VIS À VIS

“Seeing Material”

4th Istanbul Design Biennial – A School of Schools
Photobook / 4 Editions
Digital mobile photography
Architectural photography with Naho Kubota (JP/US)

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This project explores the material composition, architectural vocabulary, and spatial texture of the Faculty of Science and Literature at Istanbul University, located in Beyazıt and completed in 1954.

Designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Emin Onat, the building serves as a case study in understanding the modernist aspirations and vernacular tensions embedded in Turkish architectural history. Particularly, Eldem’s legacy continues to provoke debate within local historiographies of modernism, oscillating between nationalist narratives and global stylistic currents.

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Vis À Vis investigates how materials communicate architectural intention—not through monumental forms but via their visible combinations, layered details, and spatial relationships. The project adopts a close-reading method, documenting tactile encounters with architectural surfaces, courtyards, and transitions between interior and exterior.

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All photographs were taken with a mobile phone, emphasizing immediacy and subjectivity in perception. By refraining from the traditional tools of architectural photography, the work questions notions of authorship, representation, and visual discipline. In doing so, it aligns with the biennial’s pedagogical ethos: learning through critical seeing.

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Originally produced as a limited-edition photobook in four copies, this project was developed within the context of Naho Kubota’s architectural photography workshop, which focused on materiality in architecture.

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