Crafted Tower: AA Visiting School programme 2010/11 - Istanbul

The final event on the Architectural Association's Visiting School Programme 2010/11 will take place in Istanbul in April. 

Crafted Tower, which will be held at the Istanbul Technical University, will explore tall structures through both vertical growth algorithms and local craft traditions. The aim of the workshop is to revisit this basic structure through traditional crafts to investigate the potential of re-linking this knowledge to contemporary digital design thinking.

The unique artistic and historical traditions of Istanbul will be investigated as active material systems for interior and exterior organisations and developed specifically in relation to tall structures. As such, the tower – an architectural typology that has maintained a relatively stable organisational structure and formal language since the end of the nineteenth century – will be challenged. The objective is to extract information from vernacular models in terms of formal, structural, and functional behaviour as well as to study the ecological aspects of existing systems in order to explore projected models for the tower typology.

The course will take advantage of Istanbul’s geographic and historical diversity by arranging tours to different parts of the city as well as organising a series of seminars and lectures relating to computational design and Istanbul’s contemporary and historical architecture.

The AA's Visiting School Programme deals with similar topics as explored in Phaidon's Endless City series: The Endless City and Living in the Endless City (released June 2011). With 75% of the population estimated to be living in cities in 2050, these two works take a close look at the issues that affect cities, and thus human life across the globe in the twenty-first century. Istanbul will feature as one of the three new cities studied for Living in the Endless City, together with Mumbai and Sao Paolo.

Deadline for applications is 18 March 2011 (late applicants will be accepted until 1 April with a £50 surcharge). For more information contact the AA Visiting Schools Programme.