Izmir City Councils Building | 2023

“What should a museum be like, a museum in Manhattan? Of course it should be useful, it should fulfill a need. But what is its relationship with the New York landscape? What does it express, what is its architectural message? First it is easy to say how it should not be.

It should not look like a business or office building; it should not look like a cheap entertainment venue. Its form and material should have an identity and weight in a neighborhood of 50-story skyscrapers, in the middle of the dynamic forest of our colorful city, in the middle of miles of bridges, independent and self-confident, intertwined with history, and at the same time transforming the vitality of the street into the sincerity and depth of art.” Marcel Breurer – About the Whitney Museum.

The monumental feeling pursued in the project was tried to be captured with a pure, strong and identifiable geometry, far away from formal-expressionist pursuits. The building consists of a plinth and a hollowed out monolithic prism stepping on it.

The user, who is compressed primarily by the stairs from the square side and a flat ceiling, is released into an inner courtyard as soon as he reaches the top.

This surprising inner space turns into an upper square. From this level, which overlooks both the sea and Konak Square, public facilities are also accessed.

The multi-purpose hall located on this level transforms into an event space that integrates with the courtyard according to the usage scenario. In the center of the courtyard, the reflection pool surrounding the light slit opening to the parliament foyer areas provide coolness with its climatic effect.

The mass that borders the courtyard turns into presidential services units in the eastern direction, and into public units in the other 3 directions where the library and the city museum are located.

These spaces, mostly facing the inner courtyard, are close to the burning southern and western sun. The user interacts with the city, the landscape and the inner courtyard through some gaps. In addition, the monolithic white mass, its courtyard and the irregular and spontaneous spaces opening to it bear the spatial and physical traces of the vernacular Mediterranean architectural character. The library and exhibition spaces also establish a visual relationship with each other from time to time through the evacuations.

Another part of the building, the plinth, contains the city council and its service spaces. The public reaches the assembly through a slit opened on the staircase from the Konak Square level. The entrance for the assembly members and the presidency is on the east side. The assembly and other spaces in the plinth section open onto sunken gardens. The west-facing parliament is protected from the sun both by its lower elevation and the mass formation of the plinth.

Category:Government BuildingsLocation:Izmir, TurkiyeArchitect: Ali Burak Yanardağ, TurkiyeDesign Team: Ali Burak Yanardağ, Burcu SemizoğluPhotographer: YNRDG