BirARADA-Buyukada Phaeton Square Urban Design Competition

Project Year: 2021

Project Team: Yilmaz Deger, Melek Zuhre Yildirim, Berke Meder, Deniz Akyurek, Onursal Engel, Merve Ozgur, Sera Tolgay, Melih Bozkurt, Enis Cem Ozhatay

Assistants: Elif Akman, Elif Ekinci, Selen Catal, Hacer Gunduz

Location: Istanbul, Turkey

The phaetons -which are unique to the Islands and forms the memory of the past and the future- disappeared from the Phaeton Square with almost a destruction and turned into a deep emptiness effect when the exitance of the carriages in the square was erased from the memory of all the islands. Moreover, the void of the square has the potential to become a dark legacy in the depths of memory with every new experience of space. The aim of the project is not to reproduce memory or construct a past, but to make peace with the past and leave it behind.
Instead of meeting all the needs of the Buyukada Island from Phaeton Square, the concept is to become a part of an ecosystem that proposes different socio-cultural public spaces spread over all the island. The project proposes to divide the transformation process of the square into four phases, which time to time overlap or even transform into each other. Transformation phases of the square are: (1) taking action and forming administrative structure, (2) space envisagement and exploring potentials, (3) demolition and construction, (4) uniting effect of the present and the square.