Dreaming for Sivas: Architectural Studio Selections 2014-2021

YEM Yayın has published a new book titled "Dreaming for Sivas: Architectural Studio Selections 2014-2021," which is a comprehensive selection of architectural studio projects carried out in the Architecture Department of Sivas Cumhuriyet University, conceptualizing Sivas as an experimental space.

Cities are laboratory spaces for schools of architecture. The theme "Dreaming for Sivas" marks the pedagogical approach to this experimental space within the context of an architectural studio. This book, prepared for publication by Associate Professor Dr. Uğur Tuztaşı and Dr. Pınar Koç, consists of a selection of architectural studio projects carried out between 2014 and 2021 in the Architecture Department of Sivas Cumhuriyet University, conceptualizing Sivas as an experimental space. Conceptualizing the city as an experimental space ensures that architecture students are not only subjected to a project process that produces solutions to a defined problem area but also enveloped in a discovery process structured around opening all their intuitive and perceptual antennae to the city and feeling the city's daily rhythm.

Uğur Tuztaşı and Pınar Koç, who have created projects by dreaming for Sivas together with their students in design studios, share their views on the design studios, what they have contributed to their students, and the book:

"...A design studio needs to be designed with different content. Regardless of the defined problem and the position of the studio participants in the design studio, it is essential to enliven the studio environment to save the process from monotony. Applications that distance one from the main problem by stepping back, when necessary, and other pedagogical methods should be integrated into the studio. Diversity can reveal ideas, productions, and other often-ignored meanings/abilities of studio participants that directly open to the inevitable processes and results of the initially defined problem area. Since changes in pedagogical tools prepare a conducive environment for experimental applications, the position taken by all participants and the solutions they offer in the face of different design activities are more easily distinguishable. It is discovered that participants, evaluated on a project group basis as a homogeneous studio environment, have different learning styles and the capacity to develop different skills in the face of different methods.

As the existence of a heterogeneous studio environment where there is no absolute truth in terms of skill, talent, and visual thinking is accepted, roles are redefined. Just as the distribution of forms of responsibility based on design research and design activity changes with each method/application change, feeding the studio environment with other tools enhances the diversity of the act of designing. Whether they are hidden curriculum applications or experimental methods, all methods transformed into praxis shape the studio environment. The path reached, in the end, is not the only way out but a productive environment tested with diversity...

The process, scale, and content differentiation carried out in project groups also determine the method of selecting project topics. At this stage, there are two main determining factors. The first of these is initiatives aimed at renewing and improving significant transformation areas, decaying spaces, or idle parts in the city, and such themes spontaneously emerge on the city's agenda. The second main factor determining the method of selecting project topics is the opportunities offered by the architecture education curriculum and the different levels of professional experience reached by the student in each period. In other words, the architectural studio, as the 'backbone' of the architecture education curriculum, emerges as a critique of the existing order in urban space, and the studio transforms the act of designing from static knowledge into practice. This allows for the engagement of design mechanisms such as strategy and tactics within the studio, transcending its traditional patterns.

Another point to be emphasized within the "Dreaming for Sivas" theme is that instead of structuring architectural project studios as an endless and breathless process, sometimes small stopping points are built to increase design diversity in the studio, make the design process more efficient, and integrate the act of designing more into the studio. This means that a problem area generally expected to be discovered, subjective experiences, and alternative designs created for a solution are presented through a space of relief/relaxation/distancing, such as a sketch exam or sketch applications in an architectural studio. This process, which represents a kind of stop-and-rest, a stage of distancing from the project and the project process, brings another area of experience where design exercises are performed into the studio. In some sketch applications where a specialized pedagogical method is not configured, designs that emphasize urban experience are mostly focused on. Such content can be structured as a monument design or as a spatial organization regarding current urban-scale problems. Ultimately, the fundamental impulse of this entire process is to enable the individual, as an architecture student and an aspiring architect, to experience urban space and internalize it.

The purpose of this entire process, structured around experiencing the city, can be described as getting to know the built environment one lives in, perceiving urban values, and analyzing permeable relationships between urban layers. More specifically, with an expression emphasizing a specialized area of interest, contents such as comprehending Sivas's urban scale, increasing historical space perception, questioning historical environmental layers, and defining awareness for the living city are the themes targeted by the project topics discussed under the "Dreaming for Sivas" axis. Furthermore, the project topics covered in the book include the output products and process of an experiential space varying from current urban agenda issues, from a single building scale to urban and historical environment analysis, and monument designs developed through hereditary images embedded in Sivas's urban memory. This content is also configured in the sense of revealing potential future possibilities in urban space and generating alternatives through spatial scenarios..."

The areas where projects and designs were developed in Sivas and the working titles included in the book are listed as follows:

• Reevaluation of Sivas Yıldız Blocks Campus and Its Vicinity
• From Section Models to Spatial Function: Free Design Experiments
• Teacher's House in the Former Military Hospital Campus
• Reevaluation of the Former 4 Eylül Stadium Area
• Sivas High-Speed Train and Railway Heritage Monument Design
• Analysis of Sivas Archaeology Museum's Vicinity and Ethnography Museum
• Reevaluation of the Vicinity of the Historical Meydan Mosque
• Reevaluation of the Vicinity of the Historical Güdük Minaret
• Analysis of Höllüklük Street's Traditional Texture and New Building Proposals
• Reevaluation of the Historical Gendarmerie Building and Its Vicinity: Sivas City Museum
• Temporary High-Speed Train Station
• Reevaluation of the Former Numune Hospital and Its Vicinity: Sivas City Museum
• Faculty of Law in Sivas Cumhuriyet University Campus
• Sports Complex
• 4 Eylül Science and Technology University Campus Design
• Natural History Museum and Science Center in Sivas Cumhuriyet University Campus
• Reevaluation of the Vicinity of the Historical Subaşı Han
• Reevaluation of the Historical Wheat Market Area
• Reevaluation of the Historical Former Prison Building and Ethnography Museum
• Sivas, the Capital of Folk Songs, Monument Design
• Muzaffer Sarısözen Monument Design
• Fountain Designs
• Aşık Veysel Şatıroğlu Monumental Tomb Design
• Sivas Congress 100th Anniversary Monument Design