Architect Ömer Selçuk Baz: “Material is What Forms the Body and Image of Architecture”
There have also been several leaps in design in the last 100 years. Now, we are at a very different point. Necessities came to a very different point but all these developments also destroyed some things.
We now rarely come across more sophisticated designs. You can actually observe that architecture is now a superficial and image-focused area of production, even if you do so from a distance. I think that this is a world composed of shells, decorations.You have to be purified of this to create structures with real content. First, you have to slow down a bit. Constructing fast also means that you are constructing something you have previously known, seen or read.
Construction industry does not slow down despite economic crises. People leave a faster life day by day. Our world of communication is now much more different than 20 years ago. New technology has to be developed to expect something new, this was always the way. These were not aspects developed by architecture. Architecture is normally a very ponderous discipline.
It always follows behind, fed with other things. It feeds itself through art, technology and many other aspects. In my opinion, architecture itself is usually not an innovative
work. It is very rare that an architect develops something on his own. All architectural products actually exist somewhere, nowadays it is very hard to develop something new when compared with the past because there is too much production. You need something in architecture and design;
if there is a technological leap, which is highly probable, then innovations can be expected. Materials have actually been used with all variations to a large extent.
New things to be constructed with these materials have already been constructed with the energy they first thrived to a large extent. Now, in my opinion, it does not make any sense to expect from a concrete structure a composition that has not been formed yet. It is no different than masonry or mud bricks. It can also not be expected from steel unless other technological developments are observed. However, there can be structures which have more depth, more sophistication and different relations, in which we will have more delight in seeing and living inside of. It is not possible to create something new if they continue to design the way they already know. One has to rewind and think, spend some time, maybe do some research, find something, talk to someone out of his discipline, for different manufacturing technologies, and try to adapt these to his own design.