The Faculty of Fine Arts and Design of Izmir University of Economics, Turkey, hosted and sponsored a Design and Woodworking Workshop directed by Architect Sebastian Erazo, and Faculty Member Architect Stefano Pugliese. The workshop had two main pedagogical aims: first, students from Interior Architecture and Industrial Design had to respond to a design brief prepared by the tutors: they were asked to activate certain areas of their campus through a spatial intervention with simple architectural actions: a roof, a wall or a bench.

Second, to provide the student with a method that would guide and frame their design process in strict relation with a given technique and material. In this specific case: pine wood and reclaimed agriculture mesh fabric.

During the first 2 days of the workshop, the students and the instructors worked in a process of collaborative design in order to define: the architectural strategy to be applied, the location to install the structure and all the constructive details to be developed in order to build in the following 3 days.

The challenge of this workshop was to involve the students in all design phases, leading to the experience of building a 1:1 working and usable ‘small’ architecture. Geçit is a Turkish word meaning portal, passage or gateway. This is how the students wanted to name their work, once they had built it.