A metropolitan canopy that generates a dialogue distance with the urban
iZMiR MAIN TRANSFER CENTER
#competition, #architecture, #openspace, #izmir, #landscape, #transportation, #izmirtransfercenter
Information
iZMiR MAIN TRANSFER CENTER
At the end of a long bus journey, you are finally approaching the Aegean. You can tell from the change of the landscape texture and the sun shining more beautifully than ever. It is announced that you will soon be arriving in İzmir. Your destination is not only one of Turkey’s largest metropolitan cities, but also the most important one in the Mediterranean. It is the birthplace of Homer, where science existed before ancient Greek capitalism, where Roman emperors ruled the state from and a place where prehistoric civilizations existed together with Minoen Crete, Athens, Delphi, Cume; a geography beyond borders and times.
Maybe you are a young man who has been accepted to a university in İzmir, or a soldier seeing the city for the first time. Maybe you are a part of the family who are about to visit their teacher daughter in İzmir. The terminal helps you to meet with İzmir for the very first time. What do you see? What do you think? What are you feeling? What kind of an introduction is this? Is your first encounter with İzmir a complementary to what you heard through the years or is it a big disappointment?
You enter the city and the terminal without your feelings along the road interrupted. Instead of the landscape texture turning into a grey terminal texture; a rural landscape of topography grasps you; isolating you from the surroundings. An idiopathic object rises among the trees. This terminal is slightly different from what you are used to. Those who arrive in İzmir are welcomed with a canopy which also represents a meaning. It is the canopy representing the different ehnicities living together in İzmir for many years.
Welcome to İzmir..
Client
İzmir Metropolitan Municipality
Location
İzmir
Size
153000 sqm
Program
Transportation Center
Status
II Stage National Competition
Collaborators
Naz AKDEMİR
caps.office
THE JOURNEY
Bus terminals are perhaps one of the rare places where different transitional emotions of people (tired, stressed, happy, etc..) are experienced at the same time. We prefer to look at this experience as a journey. The journey begins even before entering the bus terminal, at the point where the rural landscape grasps the visitors, allowing time for them to feel isolated from the surroundings. As we gradually reach the building, we see a metropolitan canopy rising through the trees. The journey continues through the building until we reach the outside world.
OUTWARD
When thinking about bus terminals, we find ourselves facing many problematic situations. First of these is the face of the bus terminal building facing the outside world which we like to call the “outward” section. The terminals are welcoming buildings for the city visitors. That’s why they have the ability to create positive prejudgement. In order to benefit from this potential, the proposal was designed as a journey. As the rural landscape curls and flows in, the passengers entering the arrivals hall are surprised by the giant interior garden and the exhibition areas surrounding the interior.
The Canopy as a Welcoming Space in a Geography beyond borders and times
PROGRAMMATIC DISTRIBUTION
The proposed project is designed with a spatial arrangement where the qualified public relationship established by the building with the city will not be damaged during long periods of use despite all the unforseen changes. The main pedestrian approach axis of the building is the subway exits that operate as human generators. All public facilities are located on the southern plateau of the area, with a variety of open - half open and closed spaces. Considering that the building will also work as a transfer center, the transportation network for the whole city has been solved in the southern part, which is close to the subway exits. Since the entire vehicle network is built on a permeable subfloor, the 0-level belonging to the citizens can be equipped with qualified public spaces. The building leaves a buffer zone of approximately 40 meters on the side facing the viaduct and the city. While this buffer zone is seen as important for establishing a strong urban axis with the buildings to be built in the north of the area, it leaves a sufficient dialogue distance for vehicles traveling at high speed from the viaduct and leaving Izmir.
An Idiopatic object rises among the trees
INWARD
The other series of problematic situations we are faced with is the face of the terminal buildings towards urban life, which we call the “inward” section. There are two important issues; first being the existing terminal buildings in Izmir are the ones that cannot establish a healthy relationship with the city and remain idle due to the gray skirts (asphalt) around them, since they were built with an understanding that prioritizes vehicles. When you think about it, the time for a passenger to use the building for terminal purposes can be as short as five minutes. He comes, gets on his bus and leaves. Therefore, the biggest problem in the current situation stands out as the construction of buildings that spend so little time at such great costs and their inability to contribute to urban life in any way. Secondly; terminal structures are the structures that start to age and fall back from the moment they were built. A building designed for the transportation requirements of 50 years ago cannot meet those of 25 years ago. As what was done for the requirements of 25 years ago cannot meet today's… Considering that technological developments have been developing with an increasing (exponential) slope in the age we live in, we think that any transfer center structure designed according to the needs of this time will not be used efficiently after a few years. What will be the area reserved for service areas when smart pods take the place of today's inner city shuttles? 15 years from now, when we switch to fully electric vehicles, what will be the fuel station are reserved for? What will happen when the spaces reserved for ticket sales offices today are fully digitalized in ten years?
Current Situation
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