SO? Architecture and Ideas
Sevince Bayrak and Oral Göktaş founded SO? Architecture & Ideas in 2007. Their work spans diverse scales and geographies, including SUPRA (2024) in Daegu, Korea; Unexpected Hill (2015) at the Royal Academy of Arts; and Lost Barrier (2015) at MAXXI.
The duo is deeply engaged in research, particularly on temporary and floating architecture in post-earthquake recovery. Their project Hope on Water (2018) has been exhibited at the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, Luma Arles, MAXXI, and the Danish Design Museum. Their work has been published internationally, received numerous awards, and was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. They were finalists for the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award in 2019 and have lectured at institutions including Seoul National University, Swiss Architecture Museum, Delft University of Technology, and Columbia University.
Bayrak, whose book Bir Meydan Öyküsü: Beyazıt (2019) is based on her Ph.D. dissertation on the transformation of public space in Istanbul, is an Associate Professor at MEF University. She was featured in the exhibition Good News, Women in Architecture at MAXXI in 2021. In 2023, the duo curated the Türkiye Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale, presenting Ghost Stories, The Carrier Bag Theory of Architecture. In 2025, Sevince and Oral were appointed curators of the Architecture Prize of the Province of Styria by HDA Graz.
