Family photos and architectural representation: Using photo-collage sketchbook to understand behaviour patterns in family apartment buildings

Seda Meral; Berrak Karaca Şalgamcıoğlu; Mehmet Emin Şalgamcıoğlu

doi:10.47818/DRArch.2023.v4i3099

Family photos and architectural representation: Using photo-collage sketchbook to understand behaviour patterns in family apartment buildings

Authors

Seda Meral Short Bio Istanbul Technical University

Seda Meral (BSc., Dokuz Eylul Uni., MSc., Yıldız Tech. Uni.) is an Architect and a PhD Candidate at Architectural Design Programme, Graduate School of ITU. Her current research areas are Architectural Design and Morphology, Housing, and Domestic Space Organisation.
Berrak Karaca Şalgamcıoğlu Short Bio Istanbul University

Berrak Karaca Şalgamcıoğlu holds Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Product Design BSc degrees and Mechanical Engineering MSc degree from Istanbul Technical University (ITU). She received her PhD degree in Industrial Product Design from ITU. She is currently an Assistant Professor and head of department at Istanbul University, Department of Industrial Design. Her research interests include inclusive design, design research methods, ageing and ethnography.
Mehmet Emin Şalgamcıoğlu Short Bio Istanbul Technical University

Mehmet Emin Şalgamcıoğlu (BSc. MSc. PhD., Istanbul Tech. Uni.) is an Architect and Associate Professor of Architectural Design in Istanbul Technical University. He was a visiting scholar in University of Michigan in 2010 and worked on several professional design projects previously. His current research areas are Architectural Design and Morphology, Space Syntax, Gentrification, Housing, and Domestic Space Organisation. He also has international and national architectural design competition awards as well as published design critics, book chapters, conference papers, and journal articles.

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.47818/DRArch.2023.v4i3099

Keywords:

Architectural research, family apartment buildings, family photos, qualitative inquiry, visual ethnography

Abstract

This article presents a three-step process of collecting, deconstructing and reconstructing family photos in ethnographic research investigating the sociocultural aspects of behaviour patterns in family apartment buildings. The first author conducted the study for her Ph.D. thesis in architectural design, supervised by the second and third authors. As an architect, the first author created a photo collage sketchbook, combining various representational techniques of her profession with family photographs. While observing the family apartment building and trying to understand the “gecekondu” where the participants lived before the family apartment building, the researcher realised that the interviews were insufficient, and this problem forced the use of a photo collage sketchbook. To synthesise ethnographic knowledge, research started with obtaining family photos. After extracting and grouping, the deconstruction process began. Deconstructed layers are then reconstructed by using various architectural representation techniques and text. This photo collage sketchbook has helped us understand various aspects of the family apartment buildings related to architecture and culture. While doing this, the sketchbook prepared with visual contents combined with short notes represents the data collecting, organising, analysing, interpretation, knowledge-making, and presentation stages. In working with a photo collage sketchbook, obtaining family photographs and overlapping the photographs and interviews’ narratives appear challenging. Therefore, collective interviews have been a critical move to compare and verify the memories recalled by the participants. While interviewing, it is vital to show the photos to every participant from a particular age group because they contribute differently to the photo components because of the place experience. So, this study is not about a set of instructions or tools but experiences about the process or approach to constructing ethnographic knowledge.

