BİLGİ Department of Architecture students received third prize in Ziya Tanalı Prize, National Student Architectural Design Competition

BİLGİ Department of Architecture students Akın Yalvaç, Fatih Karabudak, and Mert Alexander Kretschmer received third prize in Ziya Tanalı Prize 2022, National Student Architectural Design Competition focusing on the theme of ‘Power of Architecture’ with their project titled Cılga.

Founded on the link between architecture and metaphor, Cılga aims to offer visitors an experiential and interpretable sense of space. Following the marks of life and feeding on the relationship between abstract and concrete, Cılga expresses the power of architecture through metaphors.

Located on a hillside and fed by water, soil, and wind, Cılga fills the space with light, texture, and forms and attributes abstract and concrete features to it. Aiming to present a spatial setup where people can cleanse their bodies and minds, Cılga is a design observing the harmony between nature and place on the basis of the metaphor of death, purification, and enlightenment.

The design of Cılga invites the visitor to the space through a passage that is visible through topography. Entering the space, the visitor experiences the relationship established by the passage between the aboveground and underground. Sensing a different atmosphere, the visitor advances to the area dominated by texture and light symbolizing purification. At the end of a sharp and dark passage, the visitor experiences a path meandering in nature, which symbolizes the first steps toward tranquility. The relationship between the metaphor of architecture and death, purification and enlightenment creates a subjective meaning for each user and helps users identify with their true selves.