For centuries, natural stone has enriched architecture without ever once losing its importance. In fact, that importance is only rising, as naturenand sustainability become ever more cherished commodities. Natural stone offers many advantages: it comes in an array of unique textures and designs, has classical and sophisticated lines, and is timeless as well as durable. High-end technology has furthermore allowed it to visibly become one of the most widely used mediums in modern architecture. Modern Turkish architecture is making quite the name for itself on the world state through award-winning domestic and international projects. In the case of the latter, the use of local natural stone has clearly emerged as a must have approach for many regardless of the project in question’s program or size. We have compiled for you several prestigious award-winning interiors, façades, and buildings that showcase the best of not only natural stone but also of modern Turkish architecture.
38°30° Ranch & Boutique Cheese Factory
World Architecture Festival Awards 2018
Industrial Buildings Category – First Place
Architectural Design: Slash Architects, Arkizon Architects
Area: 800 sqm
Building Date: 2016
Location: Afyon
Photos: Alp Eren, ALTKAT Architectural Photography
Natural Stone: Andesite, basalt
Designed by Slash Architects, the 38° 30° Ranch & Boutique Cheese Factory gets its name from its geographical coordinates. It offers its visitors the chance to explore – and taste – first hand how cheese and other dairy products get manufactured. In line with classical structure, all of the factory’s functions have been laid out in a circular plan. Its monumental form and courtyard typology allow it to transform into a cheese showroom, thereby lending itself an air of modernity. With its fresh architecture and re-interpreted industrial typology, the production centre is made up of several dynamic spaces that give visitors the chance to interact with the factory. The inner courtyard and the factory’s green zones were designed to form a continual whole, as well as to serve as a living, breathing venue for art and tasting events. The spaces necessary for the factory’s production line have been arranged as a series of distinct, yet interconnected quarters to allow for maximum efficiency and organization. The choice of materials used moreover supports both the building’s intended controlled public character and the private nature of the production units in a balanced manner. The sales unit is open to visitor interaction, whereas the cheese production section is viewable from the inner courtyard. Both units are the factory’s most porous areas. As you gradually pass from the public into more private spaces, that porous-to-private ratio, too, gradually gets smaller and smaller. Strengthening the production centre’s “oneness” with nature is its colour palate and the use of nature materials in its construction. Local natural stone fortifies the factory’s bond with the region of Afyon. Detail-wise, corten steel underscores the building’s ultra modern yet industrial character. Likewise, the interaction between the materials in unison – coupled by the needs of each space – ultimately creates a fluid sense of transition throughout.
Milas – Bodrum International Airport
Winner of the 2013 RIBA International Award
Architectural design: Tabanlıoğlu Mimarlık
Area: 100.967 sqm
Date Completed: 2012
Location: Milas, Muğla
Photos: Murat Germen
Natural stone: Marble
Designed by Tabanlıoğlu Mimarlık, the Milas-Bodrum International Airport planned to serve a transition point intercontinental and regional activity. It sits right on the Bodrum-Milas border, between two pre-existing domestic and international flight terminals immediately opposite the airplane ramps. The main airport itself is a tall, single building with an open floor plan. Daylight trickles into the building in a controlled yet optimum manner via both the roof and the façades. The architects chose materials that ensured continuity between the building’s exterior and its interior. The external façade is made up both glass and stone. The interior, likewise, stands out as a flowing bed of black marble obtained from local quarries in Bodrum and Yatağan. The building is composed of two main structures: A linear loading zone connected to the planes and constructed of glass and steel on the “air side”, and a terminal on the “land side”. A form made up of two constructions joined to one another along the border point both counterbalances the system and its functions as well as underscores the whole notion of transition. Passengers are able to access both the terminal and the planes via glass bridges that cross over a lush green zone peppered with local, climate-appropriate flora like banana and olive trees, laurels, and paperflowers. The airport’s mechanical infrastructure, utility rooms, and depots are located on the lower ground floor. The arrival and departures sections are situated on the main/entry and upper floors, respectively. Also on the main/entry floor is a two way circulation system that both balances the airport traffic and allows the airport to operate on a much smaller budget during the much quieter winter season. One the one hand, the airport was intended as a fully mechanical building thanks to its technical structure. On the other hand, using local materials throughout allowed the airport to be built in a relatively quick and cost-efficient manner, all the seamlessly blending into its surroundings.
Kintele Convention Centre & Hotel
World Architecture Festival Shortlist
Architectural Design: Avcı Architects
Area: 35.000 sqm
Building Date: 2016
Location: Brazzaville, Republic of Congo
Photos: Emre Dörter
Natural Stone: Basalt, travertine, marble
Designed by Avcı Architects, the Kintele Convention Centre & Hotel is nestled close to the Congolese capital of Brazzaville panoramically overlooking the Congo River and jungle. The building is shaped around and pays homage to the surrounding topography- a valley that ever so slowly was carved out by the river. Thus, it was decided at the very onset that excavation be kept to a minimum. The program of the building complex is made of four large volumes that are separated by courtyards, including a convention, a presidential, and a banquet hall, as well as a concourse. A roofed strip of columns -atop which rests a cover- ensure continuity between the volumes. The hotel is situated five meters above the convention centre, thus orienting it towards the view and providing privacy. Most functions are by and large open to the public. They both tie the enclosed spaces to one another, and they create intermediate sections between the larger volumes through landscaping. This ultimately creates the illusion that the complex is one with rather than overbearingly stands apart from its surrounding typography. Extending for 350 meters, the strip of columns serves the double function of a linear canopy capable of sheltering visitors from the region’s wet climate. Doors at both ends of the column strip (the entrance and exit) complete the complex.