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

References

Arslan, R. (1989). Gecekondulaşmanın evrimi. Mimarlık Dergisi, 6(27), 34-37.
Bachelard, G. (1996). Mekanın Poetikası. (Translated by Aykut Derman). Istanbul: Kesit Yayınları. (Originally published, 1957)
Banks, M. (2001). Visual Methods in Social Research. London: Sage.
Berger, R. (2015). Now I see it, now I don’t: Researcher’s position and reflexivity in qualitative research. Qualitative Research, 15(2), 219-234. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468794112468475
Bonanno, L. (2019). I swear I hated it, therefore I drew it. Entanglements: Experiments in Multimodal Ethnography, 2(2), 39-55.
Breen, L. J. (2007). The researcher 'in the middle': Negotiating the insider/outsider dichotomy. The Australian Community Psychologist, 19(1), 163-174.
Byers, P. (1966). Cameras don't take pictures. Columbia University Forum, p.31.
Canal, O. G. (2004). Photography in the field: Word and image in ethnographic research. In A. I. Alfonso, L. Kurti & S. Pink (Eds), Working images: Visual research and representation in ethnography (pp. 28–42). Routledge: London and New York.
Cayer, A. (2018). From archive to office: The role of history in theories of architecture practice. Ardeth, (2), 34-51. https://doi.org/10.17454/ARDETH02.04
Chavez, C. (2008). Conceptualizing from the inside: Advantages, complications, and demands on insider positionality. The Qualitative Report, 13(3), 474-494. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2008.1589
Collier, J. & Collier, M. (1986). Visual anthropology: Photography as a research method. University of New Mexico Press: Albuquerque.
Cuff, D. (1992). Architecture: The Story of Practice. The MIT Press.
Denzin, N. K. & Lincoln Y. S. (2003). Strategies of qualitative inquiry. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Doucet, A. (2018). Decolonizing family photographs: Ecological imaginaries and nonrepresentational ethnographies. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, (47(6), 729-757. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241617744859
Ferracina, S. (2018). Designing living bricks: The architectural drawing as conversational platform. Ardeth, (2). 136-155. https://doi.org/10.17454/ARDETH02.09
Greene, M. (2014). On the inside looking in: Methodological insights and challenges in conducting qualitative insider research. The Qualitative Report, 19(29), 1-13. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2014.1106
Gottschling, P. (2018). Stories, stages and journeys: Narrating ecologies of practice in the plan of work report. Ardeth, (2), 118-135. https://doi.org/10.17454/ARDETH02.08
Ingold, T. (2011). Being alive: Essays on movement, knowledge and description. London and New York: Routledge.
Ingold, T. (2013). Making -anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture. London: Routledge.
İnceoğlu, A. (1999). Evin anlamı ve kentlileşme süreçleri (Eng: The meaning of home and processes of urbanization) [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Istanbul Technical University.
Jacobs, J. & Merriman, P. (2011). Practising architectures. Special issue of Social & Cultural Geography, 12 (3), 211-222. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2011.565884
Kaçar Tunç, G. (2020). Nitel araştırmalarda konumsallık ve düşünümsellik: Yakınlık ve mesafe arası müzakere [Positionality and reflexivity in qualitative research: Negotiation between rapport and distance]. Humanitas, 8(16), 249-266. https://doi.org/10.20304/humanitas.690347
Kuhn, A. (2007). Photography and cultural memory: A methodological exploration. Visual Studies, 22(3), 283-293. https://doi.org/10.1080/14725860701657175
Kuschnir, K. (2016). Ethnographic drawing: Eleven benefits of using a sketchbook for fieldwork. Visual Ethnography Journal, 5(1), 103-134. http://dx.doi.org/10.12835/ve2016.1-0060
Lawrence, R. J. (1987). What makes a house a home. Environment and Behavior, 19(2): 154-168. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916587192004
Loukissas, Y. (2012). Co-designers. Cultures of computer simulation in architecture. London - New York: Routledge.
Malinin, L. (2018). Situated design-thinking in architectural practice: Analyzing and extending Schön's epistemology. Ardeth, (2): 52-75. https://doi.org/10.17454/ARDETH02.05
