Which comes first; idea or material?

Material has an important place in our approach towards design. Working with different materials, deriving new and experimental outcomes from common materials with various techniques, and making trials to reveal the potentials of materials are imperative for our working process. Although it depends on the work and situation, we tend to handle idea and material together. Then again we do have more affection for materials and their potentials.

Who is your dream collaborator?

Nowadays we are in an age of collaboration, a time in which various disciplines get together to create ideas and approaches, to present new propositions. There are many artists, designers, and institutions we would like to work together in this sense. However, I wanted to answer your question by referring to Carlo Scarpa, whose experience I would have loved to benefit from. His knowledge on and approach towards materials and details still guide us in our works.

Is there anything you have recently read that you would recommend?

In addition to professional pieces I like to read books on current affairs. I recently read The Space Barons by Christian Davenport, who writes for The Washington Post. It is about how the geniuses of our time such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have established their status among the space race despite NASA’s prominence. What these figures go through as they enter the space race following the technology race might be interesting for those who would like to get a hold of contemporary matters.

What about an exhibition you wish you were a part of?

Dysfunctional, the project by Carpenters Workshop Gallery which was shown at this year’s [2019] Venice Biennale was exciting with regard to both content and display.

Which one of your own works excites you the most?

For product design it has to be Pebble in Marble, which we designed years ago using only a single plate marble. For this exhibition that featured Turkish marbles we used a marble titled “Afyon violet”, which revealed its potential with the form we gave even though it was in fact not that popular. The piece resembled a marble plate, exquisitely cut as time passed, with waves in the sea.

Among our projects the Heydar Aliyev International Airport in Baku stands apart. It was one of our first experiences with this size and scope. It was an iconic project in which we pulled away from the conventional airport typology and brought forward new propositions with regard to form, material, and experience.

More information on Autoban, the interdisciplinary design studio co-founded by Seyhan Özdemir, can be found here.