Contextual Architecture, Geospaces, and the Metaverse: An Interview with Alper Derinboğaz

Along with the thousands of designers and craftsmen that took part in this year’s Milan Design Week to showcase their innovative creations, renowned architects from across the world were also present in the Italian city to share how they tackle the challenges faced by our environment and societies today.

During the week-long event, ArchDaily had the chance to speak with Alper Derinboğaz, architect and founder of Istanbul-based Salon Alper Derinboğaz, selected among ArchDaily’s 2020 Young Practices, to discuss the firm’s responsibility towards the environment, seeing architecture as part of the Earth within Geospace‘s framework, challenges facing the new generations of architects and their access to information, and experimenting with the Metaverse.

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The architect elaborated on the types of projects that his firm ventures in, including product, urban, and interior design, and how environmental responsibility is the core of the firm’s ethos. The architect also talks about Geospaces, which is an extended visual essay of the work of Salon Alper Derinboğaz over the past decade, that highlights ideas, projects, and drawings that approach architecture based on empathy with earth. Further exploring how the firm makes spaces rather than seeing architecture “as the business of construction”, the interview also includes a discussion about the Istanbul City Museum project, which has been in construction for almost 6 years, and how it caters to its archeologically-significant site, as well as the future of architecture and the challenges facing the practice.