Header: Aytac Architects
Aytaç Architects, an award-winning architecture and research practice based in Turkey, is currently working on the development of the Sarmaşık 41 commercial building in Istanbul, Turkey.
Dudullu’s evolution from rural to industrial
Sarmaşık 41 is a 6-storey commercial building located on the western periphery of the Dudullu Organized Industrial Zone, known as the industrial heart of Istanbul’s Anatolian side. The main objective of the project is to serve as a dynamic hub where creative thinking and innovation can flourish at the intersection of art and craft.
Dudullu, where the building is situated, holds a significant place in Istanbul’s rural and industrial memory. Until the 1960s, the region stood out as one of the last unurbanised rural fabrics on the city’s periphery. However, with the wave of industrialisation, it underwent a sharp transformation from a rural landscape into an industrial zone to meet the production demands of the metropolis.
Today, driven by rapid urban growth and transformation processes, this former industrial periphery has been directly integrated into the urban fabric, becoming an inseparable part of the metropolitan structure.
The former stream bed and urban memory
The formal articulation of Sarmaşık 41 is a direct reflection of the urban morphology of Sarmaşık Street and its immediate surroundings. Deep morphological analyses revealed that a former stream bed, once flowing from Dudullu Hill in the north down to the Marmara Sea, invisibly shaped the geometry of today’s street pattern.
Although intense urbanisation erased the rural traces along this natural corridor to connect the city centre with the industrial zone, the memory of the geography could not be completely obliterated: the city stratifies by following the paths carved out by nature.
At this exact threshold, Sarmaşık 41 aims to reanimate this lost spatial narrative of the region’s evolution from a rural past to today’s industry-driven reality, establishing a poetic dialogue with its context. To materialise this conceptual dialogue, the building pursues a new genre of industrial aesthetics that synthesises urban memory with industrial production.
Sawtooth typology and spiral torsional motion
The design draws its primary formal reference from the “sawtooth roof” typology, which is the most characteristic architectural element of historical industrial facilities. Rather than confining this traditional roof system solely to the horizontal roof plane, the project innovatively integrates it into the entire building envelope. This geometric rhythm initiated at the roof wraps around the façades, evolving into a holistic and dynamic building skin.
To maximise natural daylight comfort, the sawtooth roof system is orientated directly north. The angular discrepancy between this northern orientation and the building’s mass (which sits parallel to the existing street grid) triggers a downward spiral torsional motion across the skin. This roof geometry fluidly transitions onto the façade, generating undulating surfaces that grant an even distribution of filtered natural light across all floors. While these facade undulations allow controlled light into the interior, they simultaneously establish a dynamic privacy barrier between the street and the interior.
The torsional motion shaping the building envelope fractures upon reaching the lateral façade, breaking the surface to generate distinct balconies that function as unique spatial extensions on each floor. Creating an asymmetric rhythm across the facade, these L and T-shaped operable surfaces embody a timeless duality: while their static, formal presence evokes prehistoric, monolithic and anthropomorphic sculptures, their operability transforms them into contemporary, kinetic installations.
This intentional contrast establishes a temporal bridge between Dudullu’s ancient rural memory and its future-driven industrial vision. When deployed, these sculptural elements transition into functional, industrial armatures that facilitate raw material loading, bringing the intersection of art and craft directly into the façade experience.
Protective shell and structural core
Sarmaşık 41’s titanium-zinc building shell, carefully sliced to unveil what lies behind, glides over the mass like a fabric: while dropping hints about the spaces it encloses, it simultaneously creates a sense of mystery.
Beyond its aesthetic value, this metallic skin acts as a shield, functioning as a Faraday cage that protects the structure from electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation. Isolating the building from external radiation sources, this protective envelope provides a technological infrastructure to prevent electronic interference, secure sensitive wireless data and create an electromagnetically insulated, safe working environment inside.
To ensure post-disaster operational continuity (here, seismic resilience), the robust reinforced concrete mass and rigid core, designed with a building importance factor of 1.5, assume an unperceivable lightness from the exterior courtesy of this fluid building skin. This central core, which bears all seismic loads of the building, is not merely a structural element but the main spine governing horizontal and vertical user circulation. The building’s mechanical systems are also integrated within this vertical core, providing maximum spatial flexibility to adapt to diverse functional scenarios across the floor plans.
Free plan and the art-craft cross-section
The building is designed with a “free plan” scheme to cater to the dynamic and evolving needs of its occupants. The floor slabs span wide clearances, completely eliminating interior load-bearing columns that could otherwise restrict potential layout configurations. This structural freedom allows users to configure the interior either adaptively through modular partitions or keep it entirely open and fluid.
The building partially exposes its structural identity inside, contrasting with the mystery of its outer shell. Selectively leaving the structural and mechanical systems raw and exposed generates a powerful contrast between the building’s outer shell and its inner world.
While this industrial exposure represents the craftsmanship and production-orientated essence of the project, stepping into the central core triggers a sharp artistic shift. Just as a beam of light breaks into a colour spectrum through a prism, the circulation and stairwells within the core transform into a vibrant journey through colours. Circulation spaces, which are often left purely functional, utilitarian and monotonous in conventional buildings, become the most vivid, interactive and experiential anchor points of Sarmaşık 41, celebrating the spatial intersection of art and craft.
Project information
Architecture Company: Aytac Architects
Lead Designer: Alper Aytaç
Design Team: Kerem Gür, Hilal Karabulut Çıldır
General Contractor: Aytaç Architects
Structural Engineer: Yapı Akademisi
Mechanical Engineer: Elmaksan
Electrical Engineer: Tepaş Mühendislik
Geotechnical: Mega Geoteknik
Soil Survey: Beril Zemin
Location: Ümraniye, İstanbul, Türkiye
Area: 1400 m²
