Ziya Imren, Barış Ekmekçi, and Münire Sagat shared with us their second prize winning proposal for the Gallipoli Agadere Memorial & Hospital Museum. One of the main ideas of the project is the purpose of bringing a modern approach to the concept of preservation. The result is a solution that is respectful to the martyrs and the land, but at the same time one in which the historical memory is protected via exposing the historic and cultural potential. More images and architects’ description after the break.
The design area is the place where the injured soldiers were treated in the tents during the Battle of Gallipoli. In this perspective, the general approach is defined as re-discovering the potential the land has and using that in a way that is worth the sacred place it constitutes in the memory of the history.
This place is the land where war remainders, historic legacy, bloods of martyrs and veterans are found everywhere and Turkish history is re-written. Due to fact that, the design of the museum is constructed in a way that intrudes the land with minimum touch. Spatial design is built in accordance with the visitor circulation. In this sense, the visitors will have the opportunity of getting outside from closed exhibition areas via elevated walkway and experience differences in their visual and physical senses.
The elevated walkway, the terraces and the martyr wall (on which the names of the lost ones are engraved) which are located in the interface formed by these closed places, are the focal points of the outer location. Also, on the martyr wall, besides the cloves niches, there are empty niches that represent the unidentified martyrs. The interface ends with a watching terrace that dominates the whole valley and the narrow sea.
The circulation of the museum is arranged in a linear path with a scenario written fort the health frontier. The depth feeling of the exhibition spaces refer from the narrow and long bulwarks in which our martyrs lived for months. The height and tightness of these spaces define the feeling of loneliness for the visitors.
The suggestion of raising the museum without intruding the land directs the usage of steel elements in the structural system. The steel structural system is the most appropriate construction element in terms of maintenance, execution and sustainability for this place.
Architects: Ziya Imren; Landscape Architects: Barış Ekmekçi, Münire Sağat Location: Canakkale, Turkey Architectural Consultant: Ufuk Cesur Supporter: Yakup Koçak Competition Status: 2nd prize