Heval Zeliha Yüksel Mimar / Architect
DB ARCHITECTS REALIZED MANY SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS AND THEIR RECENT PROJECT IS BJK INONU STADIUM. THE PROJECT IS CALLED VODAFONE ARENA AND AS FAR AS WE SEE IT IS A VERY GOOD CLASSIMODERN PROJECT.
WE GOT THE INFORMATION REGARDING THE PROJECT FROM FOUNDER OF DB ARCHITECTS BÜNYAMİN DERMAN:
Can you tell us about the story of the project?
Bünyamin Derman: The architectural project of BJK İnonü Stadium has been realized by Architect Vietti Violi, Architect Şinasi Şahingiray and Architect Fazıl Aysu and it is considered as one of the important structures of Istanbul’s silhouette. The stadium has been modified according to the arising necessities and in different times since 1964 insofar as circumstances permit.
However the application of the UEFA and FIFA standards, efforts of capacity increase and technological works required for social and cultural utilization of the stadium has not been possible due to the limitations and static reasons of the available structure. In fact the renovation idea of the stadium is not new and although international project studies were made upon request of various Beşiktaş club managements, those projects were not deemed fit to be executed.
The renovation project of İnonü Stadium has been actualized during the presidency of Fikret Orman. I know Mr. Orman for a long time. We realized many projects with him for years that made me feel proud as an architect. I think this fact brought us together in this project.
How much of the data about the old Mithat Paşa Stadium known as İnonü Stadium has been used? Is it true that the stadium designed by Albert Speer in 1936 was taken as an example?
While designing and constructing Vodafone Arena, we took into consideration all the values and importance of the BJK İnonü Stadium and targeted to meet the expectations of today and of the foreseeable future. This project has been based on the historical references of the city taking into consideration its place (its silhouette in the panorama of Istanbul), location (the valley basin between Gümüşsuyu Caddesi and Kadırgalar Caddesi) and structure.
BJK İnönü Stadium (Mithat Paşa Stadium) is located in a very important point of Istanbul’s silhouette taking into consideration its location. From this point of view, in order to preserve the cultural sustainability of the city and reveal the available values, the stone cased façade that took its place in the memory of the city and the people, forms the most important architectural character of the structure and is located between two towers at the sea side has been preserved in the project.
The renewed tribune has been pulled back in order to feature the historical towers and wall. The new stadium is being built 24 meters back in the north-south direction.
In the area between the renewed tribune and the historical wall located at the 19 May (south) gate called as Eski Açık and looks over the Dolma Bahçe Coastal Road, a sports museum and a cafeteria at the museum’s terrace is built in order to bring the people together with the historical wall that took its place in their memories.
The façade consists of barcode columns that form a rhythm beside each other. The rational columns that wrap the structure of the renewed tribune like tulle has been inspired from the rhythm and material of BJK İnönü Stadium’s unique load-bearing system. I do not know about the similarity with Albert Speer’s stadium but the colonnaded façade also bears trails of the Dolmabahçe Palace’s colonnades and the Spendon of Horse Square that belongs to the history of Eastern Rome. We aimed to emphasize that the structures are living things reaching out from past to future, maintain the existence of the available structures according to the contemporary conditions, make changes that do not delete the past and maintain a sustainable development by adding new values on their available values and importance.
Have the previous lounges with Bosporus view been preserved?
Our priority is to emphasis on the effect of the structure on Istanbul’s silhouette rather than the view seen from the stadium. The stadium surface has been lowered five meters down the sea level taking into consideration its effect on the silhouette. Even of not the lounges, the audience tribunes have sea view.
The stadium roof is a very good example of middle tensioning. Which stadium was taken as an example for this structure? From where did you get the technology?
The fact that the stadium is inside the valley lessens the silhouette effect and enables the roof to be realized by the environment. The roof which may be considered as the fifth façade of the structure has been designed as a light and transparent tulle with ETF clothing. This roof system is applied in many new stadiums in the world. The Frankfurt Stadium and Warsaw Stadium are some examples. The roof technology is the common work of French Fresine Company and Turkish Iz Engineering.
Big teams have stadiums in Istanbul. Did you have the opportunity to study the renewed and the newly built ones? Which “good’ parts did you use in this project?
As you said many stadiums were recently built in Istanbul. Vodafone Arena has been planned according to the UEFA 2016 criteria in order to meet the required capacity of 38,000 people. The mentioned criteria define a specific standard. It contains the comfort needed by the sportsmen during preparation, training and during matches, the conditions required by the press personnel in order to broadcast in the tribune, inside and outside the stadium, the circulation patterns needed by the audience to enter and exit the stadium and the toilets, sufficient number of places such as cafes and the organization in a way that does not interfere into the visual angle of the audience. For this reason no project has been taken as reference.
Can we get information about the natural stones used in your project?
Especially about the columns all around the stadium…
Around the structure, the limestone which is the original stone of the preserved historical wall will be used. The old stone texture will be preserved. The saw beams that carry the tribunes and some columns will be exposed concrete.
The stadium is in a central place and it is surrounded with highways. What difficulties did you face during construction and what precautions were taken regarding being in the middle of the traffic?
Construction activities are difficult in all metropolitans of the world. The difficulties are even more when it comes to a structure such as Vodafone Arena. As you said the stadium is surrounded with heavy traffic and located inside a valley basin. For this reason works with heavy traffic such as demolishment, removing the excavated material, material transportation, concrete pouring are tried to be made at nights. Regarding the static difficulties of the demolishment and in order to preserve the historical wall, the dismantling and construction works should be done carefully and this fact lengthens the period.
Thank you for the information you gave.
Thank you.
