Unalan Cultural Center

“Scenes and actors appear the moment the miracle box appears; the miracle box is a cube; with it comes everything that is needed to perform miracles, levitation, manipulation, distraction, etc.”

Le Corbusier, Paris, 1948

The project area, located at the southwestern end of the Unalan neighborhood has the potential to be both an expansion point for the neighborhood and an important intersection point for the city as a whole. Nearby metro, bus, metrobus and sea transportation alternatives also support this potential. It should be taken into consideration that the project area is an important crossroads that can be accessed by land, rail and sea, and ways to connect the area with these transportation facilities should be sought.

In addition to utilizing transportation opportunities, providing for the lack of public green spaces that the neighborhood and its immediate surroundings suffer from is another issue focused on within the scope of the project. It is recommended that the existing park next to the area be expanded and made accessible. Thanks to the smoothing of elevation relationships, the park, which is connected to both the metro station and Barajyolu Alt Street, will also form the basis for the masses and boxes that accommodate the different functions of the cultural center.

Placing the main functions that make up the cultural center underground, as a basis for the functions above, prevented the building to be seen as a larger mass from outside, and the image of a park and the boxes scattered within it was strengthened. The profilite-covered, semi-transparent surfaces of the boxes hide the contents inside while at the same time arousing curiosity. They show the inside indistinctly during the day and illuminate the outside brightly at night. Just like Le Corbusier’s “miracle boxes” (la boîte à miracles), which hide miracles inside and do not reveal secrets from the outside, these boxes are expected to spread miracles to the city.

CLIENTIstanbul Metropolitan Municipality
YEAR2023
STATUSCompleted
TYPEMixed-Use
BUILT AREA46.000 m2
CONSULTANTSNeslihan Dostoglu, Hamdi Dostoglu
PRIZES / SELECTIONSNational Competition