This research is an attempt to understand the formation-deformation patterns of the forest landscape in Manavgat, Turkey, under an intensifying fire regime, and an experiment of a “vegetal proposal” that is shaped by flames. Despite being excluded from forest care and inhabiting the fragile thresholds inside the forest, a decentralized rural counter-practice of villagers that reclaims the forest and adopts its flows is imagined as the extension of current standardized land management activities and ownership.

The “Land Ledger”, situated in one of the burned villages in the 2021 wildfire, positions itself as a dynamic “becoming” by retaining the moments of different fire encounter scenarios as spatial conditions to embrace and appreciate. This approach focuses on the diverse fire timescales of design components, interconnected yet divisible, similar to the “augmented” patches of the forest landscape that contain numerous fractures having unique eco-histories. Recording these cyclical stories of resurgence and destruction, the proposal weaves the (re)organization of the rural art of making together without proximity or a strict frame, this time for inhabiting the ignition zone responsibly.
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Villages are nestled between a mountain and a river that runs through the valley. Agriculture occupies the land within the urban landscape, while fish farming takes place in the rivers. In one village belonging to the Ayu indigenous tribe, at the foot of the mountain, houses are marked by cracks in concrete walls and dents in their metal roof sheets. Conveyor belts run through backyards from the grey, dusty land carved into the hillside to the industrial plant. Trucks drive along the road beside a baseball field filled with children.

For the past 50 years, fear has consumed the daily lives of the Ayu tribe of the Truku people in Hualien, Taiwan. Notifications of explosion schedules displayed on LED screens in the town centre prepare residents for the vibrations, noise, and dusty air to come. Will another rock fall into the village today? Fear is multiplied as earthquakes and typhoons approach the region. Will there be another landslide or rockfall? From 700 metres to 150 metres, the mine is getting lower and closer. When will it stop? ... Read more

This research investigates the intersection of urban density, poverty, and institutional frameworks, examining how these forces challenge an individual’s sense of belonging and social participation. Using the life of writer Jean Genet in Paris as a primary case study, the project explores the phenomenon of living and surviving with only basic needs met. Genet’s transgressive existence, characterized by vagabondage, criminal activity, and frequent incarcerations in facilities such as La Santé, serves as a lens to map the behaviors of the homeless and the impoverished as they navigate state regulations and institutional structures.

The research methodology employs iterative modeling to translate Genet’s experiences into an architectural language. The design process progresses from site-specific exploration to the translation of personal experience into spatial form. Ultimately, the final design addresses fundamental human needs, specifically shelter and sanitation, through the theoretical framework of the Michel Foucaul’s heterotopia.
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This project investigates Halabja as a fragile borderscape in which memory, violence, ecology, and territorial control remain deeply entangled. Rather than approaching Halabja only through the chemical attack of 16 March 1988, the research situates this event within a longer spatial history of Kurdish fragmentation, state violence, environmental damage, and border enforcement. Through critical mapping, the project examines how power operates through regulations, infrastructures, movement, ground conditions, surface traces, and spatial events. The landscape is therefore not treated as a neutral background to history, but as an active archive in which violence continues to be materially and socially present.
The research focuses on Ababayle, a damaged and partly abandoned village near Halabja, where the remains of former houses appear as scattered stones in the landscape. These traces form the basis for an architectural intervention that works through cutting, excavation, and inhabitation. Instead of reconstructing the ruins or imposing a conventional monument, the project carves into the existing terrain, creating a labyrinthine route and an underground memorial square. Memory is approached through bodily experience.
The project questions whether remembrance can remain meaningful if it is only symbolic or contemplative. For this reason, the memorial is conceived as a lived spatial condition rather than a fixed object. Acts such as gardening, weaving, gathering, maintaining, and re-digging become central to the project. These practices connect ecological repair, cultural memory, collective presence, and care for the land. Healing is therefore not presented as a final resolution, but as an ongoing and incomplete relation between people, landscape, and memory.
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This thesis proposes an architectural and programmatic alternative to the socioeconomic decline and material decay of traditional settlements in Zagori, Greece. While the region experiences high seasonal tourism, its permanent population is shrinking, trapping the villages in a cycle of economic mono-culture and "spatial museification" that freezes historic homes into empty backdrops. Drawing on Souzana Antonakaki’s concept of architectural care, this project argues that historic buildings lose their soul when deprived of daily inhabitancy. Rather than treating these structures as untouchable monuments, the design "refuses the terms of survival" by transforming decaying private assets into a shared public infrastructure managed by a cooperative.
The project tests this theory in the village of Dilofo through a precise, aggressive subtractive slice carved through a tight cluster of three ruined houses right next to the central square. Inspired by Gordon Matta-Clark’s Anarchitecture and Kengo Kuma’s structural lightness, this intervention removes the interior party walls to merge the separate footprints into a single, continuous public void open to the sky. Programmatically unassigned, the porous rooms adapt fluidly to the changing seasons, shifting from an active food hub and communal kitchen during the summer panegyri festival to a quiet, contemplative sanctuary on regular days. Finally, the project enforces material circularity by cataloging the stone extracted from the structural cuts into a village registry to repair communal alleys and dry-stone walls throughout the region.
In conclusion, the thesis demonstrates that strategic architectural subtraction can successfully re-commonalize vacant private space, transforming a site of ongoing structural failure into a living, adaptive, and truly cooperative community landscape. ... Read more

