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2024 GFD 🏆 Awards

Gold Winner | Karakaya Villas | GOOA Architects

Karakaya Villas is a hotel architectural concept project designed on a land of 18 700 m² directly connected to the sea, in Koyunbaba Bay in Gümüşlük/Bodrum. The hotel includes 14 villas of three variations, a reception & spa, and restaurant buildings. The total construction area is 4 550 m².

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Gold 🏆 Winner
Global Future Design Awards 2024

Karakaya Villas
Hospitality Architecture (Concept)

Firm
GOOA Architects

Architect/Designer
Emre Arslan

Design Team
Emre Arslan, Aleyna Karakisla, Esra Atasever, Gamze Zaim, Emre Ayar

Location
Bodrum, Turkey

Country
Turkey

Photographer/Copyright
©GOOA Architects

Website
https://gooa.org/

Instagram
N/A

When starting the design, we focused on titles such as Bodrum’s traditional houses, the scale textures of the city, narrow streets opening to the sea, and climatic conditions.

Depending on local living habits, it is aimed to ensure the permeability of the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces. For this reason, each accommodation building on the land, while the boundaries between neighboring buildings are preserved, as in traditional houses, the spaces are planned in different masses and connected with eaves, courtyards, and inner gardens. Thus, the fragmented building community that emerged was reduced to a scale compatible with Bodrum’s existing building texture. To break the perception of a giant and monotonous building when viewed from afar and to adapt to traditional building dynamics, the masses forming a single building and the eaves connecting them were pieced together at different upper elevations.

The buildings are oriented towards the northwest regarding the slope of the land and the view. This direction is also the dominant wind direction and is advantageous for buildings that will be used usually in the summer months. The semi-opening corridors between the buildings, which reference the narrow streets of Bodrum opening to the sea, also allow wind circulation between the units.

The spaces of all buildings, determined according to their needs, were analyzed in the required dimensions and positioned in an appropriate functional order, dominating the view, and connected using closed or semi-closed secondary spaces. Closed spaces are generally horizontal and vertical circulation areas; semi-closed spaces are courtyards and sunken inner gardens. A basement floor was added to the buildings, which were intended to appear as single-story above the natural ground level by the surrounding urbanization, to meet the required space requirement. Sunken interior gardens were designed to meet the natural ventilation and daylight needs of basement floors.

Natural materials that are compatible with the textures of the city have been used to make it look like an ordinary part of the immediate environment. Natural stone obtained from local sources was applied to the villa facades using the masonry wall. This material and application technique both refer to the traditional texture and support insulation. Natural stone and corten steel sheets, which have a natural warm rusty color that will change over time, are resistant to weather conditions and do not require maintenance, were preferred as the facade material of the restaurant and SPA buildings. The diversity of facade covering materials and application techniques of accommodation and social buildings allows their functional differences to be read from the outside and also ensures their harmony with each other.The buildings have wide transparent surfaces to provide maximum benefit from the view and strengthen the permeability between the interior and exterior. Since there will be more exposure to the disturbing effects of the sun due to wide openings, wide eaves have been designed as a solution to this. The integrity of indoor and outdoor spaces is supported thanks to roofs that extend beyond the building boundary and areas where shade is provided with semi-permeable elements. Several materials were used according to their functions on the horizontal platforms to corroborate the facade design. The roofs of the closed volumes are designed flat to suit the local context. These flat roofs are generally green roofs that are sustainable and provide natural insulation. Natural wood was preferred in the outdoor shades designed to connect these volumes at lower elevations. In addition, a pool has been designed as an impressive outdoor space on the villa roofs, overlooking the sea view. The water element here also helps support insulation.