2025 - 2026 Fall
Landform & Built Envir.Studio
"Landscape As A Text"

Landform and Built Environment Studio - PEM209E (CRN 13883) “Landscape As A Text” will be conducted by Çisem Demirel Koyun (Ph.D.) in the 2025-2026 Fall Semester. 

The studio approaches landscape not as a static object or purely visual form, but as a living text—a dynamic record of natural processes, cultural practices, and layered meanings that call for interpretation. Grounded in Landscape Hermeneutics, which adapts Hans-Georg Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics to the landscape realm, and the Legible Landscape method developed by Van Toorn and IVN, the studio cultivates a way of working in which observation and design unfold through dialogue.
The aim is to decode and re-articulate the language of place, first through critical reading, then through design.
Module 1 – Legible Landscapes: First module develops a multi-sensory site readings of the Paşabahçe shoreline through vertical, horizontal, seasonal, and cultural–historical perspectives, producing maps, collages, and narrative boards.

Module 2 – Re-writing Paşabahçe: Second module transforms these insights into a multi scale topographical solutions, integrating heritage, coastal dynamics, and neighborhood memory.