3.0   Project : Kartal-Pendik :



3.1      Kartal-Pendik Masterplan, Istanbul, Turkey.

Figure 6: Masterplan: Hybrid detour net

 & deformed grid, Final Urban lay-out of

 streets and urban  fabric .

Zaha Hadid Archiects 2006.
The Kartal – Pendik Masterplan is a winning competition proposal for a new city centre on the east bank of Istanbul. It is the redevelopment of an abandoned industrial site into a new sub-centre of Istanbul, complete with a central business district, high-end residential development, cultural facilities such as concert halls, museums, and theatres, and leisure programs including a marina and tourist hotels.
The site lies at the confluence of several important infrastructural links, including the major highway connecting Istanbul to Europe and Asia, the coastal highway, sea bus terminals, and heavy and light rail links to the greater metropolitan area. 

The project begins by tying together the basic infrastructural and urban context of the surrounding site. Lateral lines stitch together the major road connections emerging from Kartal in the west and Pendik in the east.

                            Figure 7: Areas of higher programmatic intensity

                            as well as a vertical build-up of the city fabric.

The integration of these lateral connections with the main longitudinal axis creates a soft grid that forms the underlying framework for the project. Locally, this net can be bundled to form areas of higher programmatic intensity as well as a vertical build-up of the city fabric. In certain areas the net rises up to form a network of towers in an open landscape, while in other areas it is inverted to become a denser fabric cut through by streets, and at other times may completely fade away to generate parks and open spaces. Some areas extend out into the water, creating a matrix of floating marinas, shops, and restaurants.

                           Figure 8: Fabric studies 2 : calligraphy block variation.

                                  

                                   Figure 9: Fabric studies 3: split block variations.

The fabric is further articulated by an urban script that generates different typologies of buildings that respond to the different demands of each district. This calligraphic script creates open conditions that can transform from detached buildings to perimeter blocks, and ultimately into hybrid systems that can create a porous, interconnected network of open spaces that meanders throughout the city. Through subtle transformations and gradations from one part of the site to the other, the scripted fabric can create a smooth transition from the surrounding context to the new, higher density development on the site

The soft grid also incorporates possibilities of growth, as in the case where a network of high-rise towers might emerge from an area that was previously allocated to low-rise fabric buildings or faded into open park space. The masterplan is thus a dynamic system that generates an adaptable framework for urban form, balancing the need for a recognizable image and a new environment with a sensitive integration of the new city with the existing surrounds.

Figure 10: Global Maya model.

Figure 11: Scripting calligraphy block patterns .

Scripting calligraphy block patterns. Various scripts were developed that configure the perimeter blocks depending on parcel size, proportion and orientation. The script also allowed for random variations regarding the introduction of openings within blocks.

Global Maya model. The model features the interarticulation between cross towers and perimeter blocks as well as the affiliation to the surrounding fabric. The correlation of global width to global height can also be observed.

 

      3.2 New cityscape.:

                 

                                                Figure 12: New cityscape.

The Kartal-Penkik plan incorporates a vast quarry that becomes the largest item in a system of parks that are spread throughout the urban field. The rhythmic flow of the urban fabric gives a sense of organic cohesion.The result is an elegant, coherently differentiated city-scape that facilitates navigation through its lawful constitution and through the architectural accentuation of both global and local field properties.

This much might be possible to institute with the imposition of strict planning guidelines using building lines and height regulation. Political and private buy-in is required.

All constituencies need to be convinced that the individual restrictions placed upon all sites really deliver a worth-while collective value: the unique character and coherent order of the urban field that all players benefit from if adherence can be enforced.

 Ordered complexity here replaces the monotony of older planned developments and the disorienting visual chaos that marks virtually all unregulated contemporary city expansions.

To go further yet, in terms of our concept of deep relationality, we have to extend our involvement from urbanism to architecture. Only then we can further intensify the accentuating correlations, involving the systematic modulation of tectonic features. For instance, in terms of the calligraphy blocks  - a third perimeter block variation that has been designed to both open up the interior of parcels and to cross parcels – we use a continuous facade differentiation that leads from the street-side to the courtyard on the basis of an initial distinction of external and internal facades.

Another moment of deep articulation is the coordination of landscape and public spaces, and the correlation of the secondary path-system with the disposition of internal navigation systems.

Figure 13: City Space . Kartal-Pendik Istanbul, Turkey.

3.3       Calligraphy blocks-tectonic detail :

The articulation of the facades is a function of the location within the urban field. The exterior of the blocks is given a heavier relief than the interior. Where a block opens up and the public space flows into the private courtyard, a semi-private zone is articulated via the gradient transformation between the outer and inner articulation.

Figure 14:  Calligraphy Blocks .

 Kartal-Pendik Istanbul, Turkey.

Figure 15 :Close-up of cross towers.

Close-up of cross towers.

The cross towers produce the urban peaks. Through their ground-level articulation these tower complexes participate in the creation of a continuous urban fabric that frames the streets and occasionally widens the street space into semi-public plazas. This is achieved while maintaining total continuity between the podium-like ground fabric and the shafts of the towers.

Doubts might be felt when confronted with the possibility of designing an urban field of up to 6 million squaremeter gross area with a single design team. Are we overstretching our capacity here? The more we are confronted with large scale development of this kind the more confident we grow that the tools and strategies we are deploying under the banner of parametricism can indeed deliver something that produces a decisive surplus value if compared with the usual alternative of uncoordinated, arbitrary juxtapositions.

The contemporary choice of typologies, construction options and styles is simply too large to expect the underlying pragmatic logics to become legible. The result is a cacophony of pure difference.

 Parametricism is able to further coordinate pragmatic concerns and articulate them with all their rich differentiations and relevant associations. The danger of overriding real-life richness is minimized because variety and adaptiveness are written into the very genetic make-up of parametricism.

Parametricism involves the conceptual shift from part-to-whole relationships to component-system relationships, system-to-system relationships, and system-subsystem relationships. Parametricism prefers open systems that always remain incomplete. As the density of associations increases components might be associated into multiple systems. The correlation of initially independent system implies the formation of a new encompassing system etc.

3.4       Project Specifications :

Figure 16 : Kartal Project - Latest Official Renders.

Total Project Area: 555 Hectares (6 million square meters construction area)

Client: Greater Istanbul Municipality
Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects
Project Team:
Design: Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher.
Project Leaders: DaeWha Kang and Saffet Bekiroglu.

Project Team:
Sevil Yazici.
Daniel Widrig.
Melike Altinisik.
Elif Erdine.
Miya Ushida.
Fulvio Wirz.
Mairagrazia Lanza.
Gonzalo Carbajo.