Organized by Kerem Piker Mimarlık (KPM), the IPL (Informal Parking Lots of Istanbul) Research Project is now on display at the 12th Edition of the Architecture Biennale of São Paolo. As the first-ever Turkish project to be invited to the Biennale, IPL presents a new reading on parking lots situated in Istanbul’s more historical spaces. The 12th Edition of the Architecture Biennale of São Paolo opened its doors in Brazil on September 10 at one of the city of São Paolo’s most iconic examples of modern architecture, the CSSP / Centro Cultural São Paolo. Upon announcing this year’s theme, “Everyday”, curators Vanessa Grossman, Charlotte MalterreBarthes, and Ciro Miguel selected just 70 projects out of 760 project applications to be showcased at the Biennale. The founder of KPM Mimarlık, Kerem Piker, noted that the IPL project instils in the world the message, “Istanbul isn’t as far as you think”, emphasizing that parking lots in Istanbul pose a major design challenge, architecturally speaking. Mr. Piker spoke about the project’s development process: “One can summarize the degree of ingenuity it takes to come up with original solutions to bring rationality to the irrationality that is life in Istanbul in the following words: “Daily life is transforming these formless, undefined, unplanned, and unintegrated lots, into infrastructure projects, one by one. These spaces will never find a place of their own within the understanding of modern planning. Thus, each has become the point of social focus, going beyond merely easily blending into the fabric of the urban ecosystem.”
