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EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF MAT-BUILDING FOR THE CREATION OF UNIVERSALLY DESIGNED ENVIRONMENTS Eren, Yasemin M. Arch., Department of Architecture Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Emel Ak&ouml / zer Co-Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Halime Demirkan June 2004, 152 Pages The goal of this study is to reread the strategies of formal organization in architecture, which are called &ldquo / mat-building&rdquo / and &ldquo / mat-urbanism&rdquo / , exploring their potential to contribute to the creation of universally designed built environments in the 21st century. The idea of mat-building was first delineated by Alison Smithson in 1974, in her article &ldquo / How to Recognize and Read Mat-Building,&rdquo / by means of its traditional and modern examples. The concept of universal design was first used in 1970&rsquo / s and reinterpreted by the American architect Ronald Mace in 1985. Since then, it has become a widely accepted design approach that is also known as &lsquo / inclusive design&rsquo / and &lsquo / design for all&rsquo / . Mat-building can be considered as a viable design approach that can respond to the crucial need for equally accessible, adjustable and adaptable built environments for all people all over the world. The study aims not only to evaluate the exemplary mat like configurations in light of the universal design principles. It also tries to point to the new ways for developing creative ideas and design theories, and emphasizes the significance of implementing the universal design approach in contemporary architecture and urbanism.

This study aims to discuss the generative possibilities of reading architectural form by focusing on selected interpretations of the Venice Hospital project by Le Corbusier. By presenting complementary and competing readings of the project, it examines different design strategies in the formal organization of the Venice Hospital. It shows that the Venice Hospital project, displaying the characteristics of both a &ldquo / field&rdquo / organization and a well-articulated object, demands a reconsideration of the occasionally overstated distinction between them. First, it introduces interpretations of the Venice Hospital as a field and/or mat-building phenomenon, which emphasize its relevance as a precedent for contemporary formal explorations. The complexity of the Venice Hospital project requires appealing to other reading strategies as well. Based on the discussion initiated by Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter in &ldquo / The Crisis of the Object: The Predicament of Texture,&rdquo / and owing to Alan Colquhoun&rsquo / s analysis of the project&rsquo / s geometrical system in &ldquo / Formal and Functional Interactions,&rdquo / this study proceeds by exploring the way the Venice Hospital becomes &ldquo / an object performing like a texture.&rdquo / It attempts to decipher Colquhoun&rsquo / s remarks and his diagrams concerning the geometrical system through the technique of the &ldquo / plan analysis&rdquo / introduced by Klaus-Peter Gast. The Venice Hospital project is also studied as an example of transparent spatial organization, in light of the conceptual framework developed by Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky in their &ldquo / Transparency&rdquo / articles. Starting from these interpretations of the Venice Hospital project, this study aims at bringing into discussion the nature of the devices or techniques of formal organization that can mediate between architecture and urbanism. These devices are examined in light of the framework constituted by the concepts of &ldquo / device&rdquo / and &ldquo / material,&rdquo / elucidated by the Russian Formalists. The &ldquo / device and material relationship&rdquo / that was invoked in the formalist tradition of literary criticism, is reformulated for the field of architecture, and it is discussed with its capacity to initiate generative and inclusive interpretations of works of architecture as precedents.