
Turkish architects Onat Öktem and Ziya Imren shared with us their proposal for the Student Center & Public Square Architectural Competition at the Middle East Technical University, for which they received an honorable mention. See more images and architect’s description after the break.
The main concept of the design is to create an in-between condition between a built environment and the landscape. The inner and outer spaces flow into each other in an historical site while creating open, semi open and transparent surfaces. The spaces are accesible from different levels by ramps and stairs with a visual relation around the surrounding.

The main pedestrian circulation axes in the site and the pathways with the landscape shapes the form of the building and the hierarchy of spaces. In addition; instead of creating new axes in the campus, existing main circulation areas are enriched by the green and resting areas by shaping the topography. Here architecture doesn’t interfere to the green area in the site. On the contrary, it composes the green area with the stairs and the open spaces. As in the general planning decisions in the Campus, the spaces for general use like conference halls are located to the corner of the site which faces the main square. While the spaces like lecture rooms, workshops, rooms for student communities are located to the green area at the site.

Structural Engineer: Emin Aldemir Mechanical Engineer: Seden Çakıroğlu Electrical Engineer: Emre Aytemiz