Cirpici Industrial Park

Year:2018
Location:Zeytinburnu, Istanbul
Site:51,000 m²
Client:Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

Akfil Tekstil was founded at the beginning of the 1950s. It was one of the first examples of industrial developments in Istanbul as well as in Türkiye. It was located in the Zeytinburnu area where historically there were activities of leather processing, yarn making, and textile weaving. Subsequently, all the traditional activities were transformed into the modern industry back in the 1950s in this area. The area kept its charm for the economy until the 1980s, and then most of the factories were removed from the site to the outskirts of Istanbul where modern industrial districts were mushrooming. Due to the transformation from industrial to residential/commercial uses, the urban fabric has changed into apartments, commercial building blocks, road infrastructures, and parks without preserving the spatial identity of old industrial areas. Used only as a depo until 2005, Akfil Textile was one of the last traces of this industrial past in Zeytinburnu. Currently, the City wants to tear down all the buildings on the site and turn this area into green space. The design team proposed to turn this area into an industrial heritage park where the existing structures can be used for indoor activities, while the semi-open and open spaces can accommodate many outdoor programs. Subsequently, a schema has been created for keeping the building spaces as it is and decomposing the structure at certain percentages based on the park’s program. This concept allowed some design modules.  For instance, the use of buildings as a museum, library, workshop areas; use of the structure only with walls to create enclosure for semi-outdoor activities such as theatre, outdoor exhibitions, sport activities; and finally the use of part of the walls or columns for defining space, giving direction to the people’s movement or even for activities such as wall climbing.  Each module in the schema is organized carefully based on the structure type, the structure’s relationship with the park’s program, and the structure’s location in the larger context. This modular design approach not only helped to reflect the old industrial context to the modern-day user but also allowed diversity in the park program.

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