Maintaining mixed neighbourhoods. Fatih plateau

Abstract

The project is the result of a combination of operations performed on the site adjacent to Fatih mosque. It aims to programmatically complete the area’s nucleus to adequately provide for a pluralistic society in conjunction with Fatih mosque that currently dominates the area with its singular religious program. The essential objective is to repair and revitalize the area in the heart of the historical part of the city that apart from the mosque is in a very bad state, by bringing additional public program in, to accommodate for every facet of life in this metropolitan city. The project marries the old fabric below with a new public space above that facilitates virtually all kinds of public program. It consists of three stacked interpretations of universal space. A plinth that negates the hierarchy caused by the topography that does not rely on program to give it its form but rather, inspired by the permanence of monuments, is capable of housing any kind of program for any period of time. On top of the plinth on grade with Fatih mosque the possibility is created for large public programs to take shape as a multitude of expressive buildings that, together with the mosque, form a unity in diversity. The new public space is the interface between, vertically, the existing city and the intensified public program and horizontally, the collective space around the mosque and the new square while at the same time providing all the services for the large public programs on top to allow them to be as autonomous as they can be.