ELIF KENDIR

Elif worked as a lecturer and research assistant at the Computer Aided Design Unit in Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul between 1999 and 2005. In the meantime, she has also participated in national and international design competitions and conferences, organised workshops and exhibitions, and contributed regularly to architectural magazines as an author and translator. In 2005, she has formed a design collective named Fol with Ceren Balkir. She is currently on a scholarship to conduct her work as a full time PhD researcher at SIAL under the supervision of Prof. Mark Burry.

Research Abstract
Learning from Craft – Sustaining Intangible Heritage through a Material-Conscious Design Praxis

This research aims to investigate material knowledge inherent in craft based architectural production and seeks to reintegrate a context-driven and material conscious approach to design. The epistemological basis of the discussion will be provided by the Aristotelian distinction between the three types of knowledge: techne – technical knowledge; episteme – scientific knowledge; and phronesis – moral-practical knowledge. The research will specifically focus on the reconciliation of technical know-how with moral-practical concerns. The main argument will entail the notion of craft based practices as an important part of intangible heritage, and the anticipated final outcome will seek to establish the basis for a methodology to sustain and further the unarticulated knowledge in those practices.

Exhibitions, Grants & Prizes

Residency in Artoteek Den Haag, Holland, exhibition fol@ypenburg, February 2007

“Prêt-à-Construire – Recladding Maison Domino”, Growthspurt exhibition, AIA/ACADIA Fabrication Conference, 2004

AIA-TAP ACADIA Travelling Scholarship, 2004

Honorary Mention in National Design Competition for the UIA 2005 Congress Valley in Istanbul, 2004

UIA International Ideas Competition for the Port District of Izmir – Honorary Mention, 2002

UIA International Ideas Competition “Water and Architecture”– Ovidio Wappenstein Ulreich Prize, 2001

Venice Biennial International Ideas Competition “City for the Third Millennium: Less Aesthetics, More Ethics”– Catalogued entry, 1999

Graduate scholarship of the Turkish Ministry of Education, 1997-1998

Exhibition 06, EASA 1994, Liège, Brussels, 1994

Selected Publications

“Prêt-à-Construire – An Educational Inquiry into Computer Aided Fabrication”, Post-Digital: The Human Factor, Proceedings of the X^th SIGraDi Conference, 2006

“The Flow”, UIA 2005 Istanbul Congress Catalogue, 07/2005

“Woven Topographies”, UIA 2005 Istanbul Congress Catalogue, 07/2005

“IT Support in Architectural Praxis: From the Representational to the Constructional”, Mimarlik, # 321, January-February 2005 (in Turkish).

“Prêt-à-Construire – Recladding Maison Domino”, Fabrication: Examining the Digital Practice of Architecture, Proceedings of the AIA/ACADIA Fabrication Conference, 2004

“Idea and Phenomena: Interview with Steven Holl”, XXI, 2003/11 (in Turkish)

“Interview with Hani Rashid: On Architecture at the Interface”, XXI, 2003/10 (in Turkish)

Appropriation of the Gigantic: On the Relationship Between Architecture and Modern Technology, Unpublished Master’s Thesis, 2001.

“Para-Sites”, Concept, 2001/11

“Scale-less”, Arredamento Mimarlýk, 2000/11 (in Turkish)

“Implications of the Design Studio of the Future”, Arredamento Mimarlýk, 2000/04 (in Turkish)

“Strategies of Appropriation”, in exhibition catalogue for La Biennale di Venezia : 7th International Architecture Exhibition, Città : Less Aesthetics More Ethics,  [edited by: Doriana O. Mandrelli, Pino Brugellis, Michele Azzopardi], c2000.

“Bergama Interface”, Archiscope 5, July-August 1999 (in Turkish)

“Howlings in Favour of Urbanism: The Divergence of Politics and Aesthetics in the Situationist International”, [http://korotonomedya.net/theoria/index_tur.html] 1998