OCCA, the Installation of KHAS Architecture Students at Rezan Has Museum

This installation project is the culmination of “Parametric Design: Minimal Tectonics” seminar completed during Spring 2022 academic term of Architecture program where research is completed in three stages. In the first stage, students conducted “form-finding” experiments using the soap film technique developed by Frei Otto in the 1960s and produced different minimal surfaces. In the second stage, the produced geometries were replicated and varied using parametric modeling tools. At the last stage, the selected design was fabricated using digital fabrication algorithms and produced from laser cut forex sheets and rivet joints.

The project situated within the contrasting historical context of the museum, takes its inspiration after Ferrea Occa (Glass Sponge), which creates four-legged intricate structural surfaces. Considered by some experts to be the longest living form in the world, these Hexactinellid sponges were studied and documented in 1904 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel in Kunstformen der Natur (Artistic Forms of Nature). The design form combines two hedron geometries resembling sponges that are articulated by branches facing in different directions. The produced surface geometry is built by fixing black and white stripes running in opposite directions before being hanged from four points combined with steel ropes.

Project Team

Project Lead: Sabri Gökmen

Fabrication / Assembly: Muvaffak Ali Akyüz, Louis Folkens, Fatma Yeşim Kızılbulut, Özce Özköse, Melike Ayyüce Güneş, Mustafa Ilgaz Aluç, Şevval Büşra Özmen

Graphics / Images: Abbas Khan, Mohammed Jarrar, Ahmed Barzan, Ali Ozan Güvenç