Intelligent infrastructures: anatomy of the METU Campus

2022-2-02
Ağırsoy, Ömer Faruk
Designed and constructed with the ambition of generating “a small city” in the 1960s, Middle East Technical University (METU) Campus is facilitated with a sophisticated infrastructural design. This thesis focuses on the complex infrastructural systems, needs, and problems of the campus. The goal is to re-investigate the university campus as an early model for modern, sustainable, and liveable urban environments. This thesis provides documentation and representation of campus infrastructure from campus scale to the architecture of a selected building. Infrastructural inquiry of the campus and its architectural anatomy enable to reconsider the campus as a living organism with continuous flows, operative systems, and networks of activities. This architectural experiment blurs the distinctions between infrastructure and architecture and redefines the METU Campus as a collection of a new type of physical, social, and natural infrastructures. This contextual research is supported by a conceptual design proposal for the intelligent urban development and transformation of the campus, buildings, and the infrastructure. Infrastructure is reconsidered in this proposal in the light of recent technological developments, social transformations, and environmental challenges of the “Information Age”. The aim is to transform the early conceptions and the vision of the campus, which was modern, hygienic, and rational into intelligent, circular, and responsive environments.

Suggestions

METU Campus Gate A1: an architectural detail
Özsoy, Ayşe Setenay; Savaş Sargın, Ayşen; Department of Architecture (2022-12-08)
This study focuses on one of the iconic examples of modern architecture in Ankara, Middle East Technical University (METU) Campus. The purpose of this study is to investigate the significance of the Middle East Technical University Campus, a prominent modern architecture artefact in Ankara. The METU campus has had a defined and autonomous land since its establishment. As a gated campus, it was interacted with the city through its monumental entrance gate, A1. This complex structure takes place in the urban ...
Gated landscapes: METU Forest and the formation of a topological ground
Rraja, Sara; Savaş Sargın, Ayşen; Department of Architecture (2022-8-29)
With the first tree planted in December 1961, METU Campus’ Afforestation Project was a crucial move in the formation of the campus as an establishment of autobiography, which documents a higher aspiration for change in the whole society. The Campus’ Forest, which transforms into a well-thought landscape design as it approaches the main campus, forms a sustainable, ecologic, and endurable ecosystem in the midst of the city. The campus landscape becomes a physical entity and ensures its endurance depending on...
Evolving Paths: Undergraduate Design Education through Graduate and Generative Research with a Particular Focus on Sustainability
Doğan, Çağla; Turhan, Senem (Informa UK Limited, 2016-01-01)
Design considerations that take into account the diverse issues of sustainability have become a central source of inspiration for third-year design students in the Department of Industrial Design at Middle East Technical University. These considerations include the development of products that can evolve in line with local needs, product maintenance, repair and upgrade, and the effective use of resources and have been integrated into various design projects relating to diverse product sectors (e.g. small ho...
COGNITIVE CURATION: THE METU CAMPUS AS A DISPLAY OBJECT
ERKOÇ, DAMLA NUR; Savaş Sargın, Ayşen; Department of Architecture (2022-2-11)
The aim of this study is to present a contemporary approach to the process of archiving, preserving, and displaying the architecture of the campus of Middle East Technical University. Considering the process as a form of reproduction of architecture, the methodological term “cognitive curation” is introduced. As the term itself suggests, cognitive curation blends architecture with concepts borrowed from both cognitive and curatorial studies. While cognitive studies help to interpret the architectural ideas ...
Dialectical urbanism: Tactical instruments in urban design education
Sargın, Güven Arif; Savaş Sargın, Ayşen (2012-12-01)
For the last decade, the Advanced Architectural Research Studio at the Department of Architecture, Middle East Technical University of Ankara, has concentrated its efforts on different cities in order to question their underlying problems, from social to physical; and to search for alternative urban design solutions. Relied on the premises of the theory of dialectical urbanism, two terms, "context" and "programme," have been revisited in order to decipher the complexity of alternative urbanizations, in whic...
Citation Formats
Ö. F. Ağırsoy, “Intelligent infrastructures: anatomy of the METU Campus,” M.Arch. - Master of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, 2022.