ARCHITECTURAL FOCUS
A BUILDING SHAPED BY MEMORY
AYTAC ARCHITECTS TWISTS INDUSTRIAL HERITAGE INTO A KINETIC LANDMARK IN ISTANBUL
Aytac Architects, an award-winning architecture and research practice based in Istanbul, Turkey, is proud to proceed with its development of Sarmasık 41 commercial building in Istanbul, Türkiye.
Context and Urban Memory: Dudullu’ s Evolution from Rural to Industrial
Sarmasık 41 is a 6-story commercial building with a total floor area of 1,400 m ², located on the western periphery of the Dudullu Organized Industrial Zone— the industrial heart of Istanbul’ s Anatolian side. The primary objective of the project is to serve as a dynamic hub where creative thinking and innovation can flourish at the intersection of art and craft.
Dudullu, where the building is situated, holds a significant place in Istanbul’ s rural and industrial memory. Until the 1960s, the region stood out as one of the last unurbanized rural fabrics on the city’ s periphery. However, with the wave of industrialization, it underwent a sharp transformation from a rural landscape into an industrial zone to meet the production demands of the metropolis. Today, driven by rapid urban growth and transformation processes, this former industrial periphery has been directly integrated into the urban fabric, becoming an inseparable part of the metropolitan structure.
Morphological Traces: The Former Stream Bed and Urban Memory
The formal articulation of Sarmasık 41 is a direct reflection of the urban morphology of Sarmasık Street and its immediate surroundings. Deep morphological analyses revealed that a former stream bed, once flowing from Dudullu Hill in the north down to the Marmara Sea, invisibly shaped the geometry of today’ s street pattern. Although intense urbanization erased the rural traces along this natural corridor to connect the city center with the industrial zone, the memory of the geography could not be completely obliterated; for the city stratifies by following the paths carved out by nature.
ARCHETECH- PAGE 108