Location: Izmir
Year: 2020
Employer: Izmir Metropolitan Municipality
Category: National Competition, Urban Design, Visitor Center, Recreation

Project Area: 530 m²

Open Area: 570.000 m²
Team: Seden Cinasal, Ramazan Avcı, Aslı Özbek, Nihat Eyce, Savaş Zafer Şahin, Merve Şen, Büşra Bal, Fatih İbiş, Oğuz Kağan Erge, Esra Ekincioğlu

The design area has an important role in creating an opportunity for human and nature interaction and bringing together sustainable and ecological lifestyles with the citizens. The main approach of the design can be expressed as the development of the biological diversity of the area and providing a living environment where the citizens can exist in nature.

For this reason, the design field has been considered as a whole from an ecological point of view. The main objective is to protect and develop the ecological value and rural culture of the area (especially the ancient olive culture) and to design the area with minimum intervention. In this way, it is aimed to ensure the continuity of ecological balance by protecting environmental values ​​and to transfer them to future generations.

By preserving the natural traces (gaps, pathways) in the area, circulation routes compatible with the land trace are created. Rain ponds are suggested in the lower elevations in accordance with the morphology of the land and the flow directions of the surface waters after precipitation. In this way, it is aimed to start the enrichment of the ecosystem along a certain line (surface water) and then to continue an autogenic process that can be developed and sustained without the need for intervention.