Situated in the Sakarya region—some 170 km east of Istanbul, in Turkey’s Hinterland--S2OSB is a pioneering management building, headquarters and conference hall, of our client, Sakarya 2nd Industrial District’s Board of CEO’s. Uniting the vision of their management and engineering teams, it is also an iconic structure in the area, engaging people into a new way of looking.
A new way of looking leads to a new way of knowing as it can reflect the core concept of industrial development. A new and unexpected presence creates a unique character for the area and provokes people’s thinking: they become curious about the end product: How did this structure come about? What is the story behind it? What collaboration took place behind the scenes?
The façade is very important in triggering these questions. The façade is the interplay between exterior and interior; it opens one world into another. The façade is how a building performs, how it expresses itself, similarly to how a garment makes a fashion statement: it is the building’s character. S2OSB’s façade expresses not only the building’s character but also its function.
The façade, made of thoughtfully crafted metal, wraps around the building and helps communicate the structure’s multi-faceted purpose: from head offices to the conference hall (170 seats). At the conference hall, the geometrically textured shell starts with mostly solid panels followed by perforated panels, increasing rhytmically until they detach as a double facade that filters controlled daylight to the offices. The interior is camouflaged by the exterior whereas the users can see outside. Daylight continuously changes the look of the anodized, satinated, folded, and mathematically orchastrated metal exterior. At night, the lighting design reiterates a dual purpose: at the solid facades, lighting is integrated into rhytmically distributed perforfated panels, which then gets fully perforated at the offices where the internal lighting expresses an alternative perception of the facades’ pattern. Thus, the façade is dynamic and expressive of the building’s purpose in an artful way.
The interior consists of two separate foyers: one serves the offices and the other—the auditorium. The grand canopy allows access on both sides, which provides a semi-enclosed space for larger activities or programs. The conference hall fits inside the solid panels: the inner shell is made of acoustacilly engineered, geometric, laminated wood panels. The natural stone and wood create a warm atmosphere inside, in contrast to the cold metal exterior. The offices are designed specifically for executives and engineers who are in charge of the industrial district and its shared facilities. The building serves the day-to-day needs of the industrial complex but also becomes a bridge to public use by inviting a global audience to its conference hall, for the exchange of knowledge.
The building’s mission is the convergence of various industries and people. Such convergence, on the one hand, opens people’s minds to the great potential that industries hold, and on the other—shows the important role of design and architecture in beginning to realize that potential in Turkey’s Hinterland.
