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High Resolution: 
A digital design studio on generative urban morphologies


Senior Design Studio, Spring 2020, Kadir Has University, Istanbul, Turkey

The overall goal of this year’s graduation project is to develop computational tools to investigate the design of hybrid urban morphologies from a generative perspective. As part of this research agenda, each student is expected to problematize, conceptualize and develop a thesis project that will address contemporary issues for the design of an urban block in a busy district of Istanbul. To achieve this goal, the studio is formulated in a reverse structure by initially starting with the development of computational tools for formal investigations that will inquire for the description of novel architectural typologies. During the research phase, students will be working in groups producing algorithms that can generate variations based on parametric configurations of rules. They will approach the problem of design with codes by learning about generative algorithms spanning among seven different tracks that can produce complex tectonic models based on growth mechanisms in nature. These studies will be later applied to the design of an urban block while investigating new architectural relationships and emergent typologies. The overall intention here is to maximize systematic thinking while restricting students towards rule-based procedures that can provide continuity among different architectural systems such as massing, structure and envelope while developing automated solutions for complex formal or programmatic relationships of architecture.

Yusuf Aykın + Yiğit Denktaş // Radiolaria Tower

Zeynep Beyza Çetin + Suna Simge Er // Fractal Tower

Furkan Türkmen + Erkam Esen // Reaction- DiffusionTower

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