Ali Dur (Istanbul, 1986)
Ali Dur is an architect, designer and a researcher based in Istanbul. He has received his bachelor degree at ITU Istanbul and continued his studies at The Cooper Union with a graduate thesis in MArch 2 Program. Ali is the receiver of Archiprix 1st prize of 2008. His multimedia / research work, New New Babylon, has been shown at the CAA iConference and The Festival of Ideas for The New City in 2011, alongside a special screening & discussion event at Cabinet Brooklyn, New York. An article covering the same project, co-written with McKenzie Wark (Gamer Theory, Hacker Manifesto), has been published in October Journal’s Fall Issue (MIT Press) same year. Ali had been the contributing editor of THAT Magazine for Architecture and has been invited to take part in the 2nd International Architecture Biennial in Antalya where he constructed an open-sourced structure of 120 square meters, reflecting on the theme “Template”. He was a member of the Local Advisory team for the 2nd Design Biennial of Istanbul.
Ali taught design studios at various institutions in Istanbul and other cities for over 9 years, and currently holds a full-time faculty position at Kadir Has University. He still travels between various happenings of lectures, talks and workshops, all alongside individual research and architectural practice. He is also a PhD candidate of Architectural Design at ITU, advancing on his previous studies undertaken back in New York. Since late 2014, he is operating under DURSTUDIO, a joint platform of his theoretical and practice endeavours, pursuing architectural research in varying scales of projects and with several cooperative bodies.
Online Portfolio: durstudio.us & issuu Updates: fb.com/otherplaces.us & fb.com/durstudio.us
Contact: alidurx@gmail.com
23rd & 5th (Manhattan, New York City) & Other Places
This intersection (which also was the very first name for the site and still appears in the site’s internal links) stands for the crossing locale of the crosstown 23rd Street and the 5th Avenue of Manhattan, New York City. It is home to the beautiful Madison Square Park besides the marvelously located Flatiron Building with its double face finalizing the blocks both on B’way and 5th Ave. And the face on the latter, which used to entitle this blog, is the composer’s favorite sight, while the strip of Fifth Avenue between 14th and 23rd streets being his favorite walk in the city.
Alongside these, Ali had arrived at the idea and the concept of ‘a-very-well-documented-and-connected-blog’ right on the Madison Sq. Park, after a walk on 5th Ave, returning from a visit at the Lang College, New School where he was working on his research (11th & 6th).
The blog has its name changed in early 2014, titled “other-places”, a concept that is very much central to Ali’s own approach of understanding things and relating them as a mode of research, and also much central to his own teaching methodology in studio. The header image still depicts the 23rd Street and 5th Avenue crossing on the Manhattan Grid.
a street view from Chelsea, New York City.
other-places 