Located on a forestland that also shelters Ayazaga Pavillion, Suvari Kiosk, and Tiled Kiosk, Ayazaga Cultural Centre has a long story. The municipality stopped the first building designed and constructed on this land in 1996 by a different investor. The second process for Ayazaga Cultural Centre began with the tender initiated by Ministry of Culture after nearly a decade and we got involved in the project in 2008. Although we considered making use of the existing concrete structure, as it was inadequate with the latest earthquake code, fire regulations and for the day’s needs as well had to be demolished, leading us to a design a centre.


With the main idea of keeping three historical buildings and the new ones interacted in a visual way, we have lowered the building heights and intended to allow the kiosks to make their presence felt. We have located the entertainment, working, and exhibition spaces, as main elements of the program, to the land with the help of the topography. The 6,000-seat venue and 1,000-seat multi-purpose hall are placed as two separate blocks in accordance with slope. Green rooftops of these blocks in front of the Tiled Kiosk’s pool function as a part of the green public space. In the ground floor, halls are connected with cafes and restaurants and they jointly shelter functions for visitors willing to spend their time with, by generating a pedestrian axis. Offices are located over the ground to allow the users experience a unique landscape, and capturing the special daylight into the office spaces reflected from the forest. A lively building complex, which interconnects offices and halls with spaces for culture and art such as a gallery and a museum is proposed. We have chosen Istanbul local plants for the green areas and reduced the maintenance costs by using the rainwater harvesting system for these plants. The Centre is aiming to receive LEED Silver certificate with such sustainable qualifications and its integration to the site.

Project Information

LOCATIONIstanbul, Turkey
CLIENTTurkmall
PROJECT DATE2011
BUILT DATE2014
SITE AREA62,000 sqm
TOTAL CONSTRUCTION AREA150,000 sqm

See Also

© 2017 All Images and Materials Copyright Protected.