DON'T BE LATE HOME

Initiated by VitrA and the Turkish Association of Architects in Private Practice, the VitrA Contemporary Architecture Series aimed to document and discuss the contemporary architectural context in Turkey and create a basis for new work by focusing on different building types. Five exhibitions took place within the series between 2012 and 2016. Public programs and film screenings accompanied the exhibitions, bringing different perspectives on the subjects into view and exploring their further implications.

The final exhibition in the series, Don’t Be Late Home, focused on our homes—the most fundamental spaces of shelter and everyday life, at the intersection of people and space. The human experience of shelter is a complex historical subject that stretches back thousands of years. Yet the debate over how to define the housing problem has remained unresolved for a long time. We have lost sight of whether the issue concerns shelter, the city, the spaces in which we live, architectural design, or all of these together. Rather than attempting to answer these and related questions, the exhibition sought to clarify them.

From the exhibition text:

“Most of us have heard this or a similar phrase at least once in our lives, as we step out of the house and onto the street: ‘Don’t Be Late Home.’ Through the word ‘dön’ (to return), the phrase also invites us to pause and take stock of the direction things are taking, and to reconsider the essence of the matter.”

“The exhibition traces the political economy of housing as a process of making, following its trajectory chronologically. A timeline forms the backbone of the exhibition’s opening section, bringing together the actors involved in the transition from home to housing, direct and indirect housing policies, the factors at play, relevant data, and their outcomes.”

“The literary tradition that evolved alongside the development of housing throughout the modern era, both in Turkey and around the world, also accompanies the chronological progression of this section.”

“A home is completed by the person who inhabits it—its user. Without someone to inhabit it, we cannot speak of a home. A home takes shape through its inhabitant; it comes to resemble them, reflecting their everyday life, local context, habits, and preferences. The variability of these elements shapes the home’s physical shell, but the nature of that shell does not determine them. A home is a microcosm of changing conditions of habitation, everyday practices, and cultural and social structures.”

The exhibition was first shown at Istanbul Modern and then at the Turkish Association of Architects in Private Practice.