ZENEL Residential Building / Aytac Architects

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The ground plane of the site follows the “Bağdat Grid” so it is parallel to the avenue, while the sky plane of the building is rotated to face towards the Prince Islands, an archipelago 10 km south of the Marmara Sea coast. The building from top to bottom is torqued between these two forces, the Bağdat Grid and the view to Prince Islands, creating an effect of a crystallized molten rock.Text description provided by the architects.Zenel, a 14-story residential building, is in the upmarket residential neighborhood of Erenköy, onIstanbul’s Asian side. It is near the vibrant Bağdat Avenue that runs for about 14 km from east to west, almost parallel to the Sea of Marmara coastline. Unlike old Istanbul, this relatively new neighborhood has a grid pattern formed by the east-west axis of Bağdat Avenue.Traditionally, buildings have a tripartite organization associated with classical columns.  The base, the shaft, and the top.  Here, the reflective pool and the sky act as elements that hide the virtual base and the virtual capital. This in-between state amplifies the transition from top to bottom initiated by the torque force. The detached shaft appears like a rock that is rugged and weathered on the outside yet so sparkly and polished on the inside. This creates a duality of time in which the archaic and the new are juxtaposed.