The Hacıosman Nodus – A Case Study
How many of us, living in urban areas, have come across abandoned construction sites or unfinished built structures? And how many times we have seen that those
proto-ruins stay in a state of lethargy for years and years?
This project is a theoretical speculation. Its purpose is to raise awareness over the strange presence of those abandoned built structures in an advanced construction stage around city landscapes.
These situations usually have flourishing ground where political and economic instability
create the perfect context for those who like to take chance in a short cycled
system that gives and takes opportunities in a blink of an eye. Easy financing of
non-solid business plans, together with loose urban planning regulations, might be
some of the reasons for the existence of these awkward urban creatures.
Frequently, such condition relates with the investor company going bankrupt, a construction put on hold due to legal issues or a complaint presented by concerned
citizens.
Due to complex legislation and many times kafkian bureaucracy, it is hard for municipal
governments to take action and do anything about it. In the end, these ghost
structures just stay and cohabit with us for years and years.
With all resolutions adjourned, city people get used to unfinished and unhealthy building leftovers that in most cases belong to private owners.
Very often, citizens are powerless regarding this situation. Is this fair? Shouldn’t the
owners be held responsible and take action in case they are proved solvent? Or, if
that is not the case, shouldn’t public stakeholders act in order to erase this decaying
vision out of the cityscape?
We think that if owners cannot take care of their assets and leave them abandoned
with a negative impact on public health and the quality of the built environment, the
right of use of these properties should be taken over by public agents. They would
bear the responsibility of transforming them and giving use for the benefit of the citizens.
We decided to bring this subject to the front line by choosing an existing unfinished building and make it a case study. For this Small Revolution, we studied the failed project of the Grand Prestige Istanbul Hotel in the Municipality of Sariyer and decided to bring design and programmatic ideas to return this precious unused space back to life, back to people.
Our purpose is not to build it, but to make people think on how undervalued and neglected these places are.
The Grand Prestige Istanbul Hotel Case Study
During the 90’s, Uran Holding started the construction of the Grand Prestige Istanbul Hotel (GPIH) in the area of Hacıosman, on the top of the hills of the Tarabya neighborhood, over the European Bosphorus side.
If it had been finished, this 21 store building would be one of the most luxurious and exclusive hotels in the city. Standing at high grounds, the views for the customers would have been amazing, overviewing the beautiful historical canal, its mouth towards the Black Sea and the sprawling city at its feet.
In 1995 the company’s owner was killed in a shooting incident and after a complaint due to possible illegal aspects of the project, the construction was put on hold until today.
(For more details on the affairs of the GPIH you can follow link 1 and link 2. You can read in Turkish or use Google’s automatic translation for English)
Through the years, the public authorities, mostly the municipal government of Sariyer, have tried without success, to give a destiny to this decaying structure.
The GPIH Today
With almost 100m height, the construction stands out massively from the low rise
buildings and the delicate forests around. It’s not hard to understand why the construction was put on hold, such is the contrast of its presence with the surroundings.
As a premise, we started to think: how can this structural skeleton be transformed
into something that is beneficial for Istanbul’s population? How can we bring back life
to this half dead object?
The easy approach – and maybe the most reasonable – could be just to demolish
what was built and transform it to a park. This would simply heal the wound in the
forest generated by this massive object.
What we chose, as a design challenge, was to keep the existing structure and try to revert the condition of failed intent that was the making of the original project.
If we infill it with new functions that can attract new inhabitants for the region and articulate it with the urban context around, we believe that the GPIH can become a catalyst for a new dynamics in the North of Istanbul.
Redefining Hacıosman – The Nodus Concept
The location of the building, as an enclave between green areas and large roads that
cut them off, is privileged for the restoration of the physical connections existing prior
to the development of this region. If we connect these large green masses through
the GPIH, we could generate a pedestrian corridor that links the Belgrade Forest, in
the west, and the Hacıosman Park in the southeast.
The excellent accessibility network around the GPIH – metro line to the city center,
bus & mini-bus terminal and the Büyükdere Avenue connecting to the metropolitan
road system – and the idea to create a public space for civic expression, added to
the overpasses, generates a knot of confluence, that we can symbolically call, Nodus.
Using an element in the form of an overpass, we can connect the forest with the
metro and bus stations, giving access to them in a regional scale. When the passage
touches the GPIH building, we propose to create a public space, as the realm of the
urban intervention, in a manner of an agora which does not exist in this
neighborhood.
To Whom Does The Nodus Serve?
connections between forests and linking them to the Metro and Bus interchanger.
