An Evaluation about the Current Situation of Organized Design Competitions in Turkey through Interior Architecture Field

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the connection between the culture of competition and interior architecture by questioning the place of design competitions organized from past to present in this field. The reason of focusing on interior architecture is to draw the attention on the changing role in the presence of the architecture-interior architecture dichotomy of the past and present and to examine the situation of competitions, which can be regarded as 'democratic' platforms for expression and production. In other words, the study points out the need to reconsider the mechanisms that define competence or extends in conditions where the professional boundaries and roles become increasingly ambiguous; in specific the mechanism of competition here is in question. The study has been structured in two sections. The first section is a literature study on the historical progress of these competitions along with their role in education. The second section is the inventory of the competitions organized in Turkey covering interior architecture. The main purpose of this part put forward quantitative data of competitions and analyze those data that categorized as five separate categories of space, furniture, concept, product, and poster. The data of this study has been parsed from the websites of "Arkitera, Mimarist, Issue, Mimarizm, Yarismo, Tasarim Yarismalari" that design competitions were announced, and the data has been classified, analyzed and evaluated using both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The study reveals that; (i) When evaluating history of interior design competitions in Turkey in the field of interior architecture, even if started to produce with the competition in the post-Republic period, it can be stated, the competition mechanism could not become traditional, and number of competitions was quite few until the millennial period. (ii) When evaluated within the framework of various disciplines such as interior architecture, architecture, or industrial design, it is observed that the competitions are mostly themed on space, followed by product, furniture, concept, and poster. (iii) It has been observed that the competitions are commonly organized by enterprises. University organized/cooperated competitions are sparse. (iv) Participant profile indicates a greater number of students than professionals are participating these competitions. It has been observed that the competitions which has an active role in design education are not prevalent specifically in the discipline of interior architecture. The study reveals the necessity of widespread, diverse competitions in design disciplines and increase encouraging role of competition in education by increasing the universitycompany cooperation of the competitions, which are determined mostly opened by commercial institutions. This study is an evaluation of status quo and it is thought that the findings will contribute to the construct of the competitions to be opened in 2021 and beyond, and the studies on the literature of education and competition.