Stitch Diegesis
B.Arch. graduation project, 2019
Location: City Center, Skopje
For my graduation studio, I worked in Skopje to develop an urban program reconsidering the structure, resources and the history of the city. The objective of the brief was to unveil the multi-layered structure of the city through architectural interventions, therefore re-minding Skopje, learning from its history and interrogating the current conditions.
Stitch Diegesis focuses on the urban art culture of Skopje, which is unavoidable once you take a stroll down the stone bridge of the city. From the little sculpture of a mid-air swimmer about to dive in to the Vardar River and the teary eyed bronze girl at the Parc de la Francophonie, to the paint marks on Porta Macedonia left behind by the Colorful Revolution; the main inspiration behind Stitch Diegesis is the artistic resilience and the bravado of the city after the many tragedies, destructions and divisons it faced throughout its history.
As the name suggests, this project is a narration (or diegesis) of the city through an architectural stitch. The stitch is an amorphic walkway structure passing through the city. This promenade defines the city itself as an artwork (or as a series of artworks), mimicking the corridors of a museum hall. And like any other stitch through a tear or a scar, it hopes to mend and to heal.
The stitch then reaches beyond the center to create a habitat at the edge of the city. The habitat merges with the already existing abandoned buildings, and reclaims them as studios, working spaces and communal housings for the urban artists with scarce funds and resources.
As the final part of the project, the stitch generates an urban art museum and institute at the very center of the city. The cave like cavities within the museum allude to the caves we painted and lived in some time ago, and through that, the structure investigates the relationship between the museum, the artist and the city.
More information about the brief can be found at http://www.odtuarchgrad.com/2019/savas-sorguc-erkal-oktem-sarica