The Continuum project, developed under the leadership of Res. Assist. Necmettin Sancak, a faculty member in the Department of Architecture at Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University (AYBÜ), in collaboration with Assoc. Prof. Dr. Orkan Zeynel Güzelci, a researcher at the Digital Fabrication Laboratory (DFL), Faculty of Architecture, University of Porto, and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sema Alaçam, a faculty member in the Department of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University (İTÜ), was featured in the Marmomac Meets Academies 2026 exhibition, held as part of the Marmomac 2026 International Natural Stone Fair in Verona, Italy.
Held at Veronafiere from 22 to 25 September 2026, Marmomac is an international platform covering a broad range of fields, from natural stone extraction and processing to architecture, design, and production technologies. The Marmomac Meets Academies 2026 exhibition, designed by Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Fallacara of the University of Bari, was presented under the title “Once Upon a Time, the ‘Sky’ of Architecture: New Research on Vaulted Lithic Space.” The exhibition aims to explore the possibilities of natural stone in contemporary architecture through computational design, digital fabrication, and emerging construction technologies.
The Continuum project aims to transform a doubly curved vault geometry derived from a Scherk minimal surface into an architectural system composed of stereotomic stone elements. The project focuses on subdividing the surface into limestone blocks, defining the geometric relationships between the blocks, and developing joint details. It was presented on 23 September 2026 as part of the conference program held at The Bedrock forum area in Hall 10 at Veronafiere. During the session, in which designers presented their prototypes in a panel format, the project’s geometric approach, the design process of the stone elements, and the proposed multi-robot assembly strategy for robotic construction were discussed.
