Özyeğin University Student Center / ARK-itecture

Architects: ARK-itecture
Location: Istanbul Province, Turkey
Interior Design: B-Design
Design Team: Roger L. Klein AIA (Project Designer), Bulent Ergin Gungor (Architect of Record), Andreas Buettner, John DaCruz, Greg Taylor, Chris Shusta, Baris Basat, Emre Gursoy, Can Dagarslani, Nuran Erdogan, Sila Siva, Selin Ezanoglu, Veciye Ozturk, Cenk Aykut
Area: 22,000 sqm
Year: 2011
Photographs: Courtesy of ARK-itecture

Structural: Emir Mühendislik
Landscape Design: DS Mimarlık
Contractor: Berko İnşaat

From the architect. Inspired by the building scale, texture, and landscape of surrounding Istanbul, Ozyegin University’s Student Center is composed as a “University Village” of cubic volumes stepping down the sloping site.

This building is the second phase of fast track construction of the academic campus for Ozyegin University (OZU), a new private Turkish university started in 2008. The Student Center is a LEED Gold certified project.  The first LEED certified building at any university in Turkey.

As a compliment to the larger academic buildings on campus, the smaller scaled volumes of the Student Center contain varied programmatic uses such as library, dining, student clubs, and offices for student services/administration.  These varied functions surround the Student Forum that is the building’s social heart. The primary vertical pedestrian flow from the lower elevation residential and athletic campus to the main academic quad is choreographed through the building to engage and animate the Forum. This multi functional social space is both formal and informal depending on the function occurring at the time.  In contrast to a conventional auditorium, this space type revolutionizes the act of large congregation within the university.

The cubic blocks of the building composition are designed using polychrome perforated metal screens that protect the eastern and western exposures from the low angled sun.  The range of façade colors is selected from the pixelization of the local landscape.  This connects the building to the site, in addition to creating a visual landmark of social life in the heart of the campus.  The glazed facade behind these screens offers great transparencies from the internal public areas to the external roof terraces giving the whole building a feeling of lightness and openness to the landscape and campus beyond.