This design research investigates how architecture can become an active agency for re-aligning with the Self, the Other, and more-than-human beings within an extractive landscape. Situated in Cínovec / Zinnwald, a Czech-German border village marked by a history of mining and future lithium extraction, the project challenges the exploitative logic that treats the earth as a passive resource for human progress.

Rather than treating extraction as a purely technical problem, this project addresses it as a spatial, material, and psychological phenomenon. It argues that ecological transformation requires a fundamental shift in perception: living from an ego-centered state of control toward a heart-centered mode of living grounded in reciprocity and care.

The design transforms existing mining remnants into a contemplative route and dedicates an above-ground rock formation as a space for reflection, overnight stays, and reconnection. Subterranean tunnels, deep darkness and preexisting geological structures are reinterpreted as architectural elements that guide visitors through moments of vulnerability and reconnection, both in solitude and in shared moments. Utilizing the conceptual frameworks of cave & nest and site & non-site, the architecture follows the intrinsic logic of the landscape to establish a deep, reciprocal relationship with the physical context. Ultimately, the project proposes a different way of inhabiting extractive landscapes, one where architecture serves as an agency for reflection, grounding, and renewed kinship with the more-than-human world. ... Read more

“No outside trash” is the sign one stumbles upon every week when trying to dispose of rubbish in front of an old red-brick house in Hwagok, South Korea. Piles of large white plastic bags with torn corners—exposing used tissues, plastic bottles, and broken glass—scatter helplessly whenever summer storms and winds assault the alley. Crookedly drawn parking lines that intrude into the road, randomly tangled electric cables and air-conditioner pipes, and slanted utility poles wrapped in warning signs and advertisements together constitute the typical alley of a 1970s–80s red-brick housing block in a dense neighborhood of Seoul.

Any alley in Seoul with these characteristics used to be an outdoor hall of events. This old neighborhood once brimmed with children playing with deflated soccer balls and je-gi (a traditional toy). Mothers used to drag plastic chairs out through their gates to chat and trim spinach for dinner. More recently, surveillance cameras hang over the once cheerful alley, which is now blanketed by the disturbing noise of motorcycle deliveries, plastic bottles rattling in the wind, and old men watching online videos out loud while smoking in front of their doors. The once public identity that alleys portrayed has shifted in a few decades to an utterly empty space existing solely as a passage.

Where there used to be outdoor mats for drying red pepper and pedestals for weekend farms is now covered with concrete. Air-conditioner boxes and cables dangle above, while the front entrance is blocked by a small narrow door that only a child could pass through. In front of this door is where residents place their bags of rubbish. This door is typically mirrored by a wall erected in the alley between two buildings, effectively closing off the narrow space. Do these walls and doors reflect a change in social understanding? Ironically, in many cases, “in front of my door” means the main entrance to one’s space, but in terms of waste disposal, it refers specifically to this door.

Waste management in the national capital region of South Korea is in great peril, as the sole landfill—long the dumping ground for trash produced by 45% of the nation’s population—has decided it will no longer accept waste from outside Incheon. Although the landfill is located in Incheon, more than 80% of the total waste it receives has been delivered from its nearby neighbors: Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. Seoul’s lack of publicly owned incinerators exacerbates the issue, as disposed waste would have no appropriate destination.

In contrast to large apartment towers that collect massive amounts of rubbish and store it in secluded zones, old neighborhoods lack the space to store waste and instead push whatever they produce into the streets. Waste collection in apartment complexes is highly efficient—residents separate and dispose of trash in basement facilities, and large collection trucks gather it once a week with minimal hassle. However, old neighborhoods are being entirely replaced by this new typology, wiping out historic plot patterns and erasing cultural memory. How else can we solve the waste management issue? Is total redevelopment the only strategy for improving neighborhood livability? The current use of low-rise multifunctional blocks appears to contain hints of how decades of adaptation have led to a new typology. ... Read more

