‘The Regime of Building Is Deeply Flawed’: A Q&A With Graham Foundation Grantee Alican Taylan

2021-09-01T12:36:00-04:00

With exhibitions ranging from an exploration of the structural qualities of Black hairstyling techniques to an examination of local carnival architecture in Trinidad, this year's crop of Graham Foundation Production and Presentation grants has joined a field of notable proposals in their inquiry into the future of architecture and the built environment. Among the twelve grantees in the category, Alican Taylan stands out for his criticism of capitalistic development schemes, industry norms that are out of touch with human needs, and exploitative practices that take advantage of impending ecological emergencies.

Taylan, an architectural designer, critic, and engineer, had been reading Lefebvre and working on marine projects after undergrad when the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul triggered a shift in his thinking. The protests furthered the idea for him that space is indeed political and sparked an interest in research topics at the center of his forthcoming exhibition. In early ...

Architecture after capitalism, in a world without work

2016-03-18T10:32:00-04:00

“A spider conducts operations that resemble those of a weaver, and a bee puts to shame many an architect in the construction of her cells,” writes Karl Marx in Das Kapital, likely the most direct invocation of architecture in his influential, and controversial, writings. “But what distinguishes the worst architect from the best of bees is this, that the architect raises his structure in imagination before he erects it in reality.”

Archinect - Features

‘The Regime of Building Is Deeply Flawed’: A Q&A With Graham Foundation Grantee Alican Taylan

Architecture after capitalism, in a world without work