The project by FREA has been awarded second prize in the two-phase national architectural project competition organised by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality to establish Turkey’s first sustainability centre. FREA participated in the competition with a team consisting of Emre Şavural, Fatih Yavuz, Mert Ayaroğlu, Kaan Özdemir and Kutay Kaynak with the project entitled ‘A Machine for Climate’.

The İzmir Sustainability Centre (S-Hub) Architectural Project Competition aimed to develop multi-stakeholder integrated policies and researches that support, guide and accelerate the sustainable development of the city, within a sustainability centre centre designed on these principles. In order to attain the spatial expression of the centre, to be located in the Bayraklı Turan neighbourhood, the aim was to encourage creative projects and authors that consider the lifecycle sustainability approach based on data and performance, capable of achieving the zero-carbon building target, prioritising climate flexibility and adaptation, with cyclical, cost-effective, innovative environmental and architectural understanding.

The circular building model developed by FREA for sustainability and the project presented as a space of possibilities was named ‘a climate machine’ with salute to Le Corbusier. In the S-Hub project, the sustainability approach was not solely based on energy efficiency, but a new ‘circular building model’ applicable to İzmir and its surroundings, developed with a holistic approach. The project, whose starting point was based on the re-use, re-cycling and up-cycling of construction waste and demolition materials, including those on the land, in the procurement of new construction materials, aimed to realise its own sustainability through a transformation project.