Begüm and Kerem Yazgan, who produce architectural, interior, landscape, and graphic design projects in different programs and scales, bring together the theoretical background they have obtained through their long years of research in the academy with professional practice, under the umbrella of Yazgan Design Architecture, which they are the founders of. We talked to Begüm and Kerem Yazgan, who won many national and international awards with their projects shaped by the “flexible design system”, about sustainability in architecture, their current projects, and their thoughts on natural stone.
How was your orientation to the architecture profession, and what kind of education did you receive?
Begüm Yazgan: I was introduced to the profession of architecture when I was studying at TED Ankara College, thanks to promotional days. Architects came from METU, I listened to them. One of the professors said, “Architecture is a philosophy of life, even if you do not practice the profession, architectural education gives you a perspective and vision. From that perspective, you either run a bar or do business. But with the perspective of architectural education, you can run a completely different bar and do a completely different business.” These words had a profound effect on me. That’s how I decided to choose architecture.
Kerem Yazgan: My parents were journalists and they were very associated with art. They were holding some exhibitions in Ankara. Art was always talked about in our house, artists were hosted. I think I must have been influenced by them. I would paint well.
How did your steps to establish your own office developed? Can we hear from you the story of the establishment of Yazgan Architecture Design?
BY: Since Istanbul is a place with many opportunities, I both worked and studied when I was a student. Then I wanted to be an academic. When I returned to Ankara, I worked in the private sector for a while and then applied to become an academician at METU. I was doing my graduate studies at the time. After that, I worked as an academic for 10 years. I founded Yazgan Architecture with my husband in 2003.
KY: We had a high momentum in competitions during our university years. I met Mehmet Kütükçüoğlu at that time, after the degrees listed above, such as the 5th honorable mention, the 3rd honorable mention, and the 1st mention. Together with Mehmet, we prepared a graphic called “A one-day journey in Istanbul: Surdibi”. We made our point of view in Istanbul and compiled and presented a record of a one-day pedestrian trip in a time-space graphic. We won the first prize in the Graphics Department at the National Architecture Exhibition and Awards. Then we entered the Bandırma City Center competition and came first. In order to realize the project, we established Teğet Architecture in Ankara together. Later, I lost my father, there were some troubles in our lives. The economic crisis in 2000 affected us as an office and I felt compelled to leave; they went on their way with Ertuğ Uçar. Then I returned to school. Between 2000-2003, we participated in competitions from home with Begüm. So we’re back with the competition, actually. At that time, Begüm went to Japan and had 6 months left for her doctorate. We received honorable mentions from those two competitions, and then we decided to open an office. This is how Yazgan Architecture was founded.
What are the elements that you base on while shaping your projects?
BY: The subject of Kerem’s dissertation is to organize design actions like a choreographer and present them in a systematic framework. Something like design, choreography + design. The subject of my doctoral thesis is the systemic approach to ecology. There is such a philosophy of science, or rather the science of ecology is based on it. I studied its history and its counterpart in architecture. It was as if the elements forming a whole existed in a system with each other within the framework of the laws of thermodynamics. We created the back philosophy of the projects we designed with Kerem, and this happened over the years. It’s not like let’s sit down and create a philosophy, but both of our works went towards a certain place. It considers the elements that make up the design as a whole; By defining the design actions, the actors that affect the design, the parts, and their relationship, we try to create a fixed relationship system in the projects and allow the variables to occur. In fact, this idea has emerged as a result of the evolution of our theses and previous studies over time.
KY: Since the doctorate, our production in the office has been based on flexible system designs that we developed during the design process. Design in architecture, on the other hand, is the research area of knowledge about the internal structures and problems of these designs and forms of architectural production and the answers to these problems. Designing or constructing, creating, thinking about the production method and production logic before the result. Designing your mode of production and relations already leads you in certain directions and leads to a conclusion. On the other hand, there is something that Bernard Tschumi describes as the “paradox of architecture”: Space does not occur at the moment of designing or drawing; that is, there is a process between life itself and drawing or thought. How you shape that space is about what we call the “design of design”. As we pursued this idea, we saw that good architects have always focused on this relationship design in the history of architecture. They brought this along with some repeatable ideas such as flexible system design. Even if it is not necessarily the architect’s hand, when you look at the idea of the courtyard, the construction of the courtyard, the flexibility within itself, the diversity from a very large courtyard to a tiny courtyard, and the elements that describe it, this idea has been used all over the world, in different geographies, in all kinds of civilizations. So there is obviously a repetition there, there is a system and flexibility, and there is an idea underneath. You can think of it not only as a place but also as everything.
How and in what stages does the design process take place in your office? Can you tell us about your team structure? What division of labor do you work with?
