For whom: Kavar Agricultural Development Cooperative
With whom: Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation
When: 2014-2015
Between October 2014 and October 2015, we have produced a sales office building project, where the products produced by Kavar Agricultural Development Cooperative will be sold, and breakfast and tea can be served to passersby. While working with AÇEV for our Women and Child Spaces project, the project started with Murat Bayramoğlu, who is responsible for the “Kavar Basin Rural Development Project” of Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation, the sister organization of AÇEV. In the project, we realized the design and implementation of the sales office.
Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation started its’ project in November 2008 in Kolbaşı, Yassıca, Düzcealan, Tokaçlı, Dibekli, Bolalan villages and their 5 hamlets of Kavar Basin of Bitlis Tatvan province, where is one of the most impoverished areas of Turkey according to socio-economic indicators. In the project, while mainly agriculture and animal husbandry studies were developed, different production and training studies were also carried out. At the end of a two-year preparation period, the cooperative was founded by villagers and it organizes the collecting and selling works of the milk of these villages. In 2011 the Foundation also launched the “Women Beekeepers Project”, and it created a new income for women who is producing 3 tons of honey annually. Murat Bayramoğlu contacted us upon the request of a sales office on the Tatvan – Van highway, which passes through the villages in the basin, where women will operate and cooperative products, especially honey, will be sold. He also stated that this building, which is planned to remain open in summer and winter and to be a showcase of the cooperative, will be built with the common financial means of the cooperative and the foundation.
It was decided that the location of the office, which was requested to be disassembled and portable when necessary, would be at the crossroads where Hüsnü Özyeğin Foundation – Deniz Süren Secondary School was located. At this point, the positioning was also advantageous in terms of benefiting the teachers of the school without a canteen. In an area of approximately 70 m2, the cooperative had the expectation of a 25-30 m2 structure. In October 2014, we talked with Murat Bayramoğlu and cooperative chairman Gürgin Karabey, and in the light of the information we received at the meeting, we carried out design studies among our members through physical and online meetings for 1.5 months. After revising the different alternatives with the opinions of the cooperative and the prices received from the closest town center Tatvan, the final design with an internal area of 29 m2 and an external entrance area of 7 m2 had appeared.
5 repetitive frames made of iron profile on concrete strip legs that allow a breakaway from the ground formed the main frame of the structure. The exterior of the building, which is covered with sheet metal panel from the outside, and with OSB panels from the inside, the facade facing the road and the side doors are considered as the glass surface, while the remaining surfaces are closed. Considering the heavy snowfall climate of the region, a roof with high slope and a breaking in two directions was designed. After the design was decided, our members Samim Magriso and Tarık Keskin went to Kavar on 1-3 December 2014, to talk with the cooperative members and also saw the places where the materials would be supplied in Tatvan and spoke to the masters who would carry out the application. After this date, the construction works that we followed by staying in communication lasted until October 2015 depending on the budget possibilities and the building started to be used as of 2016 after the winter season.
We would like to thank Murat Bayramoğlu, who contributed to the realization of the project and to the people of Kavar, who warmly welcomed us during our visit.
Here you can find the booklet of the project, and here you can find the photo album of the project.
Project participants: Alican İnal, Ayben Aydoğan, Ayşe Selin Gürel, Cenk Dereli, Ceren Sözer, Dilara Kara, Emre Gündoğdu, İdil Yücel, Merve Gül Özokcu, Mihriban Duman, Tarık Keskin, Yağmur Kutlar, Yelta Köm
