kind of situation. Right after loosing the belief of a revolution, the consideration of readjustment comes, readjustment by fixing, repairing, improvising, contriving, managing, modifying, recycling, upcycling. These cute, tiny, little efforts are possibly the first steps of taking an active role independently rather then passively acting in accordance with the instructions.

On my visit to Turkey’s first communist local government, the municipality of Ovacık for a project, I had a chance to meet with the mayor Fatih Mehmet Maçoğlu and immediately noticed some common concerns with him. He indicated that they have provided bus stops for the district to be more qualified in the transportation field yet the locals haven’t adopted these stops and they don’t serve the certain functions. The municipality needed a fund to buy new ones but I proposed him the idea of custom

design for the users in this specific

environment,

even with cheaper costs. Within the

scope of

this conversation, I shared the idea 7

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DURAKovacık, JUNE 2015 © PLANKTON PROJECT

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DURAKovacık, JUNE 2015 © EYLÜL ŞENSES

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of founding Plankton Project formally with my friends and producing bus stops as the first project. We founded Plankton Project as a

Collaboration that brings together designers who

hold the belief that small-scale endeavors can achieve widereaching impact.

Plankton Project has started to D U R A K o v a c ı k undertaking every level from design to implementation.

DURAKovacık paved the way for the participant worker experience to the team members in the implementation process of the project designed also by them. The team has

worked together with the municipality, suppliers, craftsmen and the locals in every phase of the project. The major gain from the process was to realize the impropriety of the myth that the architect and the client are positioned in opposite directions which is accepted in advance in conventional architecture samples.

Starting with this very first project, of course with the help of the popularity of Ovacık Municipality, Plankton Project started to be asked for the interviews

and for the

presentations especially at the

architecture

departments of the universities.

It was nice

to share our experience with the

students as

students. We offered all the big secrets behind our professional looking, but totally unprofessional organization, loud and clear.

The main message we wanted to transmit was the magic of 12

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small-scaled projects and how everything is possible with amateurish collective work. Another tip we wanted to give was the awareness of the power of the sympathy; there couldn’t be any cuter thing than a few students who are voluntarily producing for the wealthless.

After a while the gatherings with the students on the purpose of presentations weren’t enough for us. We needed to exchange more experience in terms of praxis. We had already discovered how enlightening the implementation process might be, especially when it’s together with the employers and the users.

Real life experience was filling the gap left by the schools that’s why we started to do workshops for the students with the aim of widen their viewpoint. O M U R G A a r t u k l u

was

one of products of these workshops.

OMURGAartuklu is an

Undefined but potentially functional

structure designed in the workshop with the participation of architecture students at Mardin Artuklu University. The linear framework, which goes continuously through the arcade at the entrance of the university building enable for exhibition, sitting or shading surfaces.

Mardin is a precious city with different historical layers and multicultural society in southeastern Turkey, border on Syria. It was a delicate matter not to damage the historical building during the implementation therefore; 13

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(BOTH) OMURGAartuklu, JUNE 2016 © PLANKTON PROJECT

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we chose a proper production technique and material for building a lightweight and self-bearing structure. We used water pipes, metal ones at the bottom and plastic ones at the top of the structure.

It was a conscious decision also because of the advantage of quick implementation with the ready-made joints.

Plankton Project participated the 2nd RedBull Art Around exhibition, which includes installations by eleven contributors, spreaded in the streets of the neighborhood Moda. Plankton Project always had participatory design and shaping itself according to the feedbacks from the street as motivations and these motivations finely responded to the statement of RedBull Art Around Moda: Bringing art and the street together. Focusing on surprises from different corners of the neighborhood within the exhibition made RedBul Art Around even more exciting for Plankton Project.

Main intention of the project was to create a public space that is open to public’s experimentation, which is also closely related to Plankton Project’s approach as a group of designers.

As the main goal, rethinking of the space between two columns of the colonnade on Moda Street has been required.

Plankton Project considered this request in terms of “reuse” and investigated possible various activities. Finally with 15

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M A K A R A m o d a

the colonnade on Moda Street

became suitable to unusual experiences in daily life instead of only passing by.

Production process of MAKARAmoda has been carried out with Kadıköy Municipality through TAK’s cooperation. This way, Plankton Project had the chance to work with an established institution as Kadıköy Municipality with their experienced craftsmen, broad source of supplies and big workshops.

One of the most

important motivations for

Plankton Project

to come together had been

to be in the

production process from the

very beginning.

Plankton Project believes

the ideal mode of

productivity that occurs when

production and

design phases are merged

and they feed each other in a continuous loop. MAKARAmoda is a complex design and this causes a difficult production process.

During this path, it has been learned that the feedbacks and working with experienced craftsmen are vital. It is not always possible to solve the project on paper. It has been seen that sometimes it is way more efficient to leave the usual mediums and directly experience with the objects. MAKARAmoda

May

be seen as an ordinary swing, which has four seats in different widths on the same alignment, but it is based on a surprise shape that it might take according to the use. When someone sits on one of the modules, all the other modules reciprocate in 16

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(BOTH) MAKARAmoda, MAY 2016

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MAKARAmoda, MAY 2016

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MAKARAmoda, MAY 2016

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different measures like a seesaw. This unexpected movement makes the structure both more complex and interesting at the same time.

