Framing the Collective Memory
Public spaces carry their own collective memories to the future.
The school, as first named as İmroz Primary School, has been a source of collective memory for fifty years. Not only students but also people lived on the island, shared this unique entity.
Apart from its physical features, the space has such a unique identity that it is possible to talk about its soul which people's deepest feelings naturally respond to. You can feel the soul as you walk through spaces, once were used to be in between school and dormitory building. Old school courtyard, Atatürk statue, the walls, the soccer ground missing grass, trees, and shadows of them - they are all together creating this unique atmosphere attached to people's memories.
Keeping strong qualities of the place and integrating them into the new design is the main starting point of the project.
In order to create a new life in the space, it would have been very inappropriate to create something opposite to the existing soul of the space. Without throwing the existing quality of the space, the project is aimed to create a new way of living that enables new memories. Trees are assumed to be one of the most influential entities that shape people's memories. Instead of getting away from the existing tree groups, planted many years ago; the proposed building takes a strong position by getting close to them and wraps them.
We emphasized that the light structure that we offer among the trees, community rooms and terraces, allow students to touch trees and own them. The students can reach the green from the new courtyard or the education block. Thus, the courtyard might be filled by the energy of students’ club. We aim the spaces we set up in the courtyard-facing boundary to have strong communication with each other and strong interaction between the students and the city. But while doing so, we believed in the richness of the blurring of the boundaries between the two of the "the New Courtyard" while maintaining the separation of Private-Public spaces by positioning the Education units at the upper level and the common and public spaces at the ground level.
Sports facilities are buried in the middle of the site where there is a small hill. An entrance for audiences and sportsmen is placed where the main pedestrian road is connected to. North-east area of the site is designated for service functions. A swimming pool, considered to be included in the complex in the future, is located to the north side of the site. In order to have an easy access, the social functions of the school are placed in between dormitories and educational units.
It is predicted that the education units can grow to the area where the existing lodgement are located when necessary. In case of redevelopment of the housing which has technical and structural weaknesses, a settlement parallel to the south-eastern boundary of the land has been proposed. In the case of possible growth of the education units, the green spiral action that forms the main idea of the design will continue.
Credits
Year: 2014
Location: Gökçeada,Çanakkale,Turkey
Client: Çanakkale Provincial Administration
Programme: Education, Master Plan
Total Area: 18.500 m²
Status: 2nd prize, Limited Competition
Project Team: Fatih Yavuz, Emre Şavural, Ramazan Avcı, Seden Cinasal, Betül Dönmez, Sonat Özcivanoğlu, Hasan Arslan, Hasan Cem Safa Ece, Erbil Algan Consultants: Zafer Kınacı (Civil Eng.), Bahri Türkmen (Mech. Eng.), Kemal Ovacık (El. Eng.), Habibe Aduş Yılmaz (Landscape Arch.) Mehmet Şen (Student), Neslihan Avcı (Child development specialist) Özlem Ersoy (Child development specialist)
