Evaluation Criteria of Parasitic Architecture

Year 2023, Volume: 9 Issue: 1, 37 - 51, 30.06.2023

Selin Arabulan , Mehmet Lank

Abstract

It has been observed in the literature that examples of installations, sculptures or building elements and their annexes are stated as parasitic architectural products. These misinformation also indicate that parasite architecture features are issues that need to be studied and discussed. Research problem is "can the determined features, land use, relocation, originality, flexibility, compatibility with human scale, ease of assembly, sustainability, be used in the questioning of parasitism of a building?"In the study, symbiosis, parasite and parasitic architecture were questioned in the literature. As a result of the concept and case analysis, the properties that will enable the structures to be characterized as parasites have been determined. Within the scope of the research, the parasitism of one hundred structures, which were obtained through literature research and considered as examples of parasitic architecture, were evaluated.Generalizations have been made by trying whether these determined features can be used in the questioning. There are a few main features that distinguish parasitic architecture from other architectural approaches. These features, which were determined as a result of the researches made on the literature and internet resources; are independence from space, relocation, flexibility, size, assembly, sustainability and originality. The most important thing to note here is that all these features follow each other. Each feature allows another feature to exist. In order to talk about the parasitism of a structure, the parasite must provide all these features.The aim of this study is to add descriptive new criterias as well as bringing together the existing ones, in a certain framework in order to define the concept of parasitic architecture by examining a limited number of sources related to parasitism. For this purpose, a significant number of samples found were examined according to the determined parameters by listing their tags and parasitism characteristics separately. As a result, it is determined that there are many installation and infill examples defined as parasites in the literature, although they are not parasites. It is considered that these false acceptances will decrease as number of studies explaining the concept and its examples increase.

Keywords

Symbiosis, symbiotic relationship, parasite, parasitic architecture, evaluation criteria

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