Sevince Bayrak and
Oral Göktaş

Sevince Bayrak and Oral Göktaş founded SO? Architecture and Ideas in 2007 after they got their bachelor’s degree in architecture in 2005 from Istanbul Technical University. In 2013, they won the Young Architects Program awarded by MoMA PS1, creating Sky Spotting Stop for Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, which was exhibited in MoMA and MAXXI. In 2015, they won a design competition at the Royal Academy of Arts to realise their project Unexpected Hill, an installation of tessellating ceramic blocks installed at the entrance to the the academy’s Grade-II listed Burlington Gardens building in London. Shortly after, their installation about public space in Istanbul, Lost Barrier, was exhibited at MAXXI in Rome. The installation, Sky Garden, was on display during the architecture festival Days of Architecture Sarajevo in 2018, while their project Cabin on the Border was exhibited in Bucharest Triennale East Centric Architecture in 2019. Their interdisciplinary projects on post-earthquake housing, Hope on Water and Fold & Float have been exhibited in the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, Z33, Luma Arles, Royal Academy of Arts, MAXXI, and Danish Design Museum. Both Lost Barrier and Fold & Float were acquired by MAXXI for their permanent collection.
 
Their work has been published internationally, won numerous awards and was nominated for the Mies and Aga Khan Awards. They were among the finalists of the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award 2019. SO? ranked 570th in Baunetz’s 2019–2020 World Architecture Offices ranking and became the only architecture office from Türkiye in the top 1,000.

Sevince and Oral have received invitations to lecture at TU Delft, ENSAP Bordeaux, MAO Ljubljana, Recyclart Brussels, Design Monat Graz, Demanio Marittimo KM278 Ancona and Royal Academy of Arts, among others.

Their recent work includes the transformation of a public cultural centre in Istanbul, a modular chicken coop, a cabin in rural Türkiye, an interdisciplinary research project on post-disaster emergency housing and the transformation of a swimming pool and a hangar as activity halls. Sevince recently published her book, Bir Meydan Öyküsü: Beyazıt (A Story of a Square: Beyazıt), adapted from her PhD dissertation about the evolution of public space in Istanbul. She is currently Assistant Professor at MEF University. Oral has been running a graduate design studio, titled Alternative Architectural Practices at MEF University since 2019. Sevince was one of the architects presented in the Good News, Women in Architecture exhibition in MAXXI, 2021. She writes articles about current architectural issues for popular magazines.