Mommersteeg, B. (2018). The garden of bifurcating paths: Towards a multi-sited ecological approach to design. Ardeth, (2): 218-238. DOI: 10.17454/ARDETH02.19
Oppitz, M. (2001). Himalayan drawings: Robert Powell. Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich.
O'reilly, K. (2009). Key Concepts in Ethnography. London: Sage.
Özlem, D. (2015). Kültür bilimleri ve kültür felsefesi. Istanbul: Notos.
Pink, S. (2001). Doing visual ethnography: Images, media and representation in research. London: Sage.
Pink, S. (2013). Doing visual ethnography. Los Angeles: Sage.
Powell, K. (2010). Viewing places: Students as visual ethnographers. Art Education, 63(6), 44-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/00043125.2010.11519102
Qin, D. (2016). Positionality. In: The Wiley Blackwell encyclopedia of gender and sexuality studies (pp.1-2). NY: John Wiley and Sons.
Rakoff, R. (1977). Ideology in everyday life: The meaning of the house. Politics and Society, 1(7), 85-104. https://doi.org/10.1177/003232927700700104
Ramos, M.J. (2004). Drawing the lines: The limitations of intercultural ekphrasis. In A. I. Alfonso, L. Kurti & S. Pink (Eds), Working images: Visual research and representation in ethnography (pp. 135–155). Routledge: London and New York.
Rapoport, A. (1969). House form and culture. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Rapoport, A. (1980). Cross-cultural aspects of environmental design. In I. Altman (Ed.), Environment and Culture (pp. 7–46). Springer Science+Business Media.
Rapoport, A. (1988). Spontaneous settlements as vernacular design. In C.V. Patton (Ed.), Spontaneous Shelter (pp.51-77). Temple University Press.
Sağlamer, G., Wilkinson, N., İnceoğlu, A., Aksoy, M. & Paker, N. (1994). A comparative evaluation of different approaches in housing provision for low-income groups. International Symposium on People, Place and Development, University of Newcastle, CARDO.
Schön, D. A. (1987). Educating the reflective practitioner: Toward a new design for teaching and learning in the professions. Jossey-Bass.
Schwartz, D. (1989). Visual ethnography: Using photography in qualitative research. Qualitative Sociology, 12(2), 119-154.
Sharif, A. (2018). Ethnography of transfer: Exploring the dynamism of sustainable architectural design in Masdar. Ardeth, (2), 156-175. https://doi.org/10.17454/ARDETH02.10
Smitheram, J. & Kidd, A. (2018). 'Concrete drawing': An ethnographical study of design, matter and affect. Ardeth, (2), 176-195. https://doi.org/10.17454/ARDETH02.11
Stender, M. (2018). Man-made mountains and other traces of a fluctuating market: An anthropological view on unintended design. Ardeth, (2) 76-95. https://doi.org/10.17454/ARDETH02.06
Uraz, T. & Turgut, H. (1997). Culture, space, change and continuity from traditional Turkish house to squatter house. In M. Ünügür, O. Hacıhasanoğlu, & H. Turgut (Ed.), Culture & Space in the Home Environment (pp. 63-85). Dünya Yayıncılık, Istanbul.
Van Der Linden, V., Dong, H. & Heylighen, A. (2018). Architects' attitudes towards users: A spectrum of advocating and envisioning future use(rs) in design. Ardeth, (2), 196 216. https://doi.org/10.17454/ARDETH02.12
Weber, M. (1949). The methodology of the social sciences. NY: Free Press.
Yaneva, A. (2009a). The making of a building: A pragmatist approach to architecture. Oxford: Peter Lang.
Yaneva, A. (2009b). Made by the office for metropolitan architecture: An ethnography of design. Rotterdam: 010 Publishers.
Yılmaz Kaynar, S. (2014). Aile Apartmanında Yaşamanın Çocuk Ruh Sağlığı Üzerine Etkilerinin Değerlendirilmesi (Eng: Evaluation of the impact of living in family buildings on child and adolescent mental health) [Unpublished Master Dissertation]. Marmara University.
Yılmaz Kılıç, S. Z. (2021). The journey between homes: The multilayered meaning of home from the perspective of identity, belonging, and memory [Unpublished Master Dissertation]. Özyeğin University.

Downloads

PDF

188

164

Published

2023-12-17

How to Cite

Meral, S., Karaca Şalgamcıoğlu, B., & Şalgamcıoğlu, M. E. (2023). Family photos and architectural representation: Using photo-collage sketchbook to understand behaviour patterns in family apartment buildings. Journal of Design for Resilience in Architecture and Planning, 4(3), 300–316. https://doi.org/10.47818/DRArch.2023.v4i3099