Three metro stations down the Green Line is the Istanbul’s Technical University (ITU) Campus and further north, the private Koç University has another Campus, summing up more than 20,000 students.
With a growing student population, the region has a consistent need for student accommodation for which the Nodus could serve perfectly.
The new inhabitants would need large common areas to experiment, study, work, socialize, eat, etc. Bringing together so many young people will definitely bring along also creativity. Closely articulated with the Student Residence would be what we can call a Student Hub, a multilayered space providing facilities that enable networking, entrepreneurship and the display of that creative force.
Making use of the symbolism associated to the presence of this kind of abandoned structures and its relevance for the aesthetics of urban culture, we propose the creation of an Urban Art Museum (UAM) at the lower levels of the Nodus. This venue would celebrate this contemporary form of art which includes graffiti, street dance and theatre, sculpture among many others.
Some parts of the museum would be enclosed, others in the open air – like urban art itself – at the ground floor merging it with the Public Square at the base of the Nodus. This fluid and natural relation between both reinforces the idea of Urban Art as Public Art.
Community Building
The Nodus is thought as a gathering and sharing point with its areas for events, celebrations, art display and networking.
The Public Square at the Ground Floor would
also be working as the entrance that gives access to all functions.
As the Overpass reaches the building it reshapes itself into an open air amphitheater for live concerts, theater and cinema happenings.
The Public Square at street level would be working as the entrance that gives access to all functions. It would be organized as a public garden over the building’s existing podium, which extends below the main body of the construction, where all the other venues are placed. A dominant element would be an open air amphitheater, thought as a gathering point as well as a place for events and celebrations.
The Nodus Functional Programme
north neighborhoods of Greater Istanbul.
Taking advantage of the incredible panoramic views of the surroundings, we also propose to have a Rooftop Venue which would help, together with the other functions, finance the operation of such communal enterprise. It could host restaurants or any other food and beverage functions.
Also, at several levels of the Student Residence, informal social areas for relaxation and sport activities are organized in a way to benefit from the superb perspectives towards the Bosphorus or the surrounding forests.
Some of these areas are linked to The Ribbon, a metal structured ribbon that creates a binding circuit traveling through the different levels of the residence, in a gesture that looks forward to promote social interaction and healthy habits. This element is also connected to the ground floor through a lift that gives access to a jogging circuit and other sport playgrounds. At the same level, and in the best tradition of Tarabya’s landscape, we propose an urban farming area for the Nodus community.
bonding.
Intervention Approach
All the construction systems would be precast and can be seen as temporary. This means that they could be removed if, for example, the GPIH’s private owner would decide to go back to the original project.
The student accommodation units would be made from containers adapted for the new use. Its transformation would be done off-site and mounted and connected to electrical, mechanical and sewage systems that would be mainly mounted on the façades. All structural elements would be made of light steel and added to the existing concrete after properly reinforced.
All vertical communications would be done through the existing stairs – as well as fire escape routes – and new panoramic lifts placed conveniently outside to serve all floors.
The Nodus Logic
Throughout the world we have the example of Squatting, which refers to the occupation
of empty buildings, mostly located in urban areas, by someone who is not paying
rent to its owners. Squatting became a social movement which fights mainly against
real estate speculation. The Nodus proposal would involve a special legal frame and
the co-participation of public stakeholders which means a different approach
from squat. Also the GPIH is not ready for occupation, its present nature as a ‘de
facto’ building seems different to us.
Observing the abandoned structure of the GPIH makes us think on the architectural nature of such unfinished buildings. Can we consider it a ruin? In its definition, a ruin, stands for the rests of a wrecked building, victim of decay and desegregation. In that case, it means that to become a ruin there must have been a state of completion, that implies a certain use and function, which is not the case of the GPIH.
Couldn’t it be an advantage that the GPIH is free from the weight of memory? This liberates us from any constraints with the past. It enables us to re-use and redefine it without any disruption with bygone times.
This is what we tried to do by rethinking the whole nature of a building which is the image of a failed act. By bringing new functions, adapted to present needs, and (of course) people to inhabit them, we look forward to regenerate not only the building itself but to redefine the whole area around it and the region.
Eventually, the Nodus case study aims to create an open public discussion about issues related to decisions over abandoned private property with a negative impact for citizens. In Istanbul or any other part of the world.
The Life of Abandoned Buildings – The Hacıosman Nodus Case Study article and Design
Concept were fully developed by ARKollective members Joao Cruz Neves and
Uğur Yavuz.
For the Turkish version click here.
arkollective.com 