SO?
Small and connected
Istanbul, TR

Founded in 2007 by Sevince Bayrak and Oral Goktas, SO? is an Istanbul-based studio focusing on design, architecture, and urbanism. Founding the studio after being commissioned to work on a research project by LSE Cities, their work today is a collaborative practice that ranges from public buildings to productive programmes and interdisciplinary territorial research projects.

 

The founding of SO?

We met on the first day of architecture school. It took sometime that we started to do things together, attend student competitions etc. In 2009, when Urban Age conference was held in Istanbul, we were commissioned a research project by LSE Cities, which led us found SO? legally.

 

Balancing office, university and home

Our day is split into three, office, university and home. Sometimes it gets really messy and things get complicated, and since what we do in the office mostly relates with what we teach at the university, there are not strict compartments of time and practice. There is always a lot to discover when we are out of the office but we also need time to stop and digest what we already learned.

 

Meeting expectations after a rocky road

It has been 14 years since I, Oral, graduated. In the past years, there were times we used to question our practice, whether or not we did what we really imagined in the beginning, but overall, at this point in our career, we are satisfied. The road we have passed was rocky and tough, but we arrived to a point where we can make research and design buildings related to our interest.

 

Collaborating and maintaining solidarity

Trying to keep our focus on what we already do and not doing the jobs that we don't feel like doing. In the last decade, we try to form an office as we imagined, we managed not to do very commercial, contradictory projects. In order to survive as a small studio in this age, we try to form solidarity with other young practices, collaborate when necessary.

founders sevince bayrak

office sevince bayrak

floating house sevince bayrak

chicken coop sevince bayrak

cabin on the border sevince bayrak

Photography Courtesy of SO?

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