World Architecture Festival 2018 | Prominent features of the project
This year, we participated to WAF with two projects. The Sports Complex is a sports center in the new complex of Çankaya University, which we have been designing and taking part in the building process for the last 10 years. The main aspect of the project is that it is not centralized around a single hall with a large spectator capacity but rather it was a project where sports volumes were interlinked in a decentralized scheme.
The building site was a little tight, for this reason, we tried to find an integrity by aligning building strategies together with the landscape. The most interesting subject for the jury was the facades of the structure. Since facades give character to the buildings it is actually a hot topic. For this structure, the jury was interested in the expression of the topography and surrounding, which was the focus of discussion.
The Biodiversity Museum is a project that expresses the relationship between biological and geological phases, a project that comes to the forefront with some volumetric research we’ve undertaken during the design process. It is also a social project, raising awareness to protect the region where the green areas were endangered because of urbanization. We tried to find a form and program solution that came together with all of these, so I can say that the project has attracted interest in these aspects.
Impressions
WAF 2018 is an impressive organization we participated for the first time and we had the opportunity to experience such interesting topics: meeting with many architects from around the globe, listening different thoughts in an environment where everyone is together, experiencing how many different ideas could blend each other or dissociate from another.
Besides, it is a pleasant thing to see colorful examples of the architectural world in other countries other than some prosperous Western countries or the ones well known with an architectural background; seeing how these are developed with alternative solutions. It is really an organization that opens up new horizons for an architect. I can say that it was an experience that would help us to understand where we are in this world for the future.
