Thresholds of
(Un)certainty“Everyone leaves, if they need to, if they can, or if they have to.” Luiselli, 2019




Movement is intrinsic to life, often involving leaving behind the familiar and venturing into the unknown. Throughout history, migrations have marked significant changes. Recently, political conflicts and natural disasters have forced massive displacements, compelling people to abandon their routines and adapt to unfamiliar environments for survival and care.

‘Thresholds of (Un)certainty’  approaches  uncertainty of migrations as a nature that creates gaps, spaces in which profound chance and opportunities for transformation emerge. This potential arises with the certainty of dignity and human rights, leaving uncertainty to meaning. The question is no longer if I am going to live, but how.
The design aims to serve as an open archive of narratives and architectural elements addressing the dynamics of living and working in uncertainty. It focuses on enhancing interactions for displaced communities at old Alt-Tegel Airport site in Berlin, Germany.



List of figures

Ekin Eryılmaz











Group work

Master’s Design Studio I
TU Berlin
Fall 20/21

Team
Ossi Kunnas
Vani Monjaraz 
Emina Kocan 

Instructors
Prof. Dr. Rainer Hehl
Tobias Schrammek





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The design  envisions a socially operated, sustainable ‘arrival center’ for displaced people to find respect, safety, and opportunities to network, develop skills, and foster imagination for the future. Embracing its dynamic nature, the proposal depicts a living organism, at the same time brings the stories of displacement forward, translate them into undulations between certain and uncertain in the ways of which displaced people inhabit precarity.    
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 Inspired by slime molds’ growth patterns, the design combines a stable infrastructural backbone with dynamic, adaptable spaces that evolve with the community.
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The living and working units and their modules are the core elements of the design and the narrative. 
The flexible and expandable framework and the varying materiality of the components makes room for diverse combinations to host a wide range of activities. 
Modules can be used for working, sales and living. The structure evolves by the time and adapts to different needs. Collective workspaces can be established in the central courtyards (fig XX).
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Throughout the design phase of the ‘Thresholds of (Un)certainty’, we wanted to emphasize the act of cooking and eating as a mean for being together and channeling  a certain energy, effort, focus and motivation around a common performance.  We’ve thus, attributed very central role to the collective kitchen as a space of active learning, growing, care and sharing around a dining table. The design has its own plug-in components ready for temporary stays of people with new recipes or thoughts. The overall structure functions closely specifically with the bio-digestion tower, cultivation fields and the ceramic workshop. 
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Axonometric view of the proposal 
No scale, created by the author



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Main square enclosed by the bio-digestion tower, collective kitchen, the ceramic workshop, and the library
No scale, created by the author
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A re-study of the sample refugee document as represented widely through mass media
Created by the author
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Components of the production core: Axonometric views
No scale

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Components of the social core: Axonometric views
No scale
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Tools for adaptation : Axonometric views
No scale

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Place for worship exploded axonometry
No scale8
Renewable energy hub exploded axonometry
No scale 9
Information tower exploded axonometry
No scale 10
Ground floor plan of the complex
See the scale bar, revised by the author
Production Core: 
(10.1) Collective Kitchen, (10.2) Renewable Energy Hub, (10.3) Metal Workshop, (10.4) Bike Workshop, (10.5) Ceramic Workshop, (10.6) Soap Workshop, (10.7) Carpet Workshop, (10.8) Plantation
Education Core: 
(10.9) People‘s Library/Archive, (10.10) Educational Space, (10.11) Learning Playscape, (10.12) Gallery Pavillion
Living Core: 
(10.13) Living+Working Unit, (10.14) Living Unit 
Social Core: 
(10.15) Place For Worship, (10.16) Collective Workspace, (10.17) Seed Vault, (10.18) Open Cinema, (10.19) Coffee Shop
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From top to bottom:
Basic slime mold growth pattern.
The juxtaposition of fixed and non-fixed programs by tracing the layout of interrelated networks of a sample pattern derived from the growth of slime molds.
No scale, revised by the author


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A zoomed-in section through the bio-digestion tower
No scale, created by the author
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Longitudinal section
See the scale bar, revised by the author




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Section cutting through the space for worship
See the scale bar, revised by the author




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Possible configurations of living+working modules
No scale


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Living+ working units’ section perspective, a collective workspace established  at the inner communal courtyard by the residents of multiple living units
No scale, created by the author


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Component narrative derivations
No scale
From top to bottom:
(17.1) Tempelhof (appropriating living space), (17.2) Za’atari camp
(adapting spaces for market use), (17.3) Kakuma camp
(creating communal working spaces), (17.4) component performance sample  


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Living+ working units’ section perspective, a collective workspace established  at the inner communal courtyard by the residents of multiple living units
No scale
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An axonometric view to the market place’s  northern entrance
No scale, created by the author


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Top: Collective kitchen axonometric view 
No scale,created by the author
Bottom: Component narrative derivations 
No scale, created by the author
(left) The tent: Tents are used for multiple purposes; they can be of different sizes, according to assigned function or use
(right) ‘The house with riwaq, domes and a courtyard’: The lifestyle evolving around agriculture and livestock farming, calls for a courtyard attached to the house, a dome to gather under and a riwaq to define the threshold in between private and public  
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From left to right:
21.1 Tower section
See the scale bar, revised by the author
21.2 The existing 22m-long white firewall elevation
See the scale bar, created by the author
21.3 System section of the tower 
No scale, revised by the author
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Collective kitchen exploded axonometry 
No scale, created by the author
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Physical model of  the collective kitchen’s ventilation section and its plug-in cooking hubs  






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Section perspective of the collective kitchen cutting through the main square
No scale
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Inner perspective of the kitchen, ovens, cooking pits and chimneys



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