wakeline

Wakeline is an original spatial project located parallel to İzmir Basmane Metro Station, aiming at the mental awakening of the individual. The impositions of speed, efficiency, and productivity in modern society transform the individual into what Marcuse (1964) describes as a “one-dimensional man,” detaching them from critical consciousness and reducing life to a mere level of functionality. In this context, especially spaces like metros—anonymous, flawlessly functioning, and repetitive—turn the individual's relationship with their environment into a mechanized form of existence. From a neuroscientific perspective, the brain's constant exposure to repetition and excessive stimuli leads to desensitization in reward circuits, fatigue in attention systems, and disconnection in the production of meaning. Consequently, the individual experiences a “perceptual void” and a state of mental detachment in their interaction with the environment.

As a spatial response to this mental disconnection, Wakeline is based on a spatial setup where the individual escapes familiar thought patterns and enters a state of mental “suspension.” In this context, walls in the space cease to be mere load-bearing elements; they are suspended by breaking contact with the ground, transforming into elements without clear boundaries within the space. At the same time, these walls transcend the surface, embedding the trace and continuity of the underground into the user’s perception. In this way, the state of “being suspended” shakes the individual’s automated perceptual relationships with the space, disrupts the feeling of bodily safety, and transforms the familiar spatial experience. In accordance with Henri Lefebvre’s concept of “the production of space,” the individual is no longer a passive user of space, but an active subject in the production of experience, meaning, and consciousness (Lefebvre, 1991).

This spatial encounter first takes place in a neutral and interrupted void that opens on the urban surface. This void, which breaks the continuity of the city, separates the individual from the superficial flow of daily life and offers a spatial interface that functions as a threshold directing them underground. At the same time, the user can, if desired, directly take the subway and continue on their way from this opening; the spatial experience thus also involves a state of choice and awareness.

Throughout the project, the space is equipped with walls structured with directive and disturbing repetitions. These repetitions disrupt the “predictive coding” mechanism proposed by Friston by interrupting the brain’s automatic prediction and perception processes. Through this interruption, the individual’s habitual patterns of attention are disturbed, and their threshold of awareness is elevated. In this way, the space ceases to be just a physical transit area; it becomes an active catalyst for mental awakening, perceptual rebirth, and individual transformation.

At the beginning of the spatial journey, the user encounters red volumes placed in front of them. These volumes activate the user perceptually as focal points of the experience and shape the progression of the journey. As neuroscientific research shows, red color creates strong arousal, increases attention and emotional intensity, and triggers a state of “alertness” in the individual (Elliot & Maier, 2012). Thus, the user constructs their journey through volumes that spark curiosity, question accessibility, and form the knots of the experience. Each volume gradually dissolves the individual's mental barriers and leads them into a deeper and more conscious process of questioning; as the user overcomes these knots, they begin to question their initial habits and automatic behavioral patterns.

The process of mental opening culminates at the final point of the experience, in a spatial focus named Memory Core. This focus symbolizes the conscious transition from temporary stimuli to a lasting and meaningful awareness in the individual's journey of confrontation. The Memory Core is an archive space where, in today’s world of manipulation, algorithmic steering, and information pollution, the individual can reconstruct their own mental structure and access verified information. Recent studies show that digital platforms, through algorithms and filter bubbles, cause epistemological fatigue and erosion of critical thinking in individuals (Pariser, 2011). Reaching this space spatially represents the individual’s liberation from mental manipulations and reconnection with verified truth—epistemic emancipation.

This deep personal transformation that occurs in the Memory Core is socialized and turns into collective consciousness through amphitheaters and silent courtyards located on the lower levels of the project. Amphitheaters, within the framework of Habermas’ theory of communicative action, function as public spaces where individuals share the new awareness they have gained and contribute to the production of social meaning. In these spaces, digital screens built into the walls present visual data, intellectual traces, and recordings accumulated from the upper levels to the viewers, forming a shared memory surface. These screens, which transfer content from the surface to the lower layer, reverse the observer–observed relationship and position the individual not only as the one who observes but also as the one being observed. Thus, the screens transform into interfaces of public discussion and collective memory, reinforcing the communicative function of the space.

Directly connected to the Memory Core and amphitheaters, the silent courtyards located in the north represent the internal dimension of the mental and social transformation experienced by the individual. These courtyards allow the individual to turn inward, immerse in deep thought processes, and focus on personal interests while still interacting with collective consciousness. In this way, the flow of information that arises amid intense external stimuli and social discussions undergoes personal reprocessing and reinterpretation here. The workshops located within the courtyards offer free spaces for the concretization of this internal journey; the discovery of personal curiosities, the experience of creative processes, and the triggering of autonomous learning become possible in these spaces. Through this bidirectional process, the societal transformation born from individual awakening and collective sharing feed and support one another; Wakeline, with this interactive dynamic, ceases to be merely a space and becomes an arena where knowledge, consciousness, and social bonds are jointly reproduced.

Project Title: Wakeline
Location: Basmane, İzmir, Turkey
Site Area: 9,800 m²
Design Year: 2025
Project Type: Academic Project (Student Studio)
Built/Unbuilt: Unbuilt
Status: Conceptual
Main Focus: Mental awakening, perceptual rupture, collective consciousness formation
Access: Metro connection urban surface entry
Function: Metro threshold / urban interface
Architectural Elements: Vertical load-bearing & spatial organizing walls; suspended nodes (red installation volumes); Memory Core (Archive); open theaters (amphitheaters); courtyards; workshops
Zoning: Silent Courtyards (inner focus) Collective Interaction Areas (open theaters) Awakening Line (experiential sequence) Memory Core (central anchor)
Materials & Form: Concrete (load-bearing walls & core), steel (suspension & node supports), glass / translucent panels (perceptual permeability)
Software Used: ArchiCAD, Twinmotion, Photoshop, Illustrator

Designer architecture undergraduate student Burak Özcan, Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir, Turkey
Supervisor, Associate Professor Ulku Incekose, Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir, Turkey
Supported by the Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir, Turkey