While the debates over preservation and its implementation prevail in Turkey amidst the gradual disappearance of the historic buildings and urban fabrics, today the protection of the “modern” emerges as a bigger challenge.
Recognized as one of the pioneers of modern architecture in Turkey and renowned for his countless studies and archive works on the “Turkish house” architecture, Sedad Hakkı Eldem based his entire architectural conception on the modernization of the Turkish house. We were fortunate enough to be asked to complete a house that he designed in the early 1980s but was never able to finish due to his untimely death.
We strived to complete the building based on our research on the period in which Sedad Hakkı Eldem designed the building, the applications of his other, similar housing designs, and we followed in his footsteps by seeking the answer to the question, “how would he have done it had he been alive today?”
Following the decision to use the basement for a different purpose than envisaged on the original project, the slope of the property was zeroed at point minimum and exposed, and an annex was introduced to this level. This additional building expanded the ground floor terraces, thus requiring the upper terrace and the lower garden to be connected. This was resolved by terracing. Accessed from the lower street, an immense garage was built underneath the vast flat area in front of the new annex to house the classic car collection of the house’s owner.
