Open Studio | Open Studio provided design students and young professionals with a shared environment in which they could work on their projects, exchange ideas and learn from one another. An expert designer accompanied the participants throughout the session.
Open Studio took place at Kuzguncuk Pier on Wednesday, 13 April, from 14.00 to 18.00, with the participation of architect and academic Bilge Bal.
Applications were submitted by sending a letter of intent of no more than 250 words to [etkinlik@turkiyetasarimvakfi.org](mailto:etkinlik@turkiyetasarimvakfi.org). Participation was limited to 10 people, and the application deadline was Tuesday, 12 April, at 17.00.
Bilge Bal is an Istanbul-based architect, researcher and academic. She graduated from the Department of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University, ranking second in both her department and faculty. She completed the Architectural Design master’s programme at Istanbul Bilgi University, where she was admitted with a full merit scholarship, ranking first in both the programme and the institute. At the time of the event, she was completing her doctoral dissertation, Drawing the Line: A Close Look at Architectural Drawing, in the Architectural Design PhD Programme at Istanbul Technical University.
Between 2013 and 2021, Bal worked as a full-time faculty member at Istanbul Bilgi University’s Faculty of Architecture, focusing on first-year education through basic design and architectural drawing studios. From 2018 onwards, her doctoral research formed the basis of Architectural Drawing Studios I and II, which she conceived as open studios for first-year students at Istanbul Bilgi University. She served as the academic coordinator of both studios from 2020 to 2021 and designed their three-year approach and main structure. Through the Atlas of Drawings platform, she shared the studios’ three-year journey and her doctoral research in various settings.
Under the title Lines of/for/among/around Architecture, she organised one-day and semester-long exhibitions, including one held at Versus Art Project, as well as a competition, online and in-person workshop series, national and international talks and academic gatherings.
In 2018, she joined the coordination team of a project exhibited at Marinaressa Gardens at the invitation of Global Art Affairs as a collateral event of the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale. She was selected for GEMMS 2021, the Young Architects Selection and Exhibition, as one of the young creatives under the age of 40 contributing to architectural culture. At the time of the event, she was working to establish a Drawing Center in Istanbul focusing on different states of the line.
Bal’s interests include the relationship between architecture and literature, maps as urban and architectural narratives, architectural representation technologies, architectural drawing theory, and the relationships between drawing and text and between lines and words. She has delivered invited lectures and led drawing workshops on these subjects. Her articles have been published in journals including XXI, Mimarlık, METU JFA and Tasarım+Kuram.
She co-edited Müzecilik Yazıları / Halil Edhem with Elçin Gen (Istanbul: İletişim Publications, 2020) and Continental Capitals: Paris, Berlin with İhsan Bilgin (Istanbul: Istanbul Bilgi University Publications, 2016). She also edited Muhafaza / Mimarlık (Istanbul: İletişim Publications, 2019) and contributed to the edited volume Arzu Mimarlığı: Mimarlığı Düşünmek ve Düşlemek (Istanbul: İletişim Publications, 2012).
Approaching drawing instruments as actors, Bal regularly contributes to Manifold, where she critically examines these tools and their conventional capacities. She began the series Elin Araçları, Soyu Tükenen Çizim Enstrümanları in 2017 and has also explored design education at the intersection of digital technologies and hand production.
bilgebal.com
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