In this project, we worked in the Kiçiköy neighborhood of Talas, Kayseri. For my project, I designed a four-story apartment building and an underground parking garage. I designed the apartment building to accommodate different apartment types, catering to the needs of various users. I made sure that wet areas were aligned vertically. Before starting the design, I conducted surveys in the area, both during our class trips and my own trips. As a result of my observations and conversations with the neighborhood residents, I designed a two-story workspace in the apartment building to solve a problem in the neighborhood. The main purpose of my workspace was to create an area where university students could teach lower-level students because Talas is a place with a high concentration of university students, and the proximity of elementary, middle, and high schools were the biggest factors in my decision. I designed two- and three-person study rooms in my workspace to meet this need. I wanted to make the entrance to my workspace visible to users by placing it on the park side. Based on my observations of the area, I wanted to surround it with pine trees facing the wind direction to both break the wind’s effect and provide privacy. I paid attention to the direction of the sun and positioned the living areas in my apartments accordingly. During my trips in the area, I noticed the extensive use of plane trees and, after researching their history, I used them as a landscaping element in the backyard to preserve the Ottoman culture of gathering under plane trees. I designed the front yard to create a barrier with the road. Another observation I made was the ongoing neighborly relationships in the neighborhood. To ensure this situation continues, I wanted to create an area in the apartment building corridors where neighbors could spend time together. I conducted similar observations and research for the facade design and created a facade and roof design suitable for the Kayseri settlement. As a result, I worked on the project implementation by converting every decision I made in the project design into data based on my observations.
