Architekturburo Zeytinoglu Architects

Shanghai World Expo

Actually, there is nothing new about amorphous-shaped houses, but the design process has changed dramatically. Special software for computer-supported design allows the generation of new building techniques that cause new social discussions…

What was the most difficult issue about working within this building type or the most unexpected challenge that may have influenced new thought in your project?

Probably the most difficult issue about working within this unconventionally shaped building was using conventional industrial prefabricated materials like steel beams etc. and implement them into a pavilion with no rectangular design.

Did this project expand or evolve your role as an architect in any way? In general, do you feel that the role of the architect is changing on current projects?

Basically, the role of the architect has not changed ever since someone designed some kind of accommodation. It is the techniques, the way things are put together, that have changed.

There is also an ongoing specialization – several specialist consultants contribute their know-how and the architect puts it all together in terms of designing the whole thing.

How is your building possible today in a way that it may not have been before and how have trends in technology and society inspired new thought and solutions?

Actually, there is nothing new about amorphous-shaped houses, but the design process has changed dramatically. Special software for computer-supported design allows the generation of new building techniques that cause new social discussions, as well as new social behavior.

However, I believe that the idea of designing or building something somehow is still derived from ourselves, from our brain. The design is still dependent on our input into sophisticated machines, though soon the time might come when our thinking is linked to clever machines in a way that a wish alone will suffice to create the building of our imagination.

In the context of this project, how is your office and design process being influenced by current trends in academic curricula and incoming young architects? In turn, how are current projects and processes guiding the ongoing reformulation and development of academic curricula?

I think that trends are not set by academic curricula, but by the way we live and by society itself. Especially in society there is never only one trend, but many very different ones. It will be a great challenge to make all these trends compatible with mankind by trying to create a trend which becomes a good one.