This project re-imagines the urban hillsides of Ankara, embedding new offices into a terraced terrain of bamboo groves. With entrances perched halfway down the 6m grade change, the tower lobbies and public realm look out through an array of vegetal screens. Separating the site from the commercial road of Eskişehir Yolu, the bamboo groves provide a contrast in color and texture, intimate and open spaces, as well as providing wind and noise buffers for the larger site. 

Passing through the landscape itself, from the southern subway exit at Eskişehir Yolu, visitors are greeted by symbiotic thresholds of planing and architecture. Bamboo groves usher visitors into a subtle, but contained opening framed by dense low hedges. Here the gaze is directed upward to the facade system, the regular vegetative rows echoing and introducing the brise solaire of the tower. 

From the circulation core and the northern end of the café, visitors are dappled with ambient light and offered, under the canopy, select windows to the street beyond. At the south, the lobby is level with the bamboo tops. Crisp, cool leaves buffer against the dusty, dense city beyond. Supporting spatial and spectacular effects, integrated irrigation, roof barriers and insulation membranes were engineered for these groves, with nearly half the planting over subsurface parking and service areas.

client

Dolphin Söğütözü

location

Ankara, Turkey

TEAM

Stoss
Anmahian Winton
Architects