MEMORA TERRA / Hale Tat
Located in the evolving terrain of Üngüt, Earthen Memory is not a conventional museum but a topographic gesture — a built landscape where architecture and earth merge seamlessly. Rather than sitting atop the land, the museum emerges from it, shaped by the layered memory of the site and reimagined for an ecologically conscious future.
The design is anchored in two thematic and spatial strata:
The Archaeological Layer, partially submerged beneath the terrain, offers an atmospheric descent into the region’s ancient roots. Through interactive archives, artifact displays, and spatial storytelling, visitors encounter the deep-time narratives of Kahramanmaraş — from prehistoric settlements to the echoes of lost civilizations.
The Ecological Layer, in contrast, ascends into the light. This upper realm is a living surface of knowledge and renewal — blending green roofs, cultivated terraces, and flexible spaces for workshops, learning, and reflection. It bridges past agricultural practices with contemporary ecological thinking.
Expanding beyond exhibition, the museum integrates a Superfood Research Hub and a gastronomic commons, where local endemic species and forgotten crops become tools for research, education, and reimagining nutrition futures.
By fusing archaeology with ecology, and memory with regeneration, Earthen Memory becomes a layered cultural landscape — not merely to visit, but to inhabit, to learn from, and to cultivate a renewed relationship between human, soil, and time.
