Teknopark Istanbul is a science and technology park which is being developed by the Under secretariat for Defense Industries and the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce to contribute to Turkey’s technology development capacity for local and international entrepreneurs.
The concept of establishing Teknopark Istanbul rests upon decisions taken by the Defense Industry Executive Committee on October 8th, 1987 on the founding of an airport on the Asian side of Istanbul. Upon this decision on the 20th of April 1988, the Council of Ministers allocated 13 million square meters of land to ITEP (Advanced Technology Industrial Park and Airport Project) for national use. 2,5 million square meters of this grant has been allocated for the use of Teknopark Istanbul. The establishment process of Teknopark Istanbul project, one of ITEP's most critical projects, began with the signing of the Letter of Intent on the 12th of February 2009 by the three initial members of the Founding Committee; the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries (SSM), the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO) and Istanbul Commerce University (ITICU). Airport Management and Aeronautical Industries Inc. (HEAS) and Defense Technologies Engineering and Trade Inc. (STM) joined these signatories to become founding members.
Given their shared history and mutual presence, the special relationship between Sabiha Gökçen International Airport and Teknopark Istanbul extends beyond their corporate ties, into serving as a prestigious entrance for an emerging, youthful, dynamic and innovative metropolis. With its site developing contiguously with the airport, Teknopark Istanbul extends the global and multicultural nature of an international transit hub into several neighboring districts of the city, serving as an agent which generates considerable real estate and operational value for the Asian side of Istanbul.
Between early 2010 until late 2012, our project team at Bütüner was responsible for very comprehensive urban design and infrastructure projects for the entire 2,5 million square meters, along with realizing the first set of buildings (RD Buildings No1 & No2) within the campus, measuring 65.000 square meters. The urban design project was revised in early 2016, with more specified ownership and lease patterns.
Teknopark Istanbul is planned to have a wide variety of buildings, in terms of their form, use, and ownership. To articulate these elements into a flexible campus framework required comprehensive reasoning between urban design, architecture and infrastructure. As the urban design project was realized with respect to and simultaneously with the RD Buildings No 1&2, the campus master plan was developed into a scale sensitive product.
Every building plot has a designated façade for street access, to minimize vehicular traffic outside the road grid. This designation also establishes the ground elevation of each building with respect to the mean sea level, therefore defining precise height relationships between adjacent buildings. Perimeter blocks, such as RD Buildings No 1&2 work as the primary agents introducing order to the campus. Point blocks, and singular office buildings are distributed with respect to one another, defining secondary perimeters as a whole. Special buildings such as convention centers are positioned in irregular and highly visible plots, encouraging their designers to work together with the landscape. Low rise manufacturing buildings and office buildings with manufacturing facilities are located close to each other at the northern tip of the site, to confine the circulation of heavy vehicles to a minor portion of the Teknopark Istanbul Campus.
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