The system works with nine pulleys on the front and nine on the rear side, some of them are fixed and they work together with the movable pulleys, thus the structure gains motion. Four different ropes are placed symmetrically on each side and they transfer the motion to each other, which provides a balanced system. The whole mechanic system works according to weight of its users and it is based on the act of sitting. Complexity of design ensures the simplicity of use. The mechanism inside is covered with plywood to keep the motion inside and mysterious.

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CHAPTER 2 Documentation is a way of understanding for me: understanding of architecture, discovering world, figuring people out and exploring myself. During my internship in Acud Macht Neu: an art collective which continues their works on their own building in Prenzlauerberg, Berlin, , I always found the building so interesting, with unexpected layers and dimensions and I felt the need of different ways of looking at the building in an attempt to understand it better.

The building is made up of two different buildings, which already exist. The coexistence of them creates spatial richness and complexity. As a result of 21

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ACUD MACHT NEU, SEPTEMBER 2014

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ACUD MACHT NEU, SEPTEMBER 2014

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the connections of outdoors and indoors it is full of accidental spaces. Different characteristics of the occurred spaces also give the opportunity for various functions such as cinema, theatre, club and exhibition hall.

All these engaged spaces have a relation, which is perceptible only by 3d modeling for me.

I kept practicing on documentation by working as a photo documentarist in an interdisciplinary workshop center for architecture, design and art in Lessac, France. Domaine de Boisbuchet is a great organization, which gathers many designers, artists and students in a mesmerizing site. A river crosses the domain, a lake in the area, small part of a forest, horses walking around, all these natural elements get together with products of previous workshops.

Working as a photo documentarist in Domaine de Boisbuchet was a great way to combine my sense of documenting with my irreplaceable passion photography. Taking photos of the workshops during the production processes, which are fulfilled by creative people in a great nature, was very inspiring. It was a great chance to valuate the process rather then the final result like in usual. It was also the best set up of to question myself.

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TURN THE DARK OFF, DOMAINE DE BOISBUCHET, AUGUST 2016

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LAYER BY LAYER BUILDING WITH EROSION, DOMAINE DE BOISBUCHET, AUGUST 2016; MAKING FLYING SPACES, DOMAINE DE BOISBUCHET, AUGUST 2016

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MAKING FLYING SPACES, DOMAINE DE BOISBUCHET, AUGUST 2016; (PAGE 28) MAKING FLYING SPACES, DOMAINE DE BOISBUCHET, AUGUST 2016

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SURNATURAL, DOMAINE DE BOISBUCHET, AUGUST 2016

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SURNATURAL, DOMAINE DE BOISBUCHET, AUGUST 2016; (PAGE 31) FINDING FORM, DOMAINE DE BOISBUCHET, AUGUST 2016

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LOST FOR WORDS, JUNE 2016

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CHAPTER 3 Walking in Mardin streets, the whole old city is juxtaposition of old built environment and new additions, which are obviously quick and cheap solutions. Functionality is the only power against the hard geography and the poverty. You understand the importance of the delivery donkeys when you see them climbing up the narrow slope streets since you cannot imagine any other motor vehicle which has the same ability. It is a literally walking example for the vital local solutions.

Keep walking in another street in Mardin, the view is enough to question all your architecture education at the university. The project courses you have had, your design models have driven you mad, the big names in architectural history or structure details you tried to deal with, all of them lose their meaning in 35

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front of a building. With the perfectly solved circulation between different buildings on various elevations, complex connections and spatial richness that building in front of you has everything you were seeking.

The best part for sure, it is not a well-designed project or a high art piece, actually it is but it doesn’t cost so. Because of that reason the only thing, which will valuate it, is your point of view. I felt so satisfied when I recognized that, I had the power, wisdom and fun by capturing all the great works of design around me.

After a while, when it started to become a big collection, I decided to focus on it like a project and named it as W h a t A r c h i t e c t u r e

A n

G u r u .

Only some of the scenes from my collection includes creative actions such as: not to throw away the broken part of a chair but putting it onto an overly high stair to rehabilitate its sitting function or putting old playground stairs on top of a picnic table with the intent of building stairs for roof hatch. We should give due importance to the instant door which is made for the transportation by demolishing a part of the building’s wall, or I will always dream about being laid back enough to put a plastic bucket under the leaking water in one of the biggest metro stations of the huge metropolis Istanbul.

At the cost of Aegean Sea, in a neglected field, it is possible to see the most jerry built beach house with a brand new motor36

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NO ASSEMBLY REQUIRED, AUGUST 2015; #DIY THE DOOR, OCTOBER 2014

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STAIRS TO HEAVEN, OCTOBER 2015

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JUST SOLVE THE PROBLEM, JANUARY 2016

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EVERYTHING YOU NEED, SEPTEMBER 2015

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cycle next to it. The total image is so absurd that it is almost impossible not to fall under its spell. And when you look at the building you see even more charming details, all the components of the building are picked in a meaningless way or in a way that too complex for our understanding, and at the end it is a perfect patchwork.

f

What An Architecture Guru ocuses on architectural richness of built environment caused by ad-hoc solutions and everyday life needs. Architecture includes many informative mediums to even for architecture itself and the sources of information are always changing. We can research the history through architecture but what is more interesting for me is we can research also the presence through architecture even expressions of the people come into existence in built environment. We can understand people, their habits and dreams.

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UNTITLED, DECEMBER 2015

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FOUNTAIN OF GREEN, NOVEMBER 2015; (PAGE 44) DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE A CITY WALL, DECEMBER 2015

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