Sevi̇nce Bayrak, an architect based in Istanbul, is the co-founder of SO? Architecture and Ideas. This lecture explores the Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture, written by Sevince Bayrak in 2023 and inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin’s and Elizabeth Fisher’s Carrier Bag Theories. The theory reimagines a building as a container that holds the life stories of transformation, unpredictability, and messiness. Though recently formulated, it ties together Bayrak’s architectural and academic work over the past decade.

The lecture also presents fragments of Istanbul’s history as well as its recent state between 2013 and 2023, related to the projects Bayrak worked on with SO? and her parallel writings. This period coincides with Istanbul’s “construction addiction,” which left the city scattered with unused buildings and infrastructure. By defining a building as a container, the theory shifts the focus from creating architecture on empty plots to engaging with existing structures as sites of transformation. Therefore, the lecture will focus on both these existing structures and the architecture that emerged while transforming them.