Examining the Role of the Nature in New Commons: Two Experimental Architectural Design Studios

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.14198/UOU.2021.1.14

While the negative effects of the COVID-19 epidemic on health, economy, culture, and art continue, social distance and non-contact are changing the forms of socialization and radically transforming the use of public spaces. It is seen that the new situation arising from the digital age and climate change will be effective in the construction of the future rapidly with the effect of the epidemic. Post-covid will appear as a period in which civilization is reshaped with its many dimensions. New commons that develop with the change of daily practices will replace pre-epidemic commonalities. Architecture can take the initiative in defining new commons in the built environment. However, existing concepts will not be sufficient to define new commons, and this will require significant paradigm shifts. In this historical process where life on earth is under threat, nature should come to the fore as the dominant paradigm in the creation of new commons. The purpose of this article, which discusses how this understanding can be evaluated in architectural education, is to examine the role of nature in creating new commons, which is the basic paradigm of the design problem defined in the architectural design studio. From this point of view, two architectural design studios in different scales and contexts were realized in the Department of Architecture of the ………Technical University. In these studios, design problems related to the discovery of new commons including new spatial expansions were discussed. As a result of the design processes, it was observed that the determining and unifying role of nature should be considered as a spatial design parameter in the discovery of new commons, based on the reconciliation of nature and human beings.