ISTANBUL DPEC
International competition
2011

The project was submitted as a proposal for an open international competition for a Disaster Prevention and Education Center - a center for research and information on natural disasters – located between Istanbul city and Atatürk International Airport.
The center would contain a variety of experience-based simulators for natural disasters such as earthquakes, forest fires and landslides. The program provided a wealth of opportunities for speculative and scenic architecture. We designed the center as a hovering horizontal slab that touches the ground at four locations. In addition to a column shaped as a kneeling Atlas, there are two double columns with vertical communication and a gold cladded staircase serving as the main entrance. The stairs are leading to an open, travertine cladded lobby, dividing administration on one side and experience areas on the other. The procession through the differently sized and staged experience rooms is an architectural equivalent to a Hollywood disaster movie. The elevated building ensures the parkland for the future in a semi-urban environment that is gradually being densified.

Status: International competition
Program: Disaster prevention and education center
Program size: 5 000m2
Site: 27 000m2
Location: Istanbul, Turkey
Client: Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
Team: Johanne Borthne, Vilhelm Christensen, Pål Arnulf Trodahl, Bjørn Andreassen
Year: 2011

Press:
Designboom
ArchDaily
PLOT
Mark Magazine #36
Surface Magazine #98
New Spaces Magazine #11