T HOUSE

Located in Bodrum/Ortakent, approximately 4.3 acres of land were allocated into two separate parcels 2300 m² and 2000 m² during the project phase. Both properties were designed within a whole site plan for two different clients.

Ortakent, formerly known as Müsgebi, is an area in the southwest of the Bodrum peninsula with limited coastal settlements and denser land settlements. The project site is also located in the hinterland, in a place where citrus orchards were common at the time.

It’s not a seasonal residence, but a house for a family who will live there constantly and for their guests.

As the starting point of the project, we tried to establish a spatial organization that would allow the fragmentation of the land from the whole, as well as the permanent existence of its users, and family members to be independent but together.

Characteristic Bodrum houses which have several types have a specific geometry and dimension. As both the wooden beams forming the roofs and the constraints of the masonry material define these dimensions, they create mass relations for Bodrum. This feature can be seen clearly in the settlement layout and traditional structures of Ortakent/Müsgebi. Although there are no structural and material constraints in today’s conditions, this indirect dimensioning of spaces creates the minimum requirements for daily life and daily comfort. The balance between interior life and exterior life in the Mediterranean climate still defines the relationship between volumes today.

The ambiguous border between the inside and the outside, peculiar to geography, has been used as an input in the organization of the spaces. This infinity/uncertainty is created not only physically but also without being limited by circulation, visually, a permeable chain of relations as much as possible.

In the design process, firstly the spaces/rooms that make up the house were sized independently and then connected. Fragmentation is the purpose of bringing together rather than separating.

Horizontal circulation loops all interior spaces together, and the exterior space is also involved in this relationship.

The courtyard is one of the main spaces of Mediterranean architecture. Courtyards are the ones that can be passed through as well as entered and exited. The existing landscape and the landscape added by the design are related to the courtyards. On the south side, apart from the main courtyard, which is permeably surrounded by the building on 3 sides, other courtyards establish a visual relationship with this courtyard and open to the other by traversing the interior space. Courtyards that demand shade and/or sun depending on climate and time of day are formed by building clusters.

In the building, which is covered with non-cement-based plaster as a building material, structural elements such as windowsills and copings were not used to create a mass effect. The stone parts of the building are completed with Leleg knitting, which is defined as a second wall, referring to the Lelegs, one of the past civilizations of the region.

The house provides 50% of its electricity consumption with SES (Solar Energy System). Roofs with no solar panels are used as green roofs in a section suitable for planting. Natural stone materials, plant soil, and plants are from its own region. The existing trees were moved to their own area, whereas the old oak tree, which gave direction to the project and was influential in the design process, was preserved and also defined the window spaces of the sleeping areas in the east.

Inside the building cluster, there is a music studio with a partial mezzanine floor indirectly related to the house. The other mass with two floors designed as a guest house.

The interior spaces have internal heights derived from their own program, also reflected in the masses.