Vortex

ITU - Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Architecture - İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi

Project idea

Vortex is a HUB for gaming, virtual reality and E-Sports. Program and project site was determined by the studio tutors. Vortex is located at Santral Istanbul, which is at the tip of Istanbul’s Golden Horn. Santral Istanbul is Turkey’s first industrial archeology museum and an important center for art and culture. The project site has a huge potential because the Golden Horn hosts important museums like Rahmi M. Koç Museum and Miniatürk, which are close to the Santral. Along the coastline, supported with main roads, Koç Museum, Haliç Congress Center, Miniatürk and Santral İstanbul (with its Energy Museum and Contemporary Arts Museum) create an art and culture axle. Also, as we get closer to Silahtarağa, both sides of the Golden Horn contain green areas which create potential for recreational activities. It is easy to travel to Santral from important centers of Istanbul like Beşiktaş, Şişli, Karaköy via tunnels. A tram line is under construction which will connect Silahtarağa to Fatih and Eminönü. Also, Santral is close to E5 freeway. This infrastructure support increases the utilization potential of Santral. Despite being located at such an important point in Istanbul, some areas of the campus are not utilized properly. There are a total of 3 car parks next to the water. These areas with recreational potential are only used in weekdays, just populated by cars and are null on the weekends. Yet, parking space is still not enough according to the students. The HUB is planned to be located on the biggest of these car parks. Ideas of relocating the car parks, increasing their capacities, and using the recreational potential of these areas were taken into consideration during projects development process. Within the various functions of the HUB, an E-Sports arena and a gaming museum would support the cultural axle on the coastline. Students usually visit Koç Museum, Miniatürk and Energy museum on weekdays with school trips. Gaming museum would also be a stop for these trips. E-Sports tournaments are usually organized on weekends, so this part of the campus would still be populated at the times nobody uses the rest. Project site is in front of Bilgi University’s Faculty of architecture. Designing with VR and AR is the future of architectural process. Being in relationship with faculty of architecture and being a building for the future, HUB must contain educational units for future technologies and design methods. An educational program would expand the complexes utilization and serve to the university in further use, which would make it more sustainable.

Project description

Designing process started by investigating the close environment from a larger scale, which covers an area that includes the Golden Horns top portion. Project site is located at the tip of the Golden Horn and has a huge potential to connect its two sides, which are kind of disconnected at the moment. By connecting the two sides via bridges and recreational routes on the project site, Santral İstanbul creates a continuity in the greenery and parks at the shoreline of the Golden Horn and a continuous cultural path throughout the museums that are located across the shoreline.
After these upscale decisions and master planning, history of gaming and computer games were studied. Important happenings throughout the history and current events shaped the design decisions. Some of these important points were; gaming conventions, arcade and console games, LAN events, handheld devices and mobile gaming, streaming, real life movement control and the competition rising among the countries, sports clubs and universities. Vortex was designed to make some gaming conventions happen in Istanbul, at the event spaces created both inside and outside of it. Also it was designed to gather people inside and outside the campus together for one purpose: gaming. People will come here to live nostalgia at the gaming center by playing with old arcades and gaming consoles, visit the museum to learn more about computers and games, watch tournaments at the big screens inside the building with friends to socialize, or organize their own evets at the LAN event center/internet cafe.
Vortex is divided into two main masses and an open space event area at the heart of them. One of these masses is the E-Sports Arena and other gaming units. Foyer of the E-Sports Arena acts like an open exhibition space and is located next to the open evet area, to function together as a bigger space when needed. Arena building also contains the gaming museum, the gaming center , the LAN event area for amateur players to compete and get discovered, streaming rooms, and an Augmented Reality battle arena/closed event hall. Arena building has a commercial use and is located closer to the recreational axle at the shoreline. The second mass, Research and Development Building has a more educational use and is located closer to the campus. It has a program to meet the students needs like containing a library and a dining hall, which are missing at the current university campus, in addition to VR / AR research and game development labs.

Technical information

The building has pile foundation, concrete cores and columns at the inner parameter. Outer shells are formed with steel beams and structure, connected to the inner concrete columns via steel beams. R&D buildings facade is covered with a metal mesh to provide some privacy and partial sun protection, while the arena buildings facade is covered with corian panels.