Dirk van der Meij (TU Delft)
In November 2016 I was fortunate enough to be one of the fellows at the NIT in Istanbul. During this month, I was able to prolongate the topic of my graduation research. Earlier in 2016 I graduated in the field of Architecture at the Technical University of Delft. The graduation project, an architectural project, was the result of the research done at an earlier phase. Now at the NIT, I could return to the research phase and conclude the research with an extended essay.
The research considers the act of building as an interplay between subtractions and additions. An initial interest into the areas of urban renewal within Istanbul made me witness the extreme scale of the current building developments. Istanbul’s building developments, too big to appropriate the hills, punctuate the landscape and reveal a truth: the hill is more than a surface condition - sous les pavés, la plage! The earth that is displaced by the projects is used at other projects as a filler, such as landfill parks: a careful equilibrium of volume. It marks the shift in perspective towards the architectural site: from affording the landscape as the surface it is, to the exploitation of volume the project site comprises.
The NIT was a good base within Istanbul to be able visit places of interest and meet with local scholars and architects.