BY: Flexible system design is a system that allows us to work together as a workshop. When a project arrives, we organize a workshop together with whichever group will handle it. At first, we collect the inputs and see what can be done. We do not have an approach as if the architect sits and draws and the people who work with him take what he can and develop it. First, we put forward a thought, then we can all act within that thought. A very convenient approach to working together. As I said while talking about ecology, if we want to solve a problem, we have to act together. This is also the case in the ecosystem, everything works together. You have to work together to solve a place and keep it alive; In other words, everyone has a job within their own framework. We apply this philosophy to the office system as well.
KY: We have a more collective and knowledge-based working system. On the one hand, we have an institutional order, a general order that should be in architectural offices. There are groups, of course, they help each other. We have the motivation to “make good projects” under being a design center. In any case, we come to this: We don’t have to draw this, but if we have to do it for a good project, we do. We’re not just on the commercial side of things. Making a good project is our main idea and we are after making it knowledge-based. I think this approach keeps the office afloat. It’s an approach that holds us together and perhaps differentiates us from some offices.
What would you say about your design line? What do you think makes your projects different?
KY: I would like to start this question by giving an example from Gaudi. For example, we used to see the works of Gaudi as more organic and dependent on the hand of the architect. Then, when we went to Barcelona, we saw that he realized Casa Mila with 5 structural elements: Two large and two small courtyards, main carrier stairs, vaults, beams connecting the vaults, and a facade element that makes waves in the outer and inner courtyards. After you gain that freedom, it doesn’t matter if you want to make the front wavy, split it or make it straight. Casa Mila has already arrived at a flexible system design. Begüm had been the assistant of the late Alaaddin Egemen, the only landscape architect with the Aga Khan award in Turkey, who initiated the planting of 30 million trees in Ankara for 9 years. Therefore, on Begüm’s side, we had a wealth of knowledge about landscaping. With this experience, we started to do landscaping projects. Later, we started to think about this system ecology, landscape knowledge, and our flexible system design together in recent years. It has evolved into a much more interesting place and we saw that there are these flexible system designs in nature as well. In other words, the type of relationship in which a plant reveals itself to the bee is actually more important than the shape of the plant. We started to see how the building could not yet establish the relationship that the plant establishes with its environment, but it should. The design of this design universe, namely designography, has now turned into a more sophisticated R&D in our opinion. These ideas in the thesis did not remain in the thesis, we use them in our projects and evolve within themselves. In recent years, we have designed 9 different functional structures from offices to residences, hospitals to sports facilities, and even industrial buildings using inner gardens. We even have a motto “Inner gardens instead of walls”
What are your views on the sustainability dimension of architecture?
BY: Sustainability has two main parameters: One is to ensure social sustainability. In other words, to bring people together through education in order to instill environmental awareness. It is very important to have social awareness; we can achieve this with proper training. The second is the use of technological opportunities. There are some technological instruments integrated into the building. Along with passive air conditioning, various mechanical systems such as photovoltaic panels integrated into the façade work together.
KY: We have received LEED, BREAM certificates for 6-7 of the projects we have done so far. So we follow and use this part of the world. Apart from that, there is an industry structure that we have built recently; We are implementing a zero carbon structure. In that project, we have a search for sustainability beyond interior gardens and passive energy systems. The concept of green architecture started to become more specific for us, especially when we pursued the effect of plants on the structure with these interior garden uses. We entered a process where we went beyond addressing sustainability within the LEED limit and focused a little more on the environment itself, by saying which tree, not the tree, has an effect on the building, living things, soil, and how it relates to water. When you focus on this subject and start doing this kind of research, certification systems such as LEED begin to turn into calculators. We seek to take sustainability in another direction.
What kind of place does natural stone occupy in the material selection of your projects?
BY: As a natural stone material, it means closeness to nature to me. When we use natural stone in our architectural structures, we see that designs that are more integrated with nature and have a holistic relationship with nature emerge. Thanks to new technologies, we see that natural stone is used in every field now. Depending on the technological developments, the forms of production that push the limits of design have also been integrated into the natural stone material. For example, technological solutions have been produced that make the use of natural stone economically easier on facades. As an example, on the facade of our office project, which we recently designed and is under construction in Romania, an application was made that combines a thin section of natural stone with an insulation material called honeycomb, together with the panel curtain wall system, with the advice of our facade consultant. In this system, the stone was used more economically and its weight was minimized. Since it can be applied on a large scale, the facade surfaces of the office campus are dressed as natural stone.
Finally, what would you say about your current projects and future plans?
KY: We have a zero carbon factory project in Niğde, which we shaped with inner gardens. A very large technology zone is being established in Ankara, the Space, and Aviation Technocity. We are designing the administration building for the whole region and we are constructing industrial buildings in the same region. Since it is a settlement far from the center, we need to take an approach that can attract people there. Therefore, we are designing a new generation office designed with plants.
