Urban Living Room: The City Carpet
Located along the Kayseri Square transit corridor, Urban Living Room: The City Carpet reimagines a transportation hub as a vibrant public destination and a contemporary third place. Rather than functioning solely as a route for movement, the project transforms the square into a social and cultural living room for the city, where people can gather, interact, rest, and experience urban life beyond the necessities of transit.
The design is inspired by two significant elements of Kayseri’s local identity: the traditional Kayseri carpet and the notion of the living room as a space of social connection. The carpet serves as a conceptual and spatial metaphor throughout the project. Drawing from the visual language of Anatolian carpet motifs, traditional symbols are reinterpreted and translated into a contemporary architectural vocabulary. These patterns shape both the landscape and the building, creating a continuous urban carpet that extends across the site.
Within the landscape, the carpet metaphor is expressed through the interplay of hard and soft surfaces, generating diverse zones for movement, gathering, and leisure. As the carpet rises into the building, its woven structure transforms into sculptural ramps that guide circulation and connect different levels. These ramps symbolize threads, while users become the living fibers of the urban fabric. Through movement and encounter, people metaphorically weave social relationships, forming the loops and connections that define collective urban life.
Designed for all age groups and social backgrounds, the project promotes accessibility, inclusivity, and interaction. By encouraging people to stay rather than simply pass through, it activates Kayseri Square as a dynamic public realm. Urban Living Room: The City Hyper proposes a new model for civic space where transportation, culture, and everyday social life are intertwined, creating an urban environment that strengthens community bonds and reinforces the square’s role as the social heart of the city.
