A few weeks ago Superpool surprised me with one of the best library designs I have seen in a while: the Open Library in Istanbul. A small area, a rich public space.
But the office has also been working on two large scale residential projects in Turkey: Konya Residence and Dagos Tower (will be featured on a future article). Both projects propose innovative strategies in terms of dense housing. I´m eager to see how this projects develop and materialize in the future.
About the Konya Residence:
The desire for efficiency of developers and contractors have handcuffed the Turkish housing typology into blocks with typically 4 units around a central core. Despite its unarguable efficiency, the result consistently creates upto a third of the units to be compromised; without views, facing other units. And eventhough generally the zoning laws allow only 25-50% of a given site to be developed, punctured by these indifferent towers, the left over green space is seldom identifiable.
Without sacrificing efficiency of one core to four units, the proposal aims to elongate the blocks to prioritize views to one side. The blocks are then arranged to create a central garden of 8,000 m2; to complete the often neglected green space needs of urban housing.
To introduce sectional variation to the blocks and to enhance the views, the overall volume is terraced. In the context of a rapidly growing city with a diminishing heritage of fruit groves and vines, Konya Residences aims to make green space as important to the life of the residents as the buildings themselves.
Team: Superpool – Selva Gürdoğan, Gregers Tang Thomsen, Marta Marszal, Benek Çinçik Type: Commission Size: 40,000 m2 Client: Seha Yapi Collaborators: New Dialogues AG, Zurich Location: Konya, Turkey Status: Ongoing
