In today’s trade fairs it is quite a challenge for a brand to exhibit its products and convey its message in a creative and memorable way, especially when the allotted space is only 20 sqm and displaying any of its products is not allowed.

The Path is an eye-catching installation designed to be exhibited in Domotex, one of the world’s largest trade fairs for floor coverings in Hannover.

Architects Nail Egemen Yerce and Ayça Taylan from Istanbul based studios, Yerce Architecture and ZAAS, designed this surprising installation for a Turkish carpet manufacturing company. Inspired by multi-colored fibers used in carpet weaving, they created a game where the visitors, by using colorful balls representing threads and knots, become the subjects who produce a carpet.

The installation acts as a communicator between the carpet manufacturing company and the visitors by involving the visitors in a game where they experience the co-creation of a carpet. Co-creation is indeed an important aspect of the actual manufacturing process in which the brand perception is desired to be built upon.

The game which contains a layer of vivacious intricacy is easy to be engaged in. It is primarily composed of two brightly colored metal tracks that are constructed in an intertwining manner and hung from the ceiling. The visitors, by selecting a ball in the color of their choice become the participants of an interactive game. The balls then travel through the curvy route of the carefully calibrated, slightly inclined track of the pipes until they finally reach the end, where they find their way into an empty hole to sit in. Sharp, metallic sounds created as balls roll inside the tracks and fall onto the base platform suggest a curious collaboration between motion and sound and invite visitors to join the game.

When all the holes on the floor of the installation have a ball placed in them “in a magically probabilistic way” says Nail Egemen Yerce, founder of Yerce Architecture, “an abstract rug is created.” Ayça Taylan, the co-founder of ZAAS, adds that “this image of a rug is the product of a collaborative process based on arbitrary, individual choices which, thus, make the process as interesting as the end result.” Once all the holes have been filled in, this interactive game is repeatable and the end product of each completed game is unique.

Another noteworthy aspect of this intricate structure is that the tracks have been optimized to be built on different combinations of only three modules. Behind this modular logic lies the practicality of being mountable in the two day period before the four-day long trade fair.

The intertwining composition of the tracks under effective lighting becomes a dramatic visual and sonic sculpture. In the intense environment of a trade fair, such an unexpected encounter evokes the curiosity of visitors offering them an enjoyable and engaging break time as they participate in this co-creation game.

Technical datasheet

Location: Hannover, Germany

Design: ZAAS & Yerce Architecture

Design team: Ayça Taylan, Nail Egemen Yerce, Simge Çil

Contractor: Polinorm

Area of project: 20 sqm

Photographer: Yerce Art Photography - Emin Emrah Yerce

Filmmakers: M. Can Tanyeli, Aydın Sarıoğlu, Mustafa Şenol

Nail Egemen Yerce & Yerce Architecture:

Nail Egemen Yerce, trained as an architect in Dokuz Eylül University, Istanbul Technical University, and Politecnico di Bari, investigated the relationship between the art object and architectural space in his MA thesis entitled ‘Installation and its space’. He founded his own studio, Yerce Architecture, in 2011 after several years of experience working as the project architect and project manager of enterprises of different scales and types in various award-winning architectural offices in Turkey. Yerce Architecture focuses on innovative, creative and experimental solutions in the fields of industrial design, interior design, and architecture and has gained many awards and recognitions both nationally and internationally. 

Yerce Architecture with its experience in projects they have designed in Turkey, China, Belgium, Germany, and England; continues to operate in their offices in İstanbul.

Ayça Taylan & ZAAS

Ayça Taylan received her education in architecture at İstanbul Technical University and Politecnico di Milano. She has worked as a project architect and project designer in different award-winning architectural offices in Italy, China and Turkey for ten years. She co-founded ZAAS in 2016 which focuses on multidisciplinary art, design and architectural projects.

The concepts underlying the designs of ZAAS in the creation of their projects are nurtured by interface relations within the fine arts. Aiming to reshape and redefine the ordinary boundaries in interior, architectural and urban contexts, ZAAS has created award-winning designs of different scales in their endeavor to enhance daily life.