For whom: İstanbul Ayazağa Elementary and Middle School
With whom: MEF University Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture
When: 2016
Blog: http://ayazagapeyzaj.tumblr.com
Between April and July 2016, we completed a landscape project with playgrounds and open space organizations for Istanbul Ayazağa Elementary and Middle School as a part of MEF University Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture “Design and Built!” studio. MEF department of architecture and interior architecture first class students, their professors, volunteers and members of our association worked together in the project. Playing/seating units and stage design/application were realized in the garden, which was functionalized a year before as a part of the “Bridge to the Dreams” project.
Ayazağa Elementary and Middle School provides education to approximately 1,800 students with dual education system. Until last year, the open areas of the school were divided into two and some were out of use because of the water channel passing through the middle of the school garden. Teachers and students communicated with MEF University in order to revitalize the abandoned areas and improve the garden. MEF University Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture made a project called “Bridge to the Dreams” in the summer of 2016 in order to find a solution to this problem. A wooden bridge was constructed on top of the water channel, taking into account the wishes of the parents in addition to the teachers and students. The design and application of the project was done by the first class students under the supervision of their professors. The participatory design process was supported by Herkes İçin Mimarlık. You can access the project via Facebook and Twitter links.
After the completion of the construction we made an evaluation visit to the school twice in April 2016 and started to work together. According to the wishes of the teachers and parents about durability and firmness, we decided together on a project which will mainly involve concrete elements, where we can test the combination of concrete with wooden and metal materials.
The design workshop, which was attended by 28 students, started in the last two weeks of May in MEF University studios. The size of the area and especially the multitude of requests about the playing units seemed to be an obstacle to the detailing of the project. However we evaluated this situation by taking only the elementary decisions about the approach in order to develop the project on site. While designing some details beforehand, this method enabled us to make design experiments with available materials and workforce on site, with the actual conditions of the garden.
In June we made the applications on site together with students, professors, association members and volunteers. We built a racetrack by combining and separating prismatic concrete elements rising above two concrete platforms. For the safety of the track, the height of the prisms and the distances between them was a consideration. The bar cube, made of wood and metal, and 5 consecutive equilibrium benches are combined with prisms and stepped stages. In the seating units in front of the stages and in some of the track prisms we placed wooden pieces that joined at the same finish level as the concrete to soften the corners and surfaces. We strengthened the visual connection of the course with the floor and surface paintings realized at the end of the applications. We produced also two wooden goals and named the project “m³”. You can access the log of the work from the blog page which is written throughout the process.
You can find the photo album of the project here.
Design team: MEF University Department of Architecture first class students
Students: Aleyna Vardar, Begüm Acar, Berin Erikçi, Beste Karaduman, Buğçenur Fıstaçoğlu, Buse Çiftlik, Çağatay Çelik, Ece Nakışçı, Efe Palas, Ege Manzak, Emir Hacısaffet, Eren Hatice Gedik, Eyüp Arıkboğa, Gamze Sunar, Gülçin Apaydın, Hüseyin Furkan Şenoğlu, İremsu Sarıoğlu, Jülide Gökçe Ağu, Kübra Aksoy, Merve Akdoğan, Naz Balekoğlu, Ramazan Ersin, Rümeysa Aksoy, Selin Tüysüz, Serpil Kardaş, Süleyman Aras, Tanya Davutoğlu, Zeynep Akyol
Project Lead: Bengi Güldoğan, Emre Gündoğdu, Merve Gül Özokcu
Application: MEF University Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture Department of Architecture and Interior Architecture students of 2016, Bengi Güldoğan, Herkes İçin Mimarlık [Anıl Tuhanioğlu, Ekin Güneş, Emre Gündoğdu, Mert Can Ildız, Merve Gül Özokcu, Özge Öcal, Sercan Koçak, Serkan Kurt, Yağmur Kutlar, Yasemin Sünbül]
Application Support: Municipality of Sarıyer, Oyak Beton
