METU – Middle East Technical University is one of the oldest, largest and internationally succesful universities in Turkey that is also assertive in scientific, technological and innovative developments. The vision of being “research loaded university” is supported by the investments done to related buildings and strategic supportive programs that have increased the performances in improvements. There are 23 research and application centers in METU by 2011.The project was developed to fulfill the requirements of the New Research Center that would combine all of these 23 research units at a centrum. The project would increase the interaction between the educational buildings and the technopark just on the other side and at the same time should behave as a social gathering place for the students and the academicians. In this sense it has an atrium like generator space, just in the middle that behaves as the gathering place and that is not climatized creating its own ecology with its semi-closed atmosphere and advanced landscape, serving for the interaction between researchers of various disciplines, instructors, students etc.
The building is located just in between the technopark and the educational campus. Other than the building itself, a new landscape element is proposed just between the gathering atrium and the educational buildings. It just behaves as a new interpretation of the well-known campus alley that lays in north-south direction, feeding it in east-west direction and connecting to the technopark on the other side of the building. This new alley reaches to some folies on the way that serve as teahouses, cafes, etc. This alley starts from the existing alley, passes over the ring road, reaches the ground and then again rises to the level of the common atrium and lands in the technopark area after passing through the building.
