The awards were given to the winners in the student competition “Advanced Transformation Design: From Construction Waste to Sculpture Design” organized in cooperation with Istanbul Technical University (ITU) “Landscape and Art” course and the construction company Benesta operating in Turkey.
Upcycling Design: From Construction Waste to Sculpture Design” international student competition was held for the first time this year with the theme of “rubbles come to life in art”. The award ceremony of the competition was attended by ITU Landscape Architecture Faculty Member Prof. Dr. Benesta Benleo was held at Acıbadem with the participation of Gülşen Aytaç, sculptor Asaf Erdemli, Benesta General Manager Roksana Diker and competing students.
The competition organized with the participation of 26 students from the disciplines of landscape architecture, industrial design, architecture, city and regional planning, interior architecture; It was shaped by technical trips, workshops and trainings. The first of the visits to the Benesta office and construction site; The meeting took place by examining the waste materials on site and making sketches on the first ideas. In the second meeting held at the construction site, a practical work on the combination of materials was carried out by Asaf Erdemli and the final presentations of the design works of the students took place in the office.
After the final presentations, 4 students were awarded with the decision of the representatives of the Benesta team and the competition jury team.
Esra Balcı, a student of ITU Industrial Design department, won the first prize with her work titled "Safe Place", which was designed based on concepts such as "mother's womb, nature, embrace and calmness" on "feeling safe". ITU Landscape Architecture student Melisa Yurdakul was awarded the second prize for her work "Sculpture of Relax", which the Benesta project promised to present, integrating with nature and inspired by the comfortable breathing approach, and ITU Landscape Architecture student Berra Kafalıer was awarded the third prize with her work "Merge".
Selin Kaya, a student of ITU Industrial Design department, won the fourth prize with her work named "Flow Sculpture", which she designed based on the concept of "flow", which expresses the unique rhythm and continuity of nature. In the award ceremony, cash prizes were presented to the winners, and participation certificates were presented to the participating contestants.
“Very good prototypes came out with the dreams of young people”
ITU Landscape Architecture Department Lecturer Prof. Dr. Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA) after the award ceremony, Gülşen Aytaç stated that they opened an elective course on landscape and art within the body of interior landscape architecture and said, “When we thought about what we can do to make this course more productive, we took our sculpture artist Asaf Erdemli with us as an art consultant. Architectural Photographer Emre Dörter also took part and we conducted this course together.” said.
Explaining that they are trying to make the lesson that combines different disciplines more productive, Aytaç made the following assessment:
“It has been a very good process. Asaf Bey gave critiques to the children every week. When we look at it from the student's point of view, it is very valuable that the students who are in the last year reveal a work of art and that it will be applied. As ITU Faculty of Architecture, we always like these associations in such relationships, be it industry, construction sector, architectural firms. In this context, I would like to thank Benesta for their vision for sponsoring us, supporting students and trying to reveal young talents.”
Benesta General Manager Roksana Diker stated that they are an international company and they have 5 principles and said, “The first is international engineering experience, the second is functionality. In our third principle, we pay attention to use aging and non-aging materials. Fourth, we take care to build timeless structures. Fifth, we attach importance to building structures that are marvels of architecture and design.” she said.
Emphasizing that they always attach importance to natural materials, greenery, sustainability and recycling, Diker said:
“In this context, we thought together with ITU, what we can do together, what we can do from waste materials that are not used in construction, since we attach great importance to art and young people. We gave a task to students from the faculty of architecture. We are building a 15 thousand square meter park in Benesta Benleo Acıbadem. We wanted to see what kind of sculptures we can place in this park from waste materials and what we can do. We did this in cooperation with ITU. Young people dream very well, this is very important for us. Very beautiful prototypes have emerged with the dreams of young people. Now we set out to bring them to life. We will make real sculpture sizes and keep them alive in our Benleo Park. We will continue such artistic competitions in the international arena. The dreams of young people give us hope. We will make artistic activities sustainable and continue to include and support young people in our project for art activities.”
The winning work will be exhibited in Benleo Park of Benesta Benleo Acıbadem.
Sculptor Asaf Erdemli, on the other hand, stated that they knew the materials at Benesta Benleo Acıbadem and visited the waste materials one by one and said, “We also made some experiments with the students. They tried welding. We prepared a workshop for them. We have prepared presentations on how we use materials, on how many artists around the world handle this. They did research on them and presented us with the examples they liked.” he said.
Stating that the students started to develop a project from these inferences after they understood the main idea of Benesta Benleo Acıbadem, Erdemli concluded his words as follows.
“This is a process that takes about 3-4 weeks. This process has turned into a project where they can tell the story more accurately, be more suitable for this project, and present their point of view in their own discipline, with reductions and changes. Then the mockups started. They saw that the things they thought about, drew and modeled on the models were not that good in the models, and a change started again over this. Finally, they reached the finals. It was a busy schedule for them, but we finished it quickly.
The award ceremony was held today. The awards are a decision made together with the company's officials, myself and my professors at the head of this project. We finalized one of them and came to the physical production part of Benesta Benleo Acıbadem to be exhibited as long as this project exists, in Benleo Park. We will do this again with the work of my friend who came first.”
The award ceremony of the “Upcycling Design: From Construction Waste to Sculpture Design” competition ended after a group photo shoot.