CTRL+SPACE announces Istanbul Community Market winners

CTRL+SPACE set up the Istanbul Community Market competition to find the most inventive designs for a marketplace in the center of Istanbul, a city that provides a rich historical backdrop of the marketplace and its social and commercial significance. The competition explores the future of the marketplace, including its present challenges and its possibilities.

Proposals had to be multi-functional, preserve the positive qualities of the marketplace typology, and serve as a beneficial and culturally suitable public space for local communities.

In the end of the competition, the jury selected three prize winners and seven honorable mentions. On that note, Orhan Ayyuce, senior editor from Bustler's sister site Archinect, led one of the Honorable Mention-winning teams!

Check out the designs below.

1ST PRIZE: "Sprouting from the Ancients" by M. Baris Yegena and Ozge Ozkul, from Yegena Architectural Design Office | Istanbul, Turkey

"The Jury praised the strong graphical effect evoked by the arches that virtually fill the urban void. This lightweight structure helps creating a strong sense of identity to the intervention. An exceptional project that presents a compelling case about the preservation of the memory of the place. There was a clear and deliberate effort to keep the space open and build as little as possible. The marketplace becomes then an open-air market, with its inherent flexibility and multitude of uses. Below this public function, the second layer topography created on the site is also quite powerful.

An awareness of the memory of the place is evident by taking into account the protected archeological area of this part of the city, the views that open over the archeological site, as well as the preservation of the existing buildings. The strength of the proposal comes from this protective approach to the needs of the site, which is then crowned by these rhythmic sprouts."

From the project authors: 'Resulting platform and arches that undergo metamorphosis are the determinative (totems) of values on the area. [...] Undercover is the past itself and above the cover [...] it invites remote urban explorers to see these values here.'

2ND PRIZE: "THE INHABITED IMAGE" by Michael Casey Rehm, Kellan Cartledge and Xiang Tai Sun, from Studio Kinch | Los Angeles, USA

"This project blurs the functionally very simple and efficient structural form with the use of a voxel ornament in a very speculative way. The dissolving boxed form merged with the use of image mapping in the interior space create countless possibilities of cultural and formal experiences in the interior within its complex plasticity. While the building itself looks very modest, in the exterior the strong aesthetic statement of the small units reflects and creates a very dynamic and playful background for the city. The Jury team felt that conceptually, the simple structural grid is enriched by this technologically altered element that replicates digitally the imagery of the market produce, providing a rich sensorial experience, relating thus to Turkish street markets.

From the project authors: 'Like the surrounding architecture of the nearby historic center of Istanbul, the design of the market looks to utilize the most sophisticated models of mathematics of the time. The surface articulation and volumes are generated through the use of intelligent agents programmed to generate materiality through the interaction of color values and material performance as an exercise of complexity theory. [...] The resultant materiality allows a reacquisition of material intricacy and intention lost with the onset of the industrial revolution, and exemplified by many examples of Istanbul’s historic architecture. The vibrancy of the material resonates with the vibrancy of the market event, allowing maintenance of the energy of the market while occupancy fluctuates.'

3RD PRIZE: "A Hanging Marketplace" by Stefan Lengen and Henrik Cheung, from FELT Architecture | London - UK

"The Jury praised this typological experiment that translates formally in a stratified structure. The use of multiple levels in the project is very promising to a dynamic use of space. The sense of community is generated by merging people and space through the formal and informal commercial activities that happen at the different platforms. Due to its essential form, the project could look very independent in the context of the neighborhood, but with the dynamic usage it presents a very big potential to be a unique spatial experience. The different modules attached to the structure provide different interior space and in the overall form these closed volumes work in accordance to create the feeling of hanging garden.

From the project authors: 'This marketplace doesn’t just sit there: it is a vertical market that invites you to wonder. The character or atmosphere changes constantly as you climb up the market. It invites you to enjoy the trivial aspect of market trading whereas the vertical typology provides a spatial dialogue between the immediate neighborhood and the city beyond. It must imprint aspects of its own conglomerate atmosphere as it lands on the ground: it converses verticality with voids and woven steel columns, hanging baskets resulting in numerous miniature performance platforms.'

The jury members included:

• ERDEM TÜZÜN, architect - Istanbul, Turkey; Principal at KOTUstudio
• PATRICIA GRANDE ANDUEZA, architect - Berlin, Germany; Partner at Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos
• YELTA KÖM, architect - Istanbul, Turkey; Principal at KOTUstudio

Click through the thumbnail gallery for the Honorable Mentions. You can find more info about each Honorable Mention entry here.