APARTMAN 18 - TURKEY

Alper Aytaç

Biography

Alper Aytaç was born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1977. He received his Bachelor of Science in Architecture degree from the Ohio State University in 1999. He worked at NBBJ and Eisenman Architects as a project assistant. In 2003, he received his Master of Architecture from the Southern Californian Institute of Architecture (SCI - Arc). In 2005 he founded Aytaç Architects in Istanbul that is engaged with building design, urban design, interiors and landscape design at all scales. The office operates like a laboratory with the aim to render space and building more mobile, dynamic, active than they have previously been understood as stasis and sedentary. The office strives to create powerful and clear design solutions individual to each project and site. In 2012 the office together with Eisenman Architects was awarded first prize in the Yenikapı Transfer Point and Archaeopark Competition.

The Office has received the ASLA Award in 2013 and the Chicago Athenaeum International Architecture Award in 2014 for the Hebil 157 Houses project. 

APARTMAN 18

A 10 story luxury residential building in Erenköy, İstanbul. Apartman 18 pays homage to Erenköy’s completely destroyed vineyards due to densification of the city with concrete cookie-cutter apartment blocks after 1970’s. 

The “vine” like texture emerges at the ground level functioning as a landscape element, creating a meditative garden. The continuous surface treatment moves upward to become the intertwining building facade, finishing at the roof garden where the residents can enjoy tranquillity away from the noise of the street. This facade treatment offers privacy with maximum light and views within each residence. The metal bands climb like a vine, wrapping Apartman 18 with balconies, employing this decorative element as a functional tool. The vine like delicate sculptural facade also acts as a wrapper of different floor plates into one continuous surface that acts to activate and connect the city. The dance of the intertwining surfaces creates a surprise within the neighbouring building blocks. The hallway symbolizes the inner circulatory system of an apartment, like the streets of a city. It is where the sedentary disappears and the movement occurs. 

Internally, the hallway that connects the living and sleeping quarters placed surprisingly on the neighbouring facade where it creates a visual connection with the city without compromising privacy by the use of varied degrees of translucency. It is the resident that animates the facade, creating a cinematic effect.