Our proposal for MAE Neighborhood Residences is a high density settlement caused by very high floor-area ratio of the site. As a response, the main priority of design was to find ways to bring the building blocks together in a way that their connections create socially engaging and habitable spaces in between, while keeping an otherwise imposing urban presence at a welcoming vertical scale. The positive open spaces resulting from this approach support the continuities between closed environments and greenery around. Courtyards shaped between building clusters also pay special emphasis on social life. Different landscape levels also break down the grandiose urban scale into that of a lively traditional neighborhood.
As different building clusters are employed to create urban open spaces, residential unit sizes and orientations differ throughout buildings as upper floors emerge independently from common bases. Topography of the site is also taken into account by adapting the cross section of building masses to increase habitable spaces in lower floors and reduce the overall floor count as much as possible. Commercial spaces are lined along the main artery, Anadolu Boulevard, and are made easily accessible from inside the buildings as well as from the recreational core.
Special attention has been given to landscaping in order to strengthen relationships between buildings and create more habitable surroundings. Diversity of open spaces has been achieved by different levels, platforms and landscape design approaches. Open air sports facilities are distributed evenly across the site and properly blended with the surroundings.
4+1, 3+1 and 2+1 room unit variations are brought together in different blocks. The larger 4 room + Living room units are found predominantly in point blocks, while the smaller ones are mainly lined up along the perimeters of low rise blocks.
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