MAKER SPACE IN THRESHOLD / OKAN DOĞAN

“Maker Space in Threshold” is a contemporary architectural intervention situated at the strategic nexus of the Mısmıl River and İstasyon Street in Sivas. The project redefines the traditional municipal typology by transforming it into a permeable urban platform that dissolves the rigid boundaries between governance and civic production. At its core, the design utilizes the concept of a “Threshold” to create a fluid transition between the city’s historical memory and its future technological aspirations.

The ground floor is meticulously engineered as a transparent civic interface, intentionally designed to draw in pedestrian flows from all surrounding urban axes. By replacing opaque bureaucratic walls with permeable glass volumes and open-plan technical hubs—such as the Urban Planning Office and the Heritage Lab—the structure acts as a centripetal urban magnet. This spatial strategy ensures that the building is not merely an administrative destination but a continuous extension of the public realm, where citizens can engage with the city’s development and production processes at any moment.

The architectural language harmonizes the monumental presence of GFRC (Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete) facade modules with the high-tech transparency of a double-skin glass system. This materiality reflects a dual commitment: honoring Sivas’s Seljuk masonry heritage while providing a visual continuity that allows the vibrant “Maker” activities to be showcased to the city. Internal voids and atriums facilitate vertical connectivity, ensuring that the transparency established at the street level permeates through the administrative and social tiers. Ultimately, the project serves as a model for inclusive governance, where a municipal building functions as a living, breathing part of the urban fabric—accessible, inviting, and perpetually in dialogue with its inhabitants.