SEVİNCE BAYRAK

THE CARRIER BAG THEORY OF ARCHITECTURE

Please join the Historic Preservation program at GSAPP for a lecture by Sevi̇nce Bayrak, an architect based in Istanbul. She is the co-founder of SO? Architecture and Ideas.

This lecture explores the Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture, written by Sevince Bayrak in 2023 and inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s and Elizabeth Fisher’s Carrier Bag Theories. The theory reimagines a building as a container, a carrier bag or a pool—that hold the life stories of transformation, unpredictability, and messiness. Though recently formulated, it ties together Sevince’s architectural and academic work over the past decade.

The lecture will also present fragments of Istanbul’s history as well as its recent state between 2013–2023, related to the projects Sevince worked on with SO? and her parallel writings. This period coincides with Istanbul’s “construction addiction,” which left the city scattered with unused buildings and infrastructure. By defining a building as a container, the theory shifts the focus from creating architecture on empty plots to engaging with existing structures as sites of transformation. Therefore, the lecture will focus on both these existing structures and the architecture that emerged while transforming them.

Sevince Bayrak co-curated the exhibition Ghost Stories: The Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture for the Türkiye Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia in 2023, and co-authored a book of the same title. She also published, Bir Meydan Öyküsü: Beyazıt (A Story of a Square: Beyazıt), a book adapted from her PhD dissertation about the evolution of public space in Istanbul. She has been invited to lecture at Seoul National University, Swiss Architecture Museum, TU Delft and MAO Ljubljana among others. She is currently an Associate Professor at MEF University. Other realized projects include SUPRA, in Daegu, South Korea; Unexpected Hill at the Royal Academy of Arts, London; Lost Barrier at MAXXI, Rome; as well as a modular chicken coop, the adaptive reuse of a cultural center, and the repurposing of a swimming pool in Türkiye. Their interdisciplinary research project on post-earthquake housing, Hope on Water and Fold & Float, have been shown at the 4 th Istanbul Design Biennial, Luma Arles, MAXXI, and Danish Design Museum.

Columbia University campus access is restricted to Columbia affiliates (with a valid CUID) and to pre-approved guests. To attend an event at GSAPP, please register through the link below at least two business days in advance of the event to request campus access and bring your ID. Learn more about the current Columbia Campus access.

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The Preservation Lecture Series is organized by the MS in Historic Preservation program.