Ambiguous: Designing the Fictional
Ambiguity, defined as the state of being open to multiple interpretations and a lack of clarity, is an ever-present quality in all spaces.
In the specific context of Urla, these “heterotopic”, fragmented ambiguities—metaphorical and tangible—are progressively vanishing. The project conceptualizes these ambiguous elements starting from the Urla Quarantine Island as isolated “islands” within the urban fabric, aiming not only to understand the dispersed uncertain conditions but also to reclaim them as opportunities for redefining the city.
While doing so, it critiques the restrictive nature of development plans, challenging their tendency to fragment cities into rigid two-dimensional sectors, forcibly zoning them. This method, while practical, often erases the nuanced and ambiguous qualities that form the intrinsic nature of urban life. While analyzing the context of ambiguity, the “code” of the city delves into notions of sociocultural life, lost aspects lying beneath the city such as The bridge Alexander the Great built, lost ancient necropolises and settlements below the city, or natural elements such as dried rivers buried below the concrete. The project moves beyond surface-level analysis, delving into the city’s layers through cross-sectional studies. By referencing both subterranean and surface-level components, it seeks to rewrite the city’s hidden and ambiguous “code”, offering a counter-narrative to the erosion of its ambiguous essence.
In this exploration, the project ventures into philosophical and fictional realms, drawing inspiration from Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. It interrogates themes such as the “uncanniness of the unknown” to frame ambiguity not as a limitation but as a creative and transformative force, which leads to the generation of a “living” composition in the center of the city where all the coded ambiguous qualities are given life -with architecture- where every notion or reality is unique and present in every part of this composition. Ultimately, the project aspires to position Urla at the threshold of a new century, shaping a dynamic architectural and urban identity that always changes through inherent and future ambiguities and possibilities. Always building itself regarding the ambiguous nature.
