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Abstract

An architectural object interacts with its user through its functional and formal qualities. However, when stripped of these attributes, it discloses the potential to transform the phenomenal system it inhabits alongside the subject. Drawing on Martin Heidegger’s hammer analysis and Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, this study explores the relationship between a user and an architectural object that lacks a predefined form or function. It examines how the subject’s intervention can reconfigure such an object into a quasi-object. This relationship establishes a conceptual bridge that can be read through both phenomenological and relational frameworks. In this domain, where spatial boundaries and interiority are renegotiated, the assemblage of heterogeneous elements gives rise to new actor-network configurations. By approaching Villa Verde as a quasi-object and comparing user experiences before and after intervention, this research moves beyond traditional concerns of design, construction, and aesthetics. Ultimately, it aims to demonstrate how architectural objects are reproduced and transformed within collective practices.

Publication Date

7-29-2026

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Submitted Date

2024-09-28

Accepted Date

2026-04-27

First Page

283

Last Page

304

Authors' Bio

Tugba Cestel
[email protected]
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0923-2241 

Tugba Cestel is currently enrolled as a PhD student at Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Architecture in Istanbul, Türkiye. Her main research interests include analysing the object-subject relationship in architecture and the application of theoretical history to this end. By examining past methods, she attempts to identify strategies for future applications.

Senem Kaymaz
[email protected]
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8567-2620

Senem Kaymaz works as an associate professor at Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Architecture in Istanbul, Türkiye. Major research interests include architectural design approaches, architectural critical theories, and architectural epistemology.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Author(s) retain the copyright of articles published in this journal, with first publication rights granted to Interiority.

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