ATÖLYE Offices – Istanbul
ATÖLYE is a transdisciplinary innovation platform. As a transdisciplinary innovation platform, they are not only a creative hub with a real estate business at its core, or a design consultancy focusing on client work. In their case, the hub and the studio form an indispensable, symbiotic whole. Situated at the core of their practice, their strategic design studio consists of 30 strategists and designers geared towards tackling innovation on multiple scales. With a clear intent on transdisciplinarity, ATÖLYE loves addressing wicked problems that deal with conflicting paradigms, stakeholder complexity and emergent processes.
For all projects, they take great care in diligent impact assessment to become a learning organization. They also emphasize strategic communication to contribute to a learning society.
In this project, four deliberate strategies are employed:
- Adjacency-based architectural layout: Visually neighboring yet acoustically separated areas for thinking, making, learning and sharing create fluidity.
- Future-proofed, high-performance technical infrastructure: Exposed beams, abundant plugs, high-speed fiber connectivity, moveable walls, dimmable lighting, locally controllable heating-cooling systems and real-time energy tracking systems all serve to easily modify spatial programs.
- Custom designed, locally crafted modular furniture: A new product line entitled CNVS, designed by the same team, utilizes locally-sourced, natural materials such as FSC plywood, recycled chipboard and regional steel, coupled with wheels and adjustable separators to allow for maximum flexibility.
- Whiteboards and natural felt allow writeable surfaces and pin-up walls for ideation along with acoustic absorption for event planning.
- Evolving Design: Cybernetic feedback systems such as post-occupancy evaluation surveys, member workshops and the availability of a makerlab allow making a ‘self-learning’ system, with budget provided to realize new design interventions after occupancy.
Altogether, for ATÖLYE, architectural design is a by-product of a larger system that is focusing on a truly transdisciplinary design. Ultimately, the design acts as a tacit, yet influential body language of an emerging independent institution, where the aspiration is to seed, nurture and witness new startups and design projects at all scales.
Design: ATÖLYE
Design Team: Begüm Ural, Berna Erenoglu, Bilge Nur Saltık, Elif Karaköse, Engin Ayaz, Necdet Yağız Özkan, Nesile Yalçın, Rezzan Hasoğlu, PIN Architects
Photography: Yerçekim Photography
