In a period, when words like change and innovation are mostly pronounced all around world, a very deep economic turmoil is experienced and energy crisis and food shortage expectations are experienced, a concept that should be understood and remembered more in the architectural community and the construction sector is “sustainable lifestyle.” In order to understand this concept properly, I consider it my duty to emphasize in every blog post that construction industry should approach structures differently, especially the service solutions.

German architect and theorist Gottfried Semper divided historical buildings into four basic elements in his book “The Four Elements of Architecture” published in 1851:

(1) “earthwork” : the part that raises and carries the structure from the ground to a clean level above,

(2) “hearth” : although considered as hearth, it represents all the service requirements needed in a building today, such as acoustics, ventilation, heating, cooling, plumbing, drainage, electricity and etc.,

(3) “framework / roof” : the part that carries the building and the facade cladding,

(4) “enclosing membrane” : which can be interpreted as a facade cladding that protects the building from external influences.

For a sustainable lifestyle, to understand very well the element called “hearth” in historical buildings, which we can interpret as all service solutions of the building today, while designing all these four elements, it is very important to set up the building materials we will use and the shapes these materials will take, as the direct solutions of all needs and problems that may arise in a living space. Kenneth Frampton, in his book “Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture,” published in 1995, gives plenty of building examples to explain this theory. It can be seen simply as an approach that complies with the “form follows function” slogan, but for me, the most important difference is that these architectural solutions are not the same with active solutions that we see everywhere today, that consume excessive energy, that make us pay heavy bills, they are ratherly passive solutions, just like in the approach of highly initiated ancient architects, whose examples I have given before. Since such passive solutions benefit from natural resources, they do not cause high bills, are environmentally friendly, and ensure the sustainability of our lives in case of a possible energy crisis.

As an example in my previous blog posts, I explained:

– The water well under the kitchen and the cistern system that collects rain water as a passive water source in İsmet İnönü Mansion, Heybeliada, one of the Prince Islands in sea of Marmara, Turkey.

– The perfectly designed passive acoustic system in Sinan the Architect’s Mihrimah Sultan Mosque in Edirnekapi, Istanbul, Turkey.

In this blog post, by giving local and more recent examples, I wanted to emphasize that this approach is not only an approach that is applied by highly initiated ancient architects in past buildings, but solutions that give importance to sustainability are also developed in recent buildings today. These examples are:

– Ventilation and heating systems developed by Seyfi Arkan, one of the architects of the Republican Era in Turkish Architecture, at Bank of Municipalities Building in Ankara, Turkey.

– Passive heating and cooling systems in the Headquarters of the Turkish Contractors Association in Ankara, Turkey, designed by Avcı Architects group.

In the first example, before designing the Bank of Municipalities, which was built in 1936-37, Seyfi Arkan, the architect of the building, was graduated from atelier of Vedat Tek in the Fine Arts Academy, then he went to Germany with a scholarship and worked with the German architect Hans Poelzig for five years. If examined in terms of sustainability concerns, this building had a steel ventilation system and a fire fighting system operating at 60 degrees Celsius for the treasury room, which was a rare solution at that time. Hot water installation was available for the use of the apartments on the upper floors. What is more interesting is the heating system, which was working with low pressure steam released from a boiler, whose radiators were embeded into the bricks of the floors and walls, in other words they were encastered, and a high quality insulation was applied to prevent leakage and heat loss in the bricks. There were many more carefully planned details in the building.

Arkitekt (periodical), January 1938.

Although it cannot perform the same function today, this building, which I believe should have been preserved as a museum, has unfortunately been demolished recently.

With the same approach that I shaped according to theories of Semper and Frampton, detailed information revealed on many buildings, including this example, constructed in the last 100 years in our country, can be accessed from my thesis named “Tectonic Analysis of Buildings: Examples from Ankara,” which I submitted in 2002 within the scope of the degree of Master of Architecture and a copy of it is archived in the Library of Middle East Technical University.

Another example is the Turkish Contractors Association Headquarters, which was built in 2012-13, designed by a very valuable architectural group, Avcı Architects. This building was awarded the Best International Project of the Year at the Building Awards 2014, one of the UK’s most prestigious architectural awards. It also has LEED Platinum Certification.

Competing with American and Chinese contractors, Turkish Contractors, which are among the top 3 in the “Top International Contractors” list published every year in Engineering News Record Magazine, are undertaking many prestigious projects all around the world. Therefore, it was a very appropriate decision to design a Headquarter Building for the Turkish Contractors Association as a building worthy of this success and giving importance to the issue of sustainability, to which the ancient architects, like Sinan the Architect, in construction sector were much sensitive.

Within the framework of the sustainability issue that I discuss in this blog post, the most prominent feature of the building is the system in which passive heating and cooling techniques are applied. In this solution, a “Thermal Labyrinth System” that helps to cool the indoor air during the daytime by using the low heat generated at night in the summer months, and helps to heat the air inside during the daytime with the heat of underground soil in the winter months, is used in integration with “Chilled Beams.” This passive architectural solution reduces the need for a highly energy-consuming and costly active heating and cooling system. The same sensitivity is also reflected in the design of the building’s “enclosing membrane”, which I explained as one of the four elements, in terms of materials used and shapes given to these materials. In this context, double-layered facade application, transparent glass system in the first layer, and stainless mesh application for solar control and shading purposes in the second layer draw attention. Again, with the same approach, the active energy required for use in the building has been reduced thanks to the solar and photovoltaic panels placed on the roof.

More details, technical information and drawings can be found on the official websites of the Turkish Contractors Association and Avcı Architects.