Courtesy of Evren Başbuğ, İnanç Eray, Meriç Kara, Engin Ayaz
'Seapeaker', was recently named as one of the five finalists for Istanbul Modern "Young Architects Program" 2013 cycle. Designed by the collaborative team of Evren Başbuğ, İnanç Eray, Meriç Kara, and Engin Ayaz, the main intent of the project is to be a hearing aid for İstanbul. It highlights the city's muted qualities in an unexpected way. Designed using rigorous acoustical principles and the generative capacities of the site, seapeaker amplifies sounds of the sea underneath and punctures a new connection in-between. More images and architects' description after the break.
In its third year, the AA Istanbul Visiting School, Vertical Interventions, in collaboration with Istanbul Technical University, will continue to rediscover verticality through novel generative design techniques and large-scale physical prototypes. Abstracted as a fusion of various sub-systems, each subsystem of the tower will be investigated in relation to their various performance criteria. The correlations between the separate sets of performance criteria and evaluation methods will be analyzed, leading to the generation of unified design alternatives for a vertical system typology. In addition to the custom-made digital design and evaluation tools supporting the core methodology, Vertical Interventions will also highlight the fabrication and assembly of a large scale working prototype integrating the performative characteristics of each system in examination.
As in 2012, the design agendas of AA Athens and AA Istanbul Visiting Schools will directly create feedback on one another, allowing participation in either one or both Programmes.
In an effort to maximize Istanbul’s potential of becoming a bustling regional hub, Transport Minister Binali Yildirim has released a request for proposals to construct and operate what could potentially be one of the world's largest airports. With the Ataturk airport - Turkey’s largest airport which handled nearly 45 million passengers last year - steadily reaching capacity and limited by land restrictions, the new $9 billion dollar, six-runway airport promises to expand the country’s aviation capacity with the potential of handling 150 million yearly passengers.
“The new airport project will be bigger than any other in Turkey and will be part of our plan to build a new city on the Black Sea coast,” Yildirim said, according to Bloomberg.
The main purpose of the design for the Istanbul Camlica Mosque, which won the second prize in the architectural competition, was to create the largest worship place that has ever been designed, and cover it with one single roof. SN Architects successfully did this by using the load bearing properties of one of the traditional systems that often used “vault systems” and using contemporary architectural and engineering facilities. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Inspired by a reaction to the tsunami, the proposal for the Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Center is symbolically and practically rising above the streams. Designed by CRAB, the studio of Sir Peter Cook and Gavin Robotham, the building sits with its blades resting into the ground, ready to divide the streams of water if and when they come. Organized as a series of five clusters, it meanders along the site as a chain of events and somewhat in the manner of a chain of flowers. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The first prize winning proposal for the Halide Edip Adivar Mosque and Social Complex is an objection to the continuing entegrist attitude-action which is mostly validated on mosque design and kept popular in media of Turkey. Designed by Kolektif Mimarlar, one of the main ideas of the design is to produce a well integrated structure with its surrounding and the nearby dwellers, where additional functions to the mosque can take place. More images and architects’ description after the break.
International architectural practice Swanke Hayden Connell has won the international competition commissioned by Tahincioglu Gayrimenkul (Tahincioglu Real Estate) for the Palladium Tower in Istanbul, Turkey. The 49,500 sq meter tower will be situated on a 1.7 hectare site. The project is due for completion in 2014.
Mecanoo architecten, in cooperation with local partner Cafer Bozkurt Architecture, shared with us their proposal, one of the competition’s three winning proposals, in an international design competition for Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeo-Park Area in Istanbul, Turkey. Yenikapı, ‘New Gate’, consists in a railroad and maritime transfer centre that connects Europe with Asia, as well as the inner city with the surrounding megapolis and the rest of the country. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The TAO Office Tower, designed by Suyabatmaz Demirel Architects, has been designed as a high-rise building so as to play a symbolic figure in the Financial Center Project where it is located. Located on a sloped land on the northwest side of Atasehir Financial Center area in Istanbul, TAO Office Tower has many determining features to be a part of a mega finance district in the context of location, topography and urbanism. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The first stage in the Augmented Structures project by Salon2 is the Augmented Structures v1.1: Acoustic Formations / İstiklâl Caddesi installation which reanimates phenomena (architecture, sound and visual arts) that appear to be completed and concluded. The acoustic memory of İstiklâl Caddesi is first transformed into an architectural surface and then this solid form becomes a dynamic visual performance through a 400m2 installation on the facade of Yapı Kredi Bank Culture Building. More images and architects’ description after the break.
109 Architectes recently took home the third prize at the 12th annual ThyssenKrupp Elevator Architecture Awards with their design for for the Disaster Prevention and Education Center in Bakırköy, Istanbul. A total of 287 projects from 59 countries were submitted to the competition. Participants were required to propose an Istanbul Disaster Prevention and Education Center on a 27,000m2 piece of land. The center will be equipped with educational resources including audiovisual equipment, simulation systems to recreate the experience of natural disasters, first aid supplies and emergency communication systems. In the center, a planetarium, library, information boards and meeting halls will serve to inform visitors. More images and project description after the break.