This thesis investigates landscape transformation at Tbilisi's urban edges, where geological erosion, ecological degradation, and socio-political fragmentation converge. Focusing on the Lake Lisi area, the research examines how post-Soviet investor urbanism has accelerated instability through speculative development that destabilizes slopes and fragments communities. The study asks: How can architecture make visible and mediate the systemic relationship between these forces at landscape edges?
The methodology combines field documentation, satellite data analysis, and design speculation. Satellite imagery spanning twenty years maps vegetation cover and subsurface moisture levels, revealing three stages of transformation. The analysis identifies two critical parameters: a vegetation axis stabilizing soil through water absorption, and an erosion channel where destabilized soil accelerates downward movement. Findings demonstrate that surface sealing from development concentrates water in vulnerable zones, creating feedback loops where equilibrium between vegetation and water flow collapses into collision. Geological profiling establishes stable bedrock at 2.5 meters depth, defining the threshold between permanent and transforming strata.
The research reveals that landscape erosion is socially produced through zoning changes and development practices. Comparative analysis of maps from 1987 and 2016 documents the reclassification of green zones as development sites, demonstrating how investor urbanism seeks edges, creates edges through fragmentation, and accelerates physical transformation.
The design proposal, "Auditorium for the Hill," responds through architectural commentary positioned at the junction where stability meets erosion. The intervention employs three structural strategies: a retention wall following a continuous horizon to frame transformation; post-tensioned anchoring in stable bedrock establishing permanent foundation; and a cantilevered steel structure suspended over eroding ground dramatizing the tension between stability and collapse. Rather than technical stabilization, the project creates collective public space for observation and reflection, proposing architecture as instrument that witnesses transformation and creates grounds for communities to engage with forces shaping their terrain. ... Read more

This graduation project explores how architecture can metabolise unresolved collective trauma through the transformation of Soviet-era spolia in Tbilisi, Georgia. Situated in a sloped urban park near Liberty Square, the project acts both as a public infrastructure and a space for mourning. It engages with the material and symbolic residues of the Soviet past — fragments of monuments, mosaics, and architectural elements — and reworks them through five consecutive architectural spaces. Each space stages a different phase of material transformation and emotional reckoning, moving from recognisable fragments to dust and digital trace. The project operates on both macro and micro scales: as a depository for contested heritage and as a cemetery for personal objects. Rather than preserving or erasing the past, the architecture processes it — through rituals of walking, deposition, and gradual material dissolution. The result is a spatial narrative of mourning that is not linear but layered, resisting closure and embracing ambiguity. ... Read more

A project about the loss of Georgia's bathing culture in the shift from East to West. Resulting in a new typology for a underground bathhouse in the mountain region near Tbilisi; using stone and metal. ... Read more

China and Chinese society have developed incredibly rapidly over the past 50 years, and in that time, cities have grown very, very, very quickly. This rapid urbanisation involves a transformation of rural land into urban land. The transition from rural to urban is not a homogeneous process. Plots right next to each other can develop in very different ways. This creates a patchwork urbanism, with contemporary border conditions that have surprising characteristics. Further fuelled by the mountainous terrain, the patchwork urbanism creates some issues as well, this has to do primarily with the presence of pleasant urban space, and connections between different patches of land. This project investigates the possibility to design something that improves connections, and that adds a new kind of space non existent in the present landscape. The student wishes to be additive, so without taking away from the existing landscape. ... Read more

this project explores a post-human-centered transformation of an abandoned flour milling plant in Tbilisi through the lenses of rewilding and temporality, aiming to redefine the identity of this vast and formerly obsolete industrial facility. Through a series of interventions, the former brownfield has evolved into a living lab—a dynamic, evergrowing site of a novel ecosystem undergoing continuous ecological succession. ... Read more

In Tbilisi’s suburbs, the spread of informal architecture traces back to the city’s turbulent socio-political journey. Soviet planning once dictated uniformity, but the collapse of the Soviet Union and the challenges that followed allowed informal construction to proliferate. The design proposition takes the form of a series of observational structures placed along a route. Each structure offers a unique vantage point, either decontextualizing or increasing accessibility to the surrounding environment. The intention is to deepen the way one engages with this distinctive built landscape, allowing for new perspectives and a more intimate connection with the space. ... Read more

The Office for Digital Oblivion is a project that aims to re-ground discourse on information technologies and the realm of the digital through engagement with its immediate material conditions and operations. It has grown to become a full-fledged hybrid, blurring boundaries of what we consider natural or cultural, ecological or anthropocentric. It aims to to challenge perceived banalities around information infrastructures, tracing systems through scales, aiming to spatialise and thus problematise operational complexities which due to their scale remain largely illegible. With that, it puts forward new approaches to conceive of infrastructural systems, transgressing purely technocratic dogmas and new ways of thinking, worlding and becoming-together in the Anthropocene. ... Read more

