We participate in WAF for the second time this year. As a visitor, we hope to have a certain experience with the presentations and to start sending our projects to that organization next year. Here, coming together with different perspectives from all over the world, and watching different projects, motivate us. In that sense, we really congratulate the organization, as well as the sponsors. Some global research and solutions about certain issues which we have been confronting locally are quite admirable. At this point, we will be focusing on those, for the future.
Alpay DEMİRCİ
DEMİRCE ARCHITECTS
I participated in WAF 2018 as a visitor. As I have not participated before, it is not correct to make a comparison, but I find that the organization and its content in general were satisfactory. Although I have already determined the presentations that I want to watch a little bit more, my schedule is a bit confused because of my last-minute decision changes. Trying to catch up with the one to another seemed to me a summary of the festival. We had the opportunity to talk abundantly about architecture with so many friends that I met by chance at the event. General spatial planning seemed problem-free. The distribution of service spaces and the location of the sponsors were also very efficient in terms of encountering and acquiring information. However, there was an acoustic problem and this situation was quite disturbing. The noise problem became unbearable, especially when there was a presentation in the nearby Crit Room with many viewers. There were dozens of projects that participated in the festival from Turkey and I tried to watch especially their presentations. Generally, the projects and their presentations were very impressive. I’m really surprised that some of my favorite projects couldn’t be the winner of the category they participated in.
Fatih YAVUZ
FREA
Architecture is the field that all the past and the present of humankind can be practiced as realistic as possible and all developments of technology and science keep transforming and developing both us and the architecture. The most successful projects I saw at WAF this year were those that kept architecture and technology closest to human benefit and human scale. Energy use and transformation, both time and space saving structures designed for multiple functions, and such well-thought systems are very promising developments for human beings and the future of the world. In general, I was very happy to see that architecture and the produced structures are a hope and healing power to the people around the world. We could not make it work because of lack of time this year, but next year, we will be participating in WAF 2018 with 3 different international projects, so hope to see you in 2019.
Görkem VOLKAN
GVDS
First of all, I would like to say that visiting WAF reminded me of the values of working in this field. We realized we forgot about it because of the hustle of bustle of Istanbul. In fact; this reminder, in general, made us realize about our individual existence; also raised awareness about the projects that we have been working on. What I particularly noticed at WAF is almost every presentation, regardless of the characteristics of the structure, touches the lives of the user with its design. Winner projects mostly focusing on that. This is what attracted the notice of the jury members and they always questioned the human scale and the scenario of the situation. We offer life experience to the user. I have always believed that every project has its own story. We are trying to support this life experience while working on creating compliance at the same time. Besides, questioning energy solutions of presented projects by the jury was also remarkable, since we lately look for some answers about that on a global scale. In this regard, we think designers have a responsibility in designing and selecting materials. This matter is subject to all office, home or commercial projects. It was a pleasure for me to experience an organization that focused on architecture that comes out of daily business life.
Yeşim KOZANLI
YEŞİM KOZANLI ARCHITECTS / ROBIN’S DESIGN