Rethinking Urban Non-Places In Design Education: The “Architecture Without Bodies” Studio Practice

In contemporary urban planning, metro stations are often designed purely for transit efficiency, resulting in a "bodiless architecture" where sensory and social dimensions are neglected. This article examines a graduate studio at Yeditepe University that uses Istanbul’s metro network to critique and re-humanize these underground environments through a three-stage methodology: bodily analysis, abstract representation, and design intervention. Focusing on student projects for Kadıköy, Üsküdar, Ayrılık Çeşmesi, Bostancı, and Kozyatağı stations, the study reveals how bodily experience can inform infrastructure design. The findings demonstrate that shifting the pedagogical focus from visual form to sensory engagement enables students to restore human scale and transform transit "non-places" into public spaces.