Our endless pursuit of precision in measures both geographical and temporal has destroyed the ability to get lost, to be curious of what is beyond the horizon, to sight monsters and live to tell the tale! Modern society is not without its own mythos however: By making real the coordinate grid, the project generates modern monsters, and a sense of wonder for the drunken variousness, incorrigible plurality, and sudden beauty of the world that cannot be measured. This paper as an experiment on the form of the essay itself seeks to circumnavigate its own content. Always regarding the dangers of the measure and precision from the outskirts, without risking collision by claiming to execute such precision itself. In its structure, pages of the essay may fall into place like leaves of a tree in autumn, to be read as it has been written: fragmentary, leaping from one page to the next, getting lost in its content, in order to find one’s self again. The project that has emerged from this research positions 97 follies in the Pacific Ocean of Panama in order to subvert and question the measure, and embrace the unfathomable nature of the surface. ... Read more

This project explores the dynamic interplay between space, time, and body in the Darién Gap in Panama, a dangerous transit territory for migrants journeying to North America. As a significant departure from everyday landscapes, here, migrants' interactions with the territory are intensified, where many face death before reaching their destination. In 2023 alone, 141 known deaths were reported, a figure that likely underrepresents the true toll due to the significant challenges in recovering bodies.

Addressing the need for a dignified end, the project proposes a living memorial through three stages: homemaking, housekeeping, and memorialization. Homemaking involves migrants performing burial rituals—collecting, washing, digging, burying, and marking—as a comforting farewell to the deceased, creating a permanent resting "home" in the territory. Housekeeping entails border patrols documenting and maintaining these sites, using a rope system to track burial sequences, tree growth, and body decomposition. Memorialization integrates the deceased and their grave markers into the territory's natural cycle, forming a living tribute that evolves over time.

Through the accumulation of countless journeys, the memorial illustrates the profound impact of migrants as agents of change in the built environment. It serves as a model for architectural responses to shared tragedies, offering relevance extending beyond Panama. ... Read more

This project investigates the relationship between transgression, the human body, and the built environment through the case study of El Chorrillo, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Panama City. Originally developed in the early 20th century for migrant workers, El Chorrillo was severely affected by the 1989 U.S. invasion and remains underinvested. The research process involved immersive mapping through recorded walks, capturing the district’s deteriorating infrastructure while juxtaposing it with the vibrancy of its street life. This method, influenced by Gilles Deleuze’s theory of the “body without organs,” framed El Chorrillo as a space of rupture and disorder.

Building on this analysis, the project explores the concept of the ‘carnivalesque’ as a form of transgressive urban space. It proposes festival infrastructure that not only responds to themes of bodily functions and societal excess but also provides an alternative to the neighborhood’s failing public amenities. While festivals are often seen as spaces of liberation, they remain deeply intertwined with capitalist cycles of consumption. This paradox is addressed by designing a self-sufficient and bottom-up system where the byproducts of excess feed back into the community. The architecture is conceived as an assemblage of facilities centered around the symbolic role of the dish, integrating spatial and material strategies that cater to festival-goers while enhancing local resilience.

The project aligns with architectural discourse by addressing urban and human-scale spatialities, innovating in materiality and circularity. The research-driven design process, guided by video studies, physical models, and narrative-driven analysis, provides insight into how transgressive spaces can be reimagined as tools for community empowerment. By questioning the role of festivals in public space and their environmental and social implications, the project proposes a model that could be adapted to other urban contexts, challenging conventional approaches to temporary infrastructure. ... Read more

This project explores the concept of 'The Ground' as a multifaceted entity, examining its physical, cultural, and political dimensions. It begins with an etymological foundation, linking the word "human" to "humus," emphasising humanity's intrinsic connection to the earth. The project expands this understanding by investigating the layers, properties, and significance of the ground as both a physical surface and a conceptual space, encompassing themes of territory, governance, and planetary interdependence.
A central theme is Bruno Latour's notion of 'The Terrestrial,' which redefines the earth as a political actor in a reciprocal relationship with humanity. This paradigm shift necessitates a reevaluation of humanity's approach to the ground, from one of ownership and control to one of coexistence and diplomacy. The Isthmus of Panama serves as a case study, illustrating the profound interaction between human engineering and geological processes through the construction and operation of the Panama Canal.
The project proposes an 'Embassy of the Ground' as a gesture of diplomacy to foster a diplomatic relationship between humans and the ground. This embassy, situated near the Post-Panamax locks of the canal, is designed as an enclosed space with the precise dimensions of a lock chamber, granting the ground within it diplomatic immunity. Surrounding the enclosure, three departments—Communications, Legal Affairs, and Informal Diplomacy—facilitate interactions with the ground.
Ultimately, the embassy serves as a bridge between human and geological timescales, promoting an ethic of mutual respect for the ground. By redefining the relationship between the human and the earth, the project challenges static conceptions of space and encourages a dynamic, time-sensitive perspective on architecture and territory. ... Read more