TUANA HOUSING Best Landscape Architecture Turkey & Europe 2013 designed by TÜRKAN ERDEM

Türkan Erdem Landscape Architecture and Design Studio was commissioned to design 36.045 m² landscape of this project.

Located in northwest of Turkey, İzmit  is an important industrial center  an transportation hub which has been recovering from a major earthquake that hit the region in 1999 killing over 17.000 people and leaving half million homeless. Tuana Housing Project contributes this ongoing recovery project by providing new homes for about 1700 people.

Although İzmit is a coastal town, Tuana Housing is not, and so wide water features are used to provide a strong connection with the coast.  Pools with different sizes and forms are used to create reflective surfaces, which in turn offer relaxation and tranquility to the residents.  Wooden bridges are spanning pools and also deck areas serving as resting point are provided.

An inner garden within the large loop of inner road forms the zone where most of the housing blocks have a visual connection. This acts as a valuable pool of fertile soil between the buildings’ basement walls. Choices for planting materials were made on seasonal changes in flower, leaf and trunk colours, textures and habits.

For the purpose of achieving diversity and enriching native habitat plants of different sizes and forms are used. Furthermore “sloping softscape” a special area in the northern part of the project is left to its natural course of growth so to create a wildlife corner. Popping wooden decks will enable residents to observe wild life in this area without disturbing it.

Türkan Erdem Landscape Architecture and Design Studio was founded by Türkan Erdem in 2012.

TURKAN ERDEM DESIGN STUDIO MISSION STATEMENT:

 Our goal is to protect the borders and harmony between man, nature and the city designing a more beautiful environment within the scope of sustainability.

Finally, we believe that a landscape project must be well integrated with geography, ecology, infrastructure and superstructure.