Gianluca d'Incà Architetti

VERTICAL NECROPOLIS
INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
Mexico City (Mexico)
2011

HONORABLE MENTION

Istanbul is different.It’s the boundless centre of space, time and culture. Due to its unique location, divided between Europe and Asia, the special character distinguishes it from any other city. Istanbul offers visitors an unusual blend of East and West.
Ever since ancient times it has been the place where various cultures have always lived togheter. Civilizations, empires and history has been sedimented over the years, leaving traces of a schedule as much indefinite as powerful. A cosmopolitan and unique city, straddling two worlds so far apart culturally but so close physically.

This condition is full exemplified even in the peculiar geography of the territory where the city stands.
A city founded across two continents, so close but so far apart, looking at each other but without touching, separated by a strip of sea that seems to be mocking the will of touching. Two sides joined by two bridges. A weak, evanescent but real contact that demonstrate the willingness of the two opposing civilizations to maintain the connections, the interactions and the exchanges of experiences and knowledge.

Starting from this premise, the design for the new disaster, prevention and education centre in Istanbul wants to create, through architecture, an image that suggests this singular complexity; a unique case and that Istanbul carries in its DNA.
A strong symbolic link with this heritage between the suburbs and the centre. Suburbs still lack of a recognizable order and creditor of a relationship with the centre of the city and what it symbolizes. A link that reminds visitors and inhabitants the culture crossroads that is the mainstay of Istanbul charm. A condition that should never be forgotten.

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