SPACE-Turkish Architecture Now: IPA Campus – The Pool, The Warehouse

SPACE June 2025 (No. 691)

The Pool (2022) / ©Oral Göktaş

The Warehouse (2022) / ©Oral Göktaş

Florya Forest, originally opened in the 1940s, had been partially occupied by district mayors of Istanbul for private residences. Following the 2019 mayoral election, a major transformation was initiated to reclaim the area as a public campus. The private villas were repurposed into communal workspaces for the Istanbul Planning Agency (IPA), while two abandoned warehouses were converted into multi-purpose public halls. The warehouses’ façades and roofs were removed, retaining their steel frames, and a new annex was added to house essential services. The surrounding landscape now serves as an open-air foyer, seamlessly connecting indoor and outdoor spaces for events. A key focus was also placed on reusing the former private swimming pool. Instead of demolishing it, the pool and its folding cover were transformed into a public hall, preserving the original tiles, colours, and structural elements to maintain its place in the collective memory. The main pool was fitted with plywood amphitheater seating, the kids’ pool became a winter garden, and the mechanical rooms were reworked as backstage areas. This adaptive reuse project prioritises minimal intervention and budget, allowing IPA to host a variety of public events year-round, from workshops to large symposia, fostering civic engagement in a revitalised public space. written by Sevince Bayrak, Oral Göktaş

The Pool / Image courtesy of IPA

The Warehouse / ©Oral Göktaş

Image courtesy of IPA

You can see more information on the SPACE No. June (2025).

Architect

SO? Architecture & Ideas (Sevince Bayrak, Oral G&#

Location

Istanbul, Türkiye

Programme

The Pool – multi purpose hall / The Warehous

Site area

IPA Campus – 80,000㎡ / The Pool – 1,0

Building area

IPA Campus – 6,500㎡ / The Pool – 1,100

Building scope

The Pool – 1F / The Warehouse – 1F

Height

The Pool – 6m / The Warehouse – 8m

Building to land ratio

IPA Campus – 12% Floor area ratio IPA Camp

Structure

The Pool – concrete, timber structure / The

Exterior finishing

The Pool – wood, textile / The Warehouse

Interior finishing

The Pool – wood, ceramic / The Warehouse

Structural engineer

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

Mechanical and electrical engineer

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

Construction

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

Design period

IPA Campus – May 2022 – Sep. 2025 / Th

Construction period

The Pool – Aug. – Nov. 2022 / The Ware

Client

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality

Landscape design

TYLA

Sevince Bayrak, Oral Göktaş

Sevince Bayrak and Oral Göktaş are Istanbul-based architects and co-founders of SO? Architecture & Ideas. Their work spans a wide range of scales and geographies, including SUPRA (2024) in Daegu, Korea; Unexpected Hill (2015) at the Royal Academy of Arts in London; and Lost Barrier (2015) at MAXXI in Rome. In Türkiye, their practice focuses on adaptive reuse and small-scale interventions, from a modular chicken coop to the transformation of a cultural centre and a disused swimming pool. Bayrak and Göktaş are also deeply engaged in research, particularly on temporary and floating architecture in the context of post-earthquake recovery. Projects such as Hope on Water (2018) and Fold & Float (2018) have been exhibited internationally, including at the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial, Luma Arles, MAXXI, and the Danish Design Museum. They have delivered lectures at institutions including Seoul National University, Swiss Architecture Museum, Delft University of Technology, and Museum of Architecture and Design (MAO) in Ljubljana. Bayrak, whose book Bir Meydan Öyküsü: Beyazıt (A Story of a Square: Beyazıt, 2019) is based on her Ph.D dissertation examining the transformation of public space in Istanbul, and is currently an associate professor at MEF University.

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Turkish Architecture Now: IPA Campus – The Pool, The Warehouse | SO? Architecture & Ideas

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