Designing parametric rhizomes in architectural space

Abstract

The technological developments in the world present a challenge to design studio students and educators alike since the incorporation of computer-aided design software into design education has become a necessity. This paper focuses on the 2019-2020 Spring Semester of INAR 302 Interior Design Studio IV at Çankaya University, which is a parametric design studio where students are encouraged to experiment and utilize computer-based form-finding strategies, concentrating on the interior space. The rhizome concept of Deleuze and Guattari is reinterpreted by Studio 302 as a design methodology, allowing students to experience the unorthodoxy of space-user dialectics in the inner voids of the parametric forms over the term project of re-functioning a part of Ulus Square Office Complex as a city hotel with a futuristic extension. The study examines and evaluates the students' works, which derive conceptual ideas from the formal analyses of ceramic artworks in the Anafartalar Bazaar and environmental analyses of the historic site, transforming them into the parameters of futuristic architectural form and diverse rhizome interpretations. The findings indicate that students' reinterpretations of "variations" in the ceramic artworks uncover multifaceted outcomes of digital design strategies, maintaining diverse rhizomatic progress, which synchronically determines and is determined by the functional mutations.