Disaster is a Crack. A crack to human activity, to Human Verve. The imprint of human activity on earth is the material imprint of the built, the imprint of the constant, effervescent elevation of matter. It is that material imprint that is primarily fractured by a Disaster -earthquake, fi re, fl ood. The new built scheme essentially emerges from a crack. The proposed Disaster Centre is double: the lower earthy part liberates an acute V that tends skywards, a symbol of Human Verve. The sky is framed by the concrete structure, each part of which solidly comes out of the fracture in order to end up in a vertex. The functional diagram of the center is also divided: the main educational experience takes place near the ground, on the sides of the split. Oblique elevators subsequently take the visitors of the new center up to the V where the evaluation of the ground experience is completed and symbolically rewarded through a last endeavor, a bold crossing between its two parts -overlooking Istanbul. It is those two vibrant parts that host the research, recreation and exhibition spaces of the new Center. Apart from the inclined hallway that lies in-between, a transparent led screen spans the two vertexes. Above the earthy fracture and the transversal pedestrian walkway, the void gives place to a led sky-screen that welcomes the human verve: Its potencies and its weaknesses keep being projected on the sky.The plan seems symmetrical; the V lies vertically to the ground split and is symmetrically positioned to the urban circular scheme proposed by the municipality. At an important traffic junction that connects the city with the airport and amidst tourist, commercial and administrative facilities the new centre emerges as a sharp, simple, vivid icon. The ground plan is divided in two main parts: the western part hosts the disaster educational experience and the eastern one the conference, seminar and administrativefacilities. The open parking spaces for cars and buses are positioned diagonally in the plot with entrances from the north. A smaller, closed one is located also in the north. The main entrance lies centrally in the south in front of the proposed new avenue. Inserted in the west side of the fracture, a 22 m copper sphere: It is the planetarium. All the spaces of the disaster experience, including the required shelter are equally spheres. Full or truncated. The route through them starts at the entrance and concludes at the northern part of the plan where the transparent, oblique elevators take the visitors up to the final evaluation hallway. Those northern elevators also offer a view of the great exhibition hall. The exhibition spaces lie at the core of the composition. They comprise two consecutive spaces of contrasting height. Contrast is likewise the composition’s strategy: as the space-creative conflict of an extensive ground plan versus an intensive sky section.

Disaster is a Crack. A crack to human activity, to Human Verve. The imprint of human activity on earth is the material imprint of the built, the imprint of the constant, effervescent elevation of matter. It is that material imprint that is primarily fractured by a Disaster -earthquake, fi re, fl ood. The new built scheme essentially emerges from a crack. The proposed Disaster Centre is double: the lower earthy part liberates an acute V that tends skywards, a symbol of Human Verve. The sky is framed by the concrete structure, each part of which solidly comes out of the fracture in order to end up in a vertex. The functional diagram of the center is also divided: the main educational experience takes place near the ground, on the sides of the split. Oblique elevators subsequently take the visitors of the new center up to the V where the evaluation of the ground experience is completed and symbolically rewarded through a last endeavor, a bold crossing between its two parts -overlooking Istanbul. It is those two vibrant parts that host the research, recreation and exhibition spaces of the new Center. Apart from the inclined hallway that lies in-between, a transparent led screen spans the two vertexes. Above the earthy fracture and the transversal pedestrian walkway, the void gives place to a led sky-screen that welcomes the human verve: Its potencies and its weaknesses keep being projected on the sky.The plan seems symmetrical; the V lies vertically to the ground split and is symmetrically positioned to the urban circular scheme proposed by the municipality. At an important traffic junction that connects the city with the airport and amidst tourist, commercial and administrative facilities the new centre emerges as a sharp, simple, vivid icon. The ground plan is divided in two main parts: the western part hosts the disaster educational experience and the eastern one the conference, seminar and administrativefacilities. The open parking spaces for cars and buses are positioned diagonally in the plot with entrances from the north. A smaller, closed one is located also in the north. The main entrance lies centrally in the south in front of the proposed new avenue. Inserted in the west side of the fracture, a 22 m copper sphere: It is the planetarium. All the spaces of the disaster experience, including the required shelter are equally spheres. Full or truncated. The route through them starts at the entrance and concludes at the northern part of the plan where the transparent, oblique elevators take the visitors up to the final evaluation hallway. Those northern elevators also offer a view of the great exhibition hall. The exhibition spaces lie at the core of the composition. They comprise two consecutive spaces of contrasting height. Contrast is likewise the composition’s strategy: as the space-creative conflict of an extensive ground plan versus an intensive sky section.