The Kagithane Gardens is a business district that focuses on the users working and living qualities and addresses its presence in Istanbul as a new form of contextual and urban approach: The building is formed by our desire to make it interact with its environment. It opens itself up to the neighbourhood and offers spaces to the users and the passers by such as plazas, intimate gardens and generous terraces. The volume of the block is literally carved out to invite the surroundings in. The local hilly landscape, characteristic to Istanbul, is continued in the meandering of the volume both in plan, adapting to the site’s edges, and in section, weaving into itself in a series of gentle curving slopes, echoing the nearby Bosphorus waves.
The vibrant commercial life of the groundfloor burst out onto the plazas and the landscape. Upstairs the offices open out onto the green terraces, populated with lush vegetation, tempering the hot Springs and Summers. The volume reads clearly while still opening itself generously to the city from the far. As one gets closer the interiors become more discreet, protected by louvers that help shade from the sun.
The project acts as a catalyst of business life for a new Istanbul, that promotes contemporary culture, architecture and lifestyle. We’ve thought a building where inside interacts with outside, where the plan is flexible to allow for anyone to find its desired space and place, whether it be a small one man show company or a large corporate office employing hundreds. We believe life is plural and various entities should coexist and exchange their experiences. The Kagithane Gardens is where such a rich diversity can find its place.
