A “material cookbook” project by ITU students during Biodegradable Waste Awareness Month.
Work by first-year students in the Department of Architecture as part of the TES121 E Project II course in the School of Architecture: Material Assemblages
This two-week project focuses on materials, aiming to rethink them within critical contexts and relate them to the concepts of memory, transformation, and symbiosis. While conducting experiments with biomaterials and waste products, conventional materials used in construction and design processes are re-examined through the lenses of circular thinking and upcycling approaches.
Material is evaluated not as a finished object, but as a process. The act of making is treated as a tool for thinking, observing, and learning through direct experience. Students collect materials from various food waste sources, mix these materials in their raw state, test them, and transform them. Texture, consistency, and interactions are observed; heat is applied, materials are cooked, boiled, dried, and the process is repeated. The effects of temperature and time on form, color, and durability are monitored.
In this process, observing change is more important than controlling it. All production stages are documented; actions, tools, and processes are recorded through drawings. Production processes are transformed into readable information via diagrams. All acquired experiences, recipes, processes, and results are compiled into a “material cookbook”.
Course Instructors: Res. Assis. Dr. Hakan Tong, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Can Uzun, Res. Assis. Esra Kahveci, Res. Assis. Buse Özçelik, Res. Assis. Öykü Şimşek.
