FALL 2021-ARCH401

The project area is located next to Karahantepe Neolithic Site and the project aims to be designed for the excavation team that will be working and staying in Karahantepe, thus the project will be designed as an excavation house, along with a visitor center that would be designed for the visitors who will come to see the excavation site.

The design focuses on the private/ public concept where the excavation house and the visitor center are separated to create privacy for the researchers, on the other hand, they have some common parts that can be used by both the excavation team and the visitors in order to create a controlled interaction with both the users.

Moreover, the design was influenced by the traditional architectural characteristic of Şanlıurfa especially in terms of creating courtyards, as in the design there were multiple courtyards created in private, public, and semi-public scale.

Another aspect of the project is that its design provides the visitor the experience of the underground as it is the case in the excavation area, where in Karahantepe excavation site there is the experience of going downstairs visiting the site and then going upstairs to exit. the same approach was considered in the design, where the circulation for the visitor center starts in ±0.00 m level where they can park their cars or get off the bus then they can buy tickets and get information needed from the welcoming space, thereafter going down with the ramp  which leads the visitors to an open courtyard at the -2.00 m level that has the access to most of the functions such as the cafe and the gift shop, then the visitors can enter the exhibition space, after they finish with the exhibition they will find the vertical circulation that works with the conference space which will lead them to the -4.00 m level where it has open and close workshop and activity space that provides some excavation activities, after the visitors finish their journey they will be able to go up using the ramps to the open courtyard -2.00 m which is designed with seating elements that can work as waiting area for the service point.

Furthermore, the design worked with the slope of the area to create various functions in different levels, as well as the roof of the design represent the slope of the area, this sloped roof help the design to have an ecological approach starting with using the sloped roof as a water collector during the winter as the area is lacking the water sources, along with the fact that the sloped roof will help to maximize the use of the PV panels that are designed to benefit from the sunlight of Şanlıurfa and will be used to generate direct electricity. Another ecological approach of the design is by using natural materials in the facade system which is going to be clay brick.