Sancaklar Mosque
2018 RIBA International Architecture Awards
Architectural Design: Emre Arolat Mimarlık
Area: 700 sqm
Building Date: 2012
Location: Büyükçekmece, İstanbul
Photos: Thomas Mayer
Natural Stone: Bodrum slate
Located in Büyükçekmece, the Sancaklar Mosque sits within a pastoral area that separates a busy highway from the surrounding settlement formed around a commuter rail line. High walls surround a park atop the mosque’s upper courtyard, and stress a very clear division between the park’s calm atmosphere and the chaos beyond the walls. The only two things that are visible from a far are a canopy stretching outwards from the park and a towering minaret. Because the mosque is so seamlessly integrated with the topography, the only way you can Access it is by walking down a set of stairs that follow the natural gradient of the slop from the upper courtyard. The project is spatially oriented in such a way that you get the impression that the mosque is flowing. Its subterranean interior resembles a geometric cave and gives it a profound sense of drama and submission to God. Slits along the qibla wall allow natural light to trickle in to the foyer while directing mosquegoers towards the prayer area at the same time. Sancaklar employs the same rectangular character found in Ummayad mosques in order to keep pure numbers to a minimum. Slate mined from quarries in Bodrum line the mosque’s back and edge façades. Beyond a single piece of calligraphy, the Mosque’s interior was kept as simple and straight forward as possible.
The Yapı Kredi Culture Centre
Winner of the 2018 National Architecture Prize & 2017 AR New into
Old Prize
Architectural Design: Teğet Mimarlık
Area: 5.000 sqm
Building Date: 2017
Location: Beyoğlu, İstanbul
Photography: Cemal Emden
Natural Stone: Travertine
Designed by Teğet Mimarlık, we might characterize the Yapı Kredi Culture Centre as a transformative re-interpretation of Paul Schmitthener’s original 1958 design. Here, the architects intended to add an urban texture to the centre (which is open to the public), carry that texture into the centre’s interior, and enrich the overall spatial experience. The centre faces Galatasaray Square, an important segment of the two kilometre-long İstiklal Avenue. Its mass has been shaped by unloading the façade facing the square, while keeping the two façade layouts, the floor alignments, and the carriers intact. This void creates a public line or middle space comprised of a series of interconnected raps that serve the function of a library, museum, exhibition room, concert hall, library, and finally a publishing house. The centre offers visitors the chance to experience İstiklal Avenue and Galatasaray Square from different angles and heights thanks to the circulation between the library on the ground floor and the exhibition and concert halls. Travertine obtained from quarries in the region of Denizli were used to strengthen the intended effect in both inside as well as long the centre’s façade. One of the centre’s most impressive elements is İlhan Koman’s Mediterranean Statue. Like the building itself, the statue to has very much become a part of the square and the city. As for the old façade, not only has it been preserved as a symbol of respect to the original building, it also lends itself to the collective memory as well.
B2 House
Winner of the 2010 Aga Khan Award
Architectural Design: Mimarlar + Han Tümertekin
Area: 600 sqm
Building Date: 2004
Location: Büyükhusun, Çanakkale
Photos: Cemal Emden
Natural Stone: Local natural stone
Designed by Mimarlar + Han Türmertekin, B2 House is situated atop the slope of a hill overlooking the Aegean Sea in the village of Büyükhusun, Çanakkale. The house is comprised of a simple rectangular mass, with the sea before it and village behind it. Its architects looked to local architecture for inspiration, and had it built using local materials and construction techniques, thus ensuring a common language between it and its surroundings. Characteristics such as these make B2 House more than just a summer cottage sitting on an incline rather they create a modern architectural language that reflects the culture and the history of its location. The living room and bedrooms are on the ground and upper floors, respectively. Both the house’s materials and program emphasize simplicity. Through that, the architects chose to create semiopen spaces and leave certain volumes throughout semi-open as well, as necessary. Positioned along the edges of the house’s main volume, they function as a bathroom, laundry room, a small kitchen, and a storage room. Both the structure of and choice of materials used within the interior, too, maintain the intended sense of simplicity. A plain natural stone masonry wall system surrounds the house’s reinforced concrete elements, and stretches from its base all the way up to its roof. Envisaged to be one with its location, B2 House’s clean lines add depth to the relationship that it has established with its surroundings. Both it and the architecture that it has created have given its owners the opportunity to become a part of nature as opposed to just an observer of nature.
