Studio Istanbul opens with urban labs

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News

The global network of Studio-X spaces are a new kind of international workshop in which the minds can think together America, Africa, Europe, and Asia.

Borusan Holding’s new art space, Studio-X Istanbul, opens in Istanbul. The venue is an off-campus event space and urban futures think tank run by the Columbia University GSAPP, part of the Studio-X Global Initiative. Studio X exists in Beijing, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, New York and Rio de Janeiro. Here in Istanbul, the lab will be creating new programs and think tank groups for urban solutions and urban issues. There will be many exhibitions, seminars and as well as discussion groups at Studio X Istanbul.
There will be many research projects and Studio X will have urban laboratories. 

During the first year, the laboratory will be open for research and will be used as a research center, Selva Gürdoğan, Studio X director will open the doors for urban laborites. 

Studio-X Istanbul’s first exhibition will be ‘Collecting Architecture Territories.’ 

Studio-X Istanbul is organized around the traditional setting of the design studio found in architecture schools all over the world: a simple open loft-like space that fosters collaborative exploration, an empty room that welcomes new people and new ideas.

Studio-X is a global network of advanced research laboratories for exploring the future of the built environment. With locations in the downtown cores of New York, Beijing, Amman, Mumbai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, Tokyo and now Istanbul, it forms a new kind of architecture for real-time sharing of projects, people and ideas. Studio-X Istanbul is energized by this architecture of sharing, and seeks to return the favor by stimulating and inspiring local, regional and global communities. It generates new modes of thinking about the most urgent issues facing our shared world.

The global network of Studio-X spaces are a new kind of international workshop in which the best minds from Columbia University can think together with the best minds in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Each Studio-X is located in the liveliest part of the historic downtown of a leadership city at the heart of a major region of the world. 

The first Studio-X

The first Studio-X was set up as a pilot project in downtown Manhattan in 2008. It established a decisive reputation for innovation through its dense program of research projects, exhibitions, competitions, workshops, publications, performances, and debates attracting exciting minds from all fields. Equally dynamic Studio-X spaces in downtown Beijing, Amman, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro followed. Plans for Istanbul, Johannesburg, and Moscow are being completed. Studio-X is not a typical university branch aiming to export leadership education and research around the globe. On the contrary, our colleagues around the world are the leaders in a cross-cultural, cross-disciplinary, and cross-continental exchange within and between diverse regions. Those regions undergoing the most radical transformation have the most to teach us about the future of cities. The continuous flow of exciting ideas and people between these sister Studio-X spaces turns the simple idea of an open collaborative studio into an unprecedented global network aimed at the brightest possible future.

The organization of the open space keeps changing as an array of tables, chairs, computers, and screens are rearranged depending on which teams are using it and which events are taking place.
This central workspace is supplemented by: a book gallery and reading room that displays unique research publications from around the different Studio-X locations not found in a typical bookstore; an interactive video interface showing what is happening in the other Studio-X spaces in real time; a gallery space displaying unique exhibitions curated locally or between Studio-X spaces; a space for public lectures; a meeting room for more private discussions.