Mecidiyeköy Towers

Recently, some lands in the center of Istanbul – which have either lost their functions or became less profitable, were bid to private investors to develop real-estate projects of maximal sizes. Mecidiyeköy Towers is one of these projects in the middle of a central, condensed and crowded area in Istanbul which is standing on a large land that unites the two adjacent areas of a former Liqueur and Cognac Factory and the stadium of the Galatasaray soccer team. The project aims to create a holistic approach regarding the design as an opportunity to create a public place in Mecidiyeköy, a region congested with heavy traffic and dense urban texture. The main decision of the settlement strategy was leaving an in-between area blank in order to create a continuous, green, open public space with commercial activities. The re-construction of the factory with cultural activities adds to the public life and this area is proposed as a city park “breathing zone”. The towers, adopt the principle of mass fragmentation by following the existing physical context while the façades are oriented to the angles of panorama where the fragmentation of the building masses helps them to be perceived as lighter within the urban fabric.