Introduction for a Contemporary Earth Architecture in Turkey

Building with earth used to be common in the whole world. Industrialisation took over the construction from craftsmanship. From that time on, innovations, researches and new designs were excluding earth material. Nowadays, it suffers from a lack of knowledge and trust as well as of a bad image (architecture for poor or architecture of the past). We believe in the potential of this material and it’s our mission to rediscover all together the possibilities through building ambitious design and participatory building sites.

Saving energy, landscape and local craftsmanship is an important issue in Turkey. Earth material is a logical answer to those problems as it has been in the history. Anatolia has also seen many beautiful examples of earth architecture. To face ecological and social issues in both rural and urban areas, it’s necessary to focus on a contemporary architecture with strong ethic and aesthetic values in Turkey.

Timur Ersen

Timur Ersen was born in 1989 and graduated in 2012 from the School of Architecture of Lyon. After his master degree he has worked as a earth craftman for a year among Martin Rauch team in Basel on the building site of the House of Plant for Ricola, project designed by Herzog and De Meuron. After building site experience, he worked in Anna Heringer’s office, a young architect working with local resources with a high sense of ethic and aesthetic. Then he started his individual practice as an architect/builder by doing a small hut for a Permaculture center in Mexico. The project was published in an italian ecological magazine (Boundaries) and was nominated for the European Prize of Architecture Philippe Rotthier 2014. He recently settled in Istanbul believing that an architecture with strong ethic principles (local resources and local craftmanship) and design qualities (contemporary and innovative solutions) can help to face the environmental crisis.

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Yağmur Kutlar

Yağmur Kutlar was born in İstanbul in 1987 and graduated from Istanbul Technical University Urban and Regional Planning Department in 2009. She is still working on her master thesis in ITU focusing on the urban communities in rural areas. Since 2010 she has been interested in sustainable design, permaculture and natural building. By participating the first Ecological and Natural Building Workshop in Bayramiç she has been volunteering in ecovillages. Till 2012 she has been part of a collective in İzmir and worked in one of the restoration of an old stone building and construction of a new cob building. With the "Association of Architecture for All" she participated in Ödemiş-Ovakent Workshop and experimented with the mud plaster and dreaming of experimenting more with the earthen architecture, by learning from the locals, in public / school projects.