Category
Academic
Year
2022
Location
Istanbul, Turkey
Awards
From the Talk
Metametrik Episode #190 · 10:06
Kırkçeşme Historic Park is a landscape architecture graduation project proposing the restoration and reactivation of Istanbul's oldest Ottoman water infrastructure system — a 55km network of dams, aqueducts, and pools designed by Mimar Sinan to supply water from Belgrade Forest to the Historic Peninsula. The project transforms this forgotten hydraulic heritage into a continuous public landscape corridor across the Eyüpsultan district.
The design was developed around three goals: ecological reclamation of degraded green corridors, urban memory upgrade by making the water system legible and experiential, and socio-cultural value through new public programs. Balıklı Pool and Balıklı Aqueduct in Sultangazi were identified as the highest-potential intervention area — the site with the most spatial complexity and public reach. A 1:20,000 system analysis was followed by a detailed 1:500 masterplan integrating water, transport, landmark, and program layers.
The project was awarded the IFLA Europe Young Professionals Award and the ITU Best Graduation Project 2021–22. It was also recognized by UCTEA. The conceptual framing of water as a tangible urban landmark — not infrastructure hidden underground, but a defining spatial experience — became the core design thesis, expressed through the "Journey of Water" as a continuous public narrative across the park.
Film
Gallery
Why Kırkçeşme
Three-goal framework — Ecological, Urban Memory, and Socio-Cultural — defined the design priorities. Istanbul's ecological footprint, water as a redeemable cultural resource, and welfare improvement through bottom-up design solutions form the core argument for intervention.
System Analysis
Istanbul's population growth and water demand have been directly correlated throughout history — supply always chasing demand. The city's exponential growth made depending on neighboring water sources unsustainable, making self-supply through historic infrastructure a critical priority.
Case Studies
Precedents drawn from NYC's Old Croton Aqueduct Historic Park and Boston's Freedom Trail — both models of infrastructure reactivated as public experience. The 1:20,000 Kırkçeşme System Functionality Analysis maps all collection, treatment, transfer, regulation, and distribution elements across the full corridor.
Landmark Plan
Problems across the 55km system are categorised by the three main goals. Clusters shift in character from north to south, transitioning from forest to rural to urban. Industrial intrusions into 100 and 15 meter protection bands are mapped as the primary environmental threat to the corridor.
Site Selection
Three potential sites were evaluated across the 55km corridor. Site 2 — a mixed urban-rural zone in Sultangazi/Gaziosmanpaşa — was selected for its diversity of spatial potentials, highest public transport accessibility, and position at the convergence of the system's key nodes.
Existing Program & Noise Map
The project area is analysed for existing users and unmet needs. The 15m and 100m protection bands are heavily intruded by unregulated users. The normalized urban noise map from regional management data confirms the highway corridor as the dominant acoustic threat to the site.
Proposed Program
Linear space planning is categorised by activity level derived from auditory, congestion, and human flow data — from least active (blue) to highest activity (orange). The area with the most functions and greatest human flow, Balıklı Pool and Aqueduct, is selected as the primary intervention zone.
Balıklı Pool Area — Existing Situation
A 1:500 scaled problem mapping identifies exact intervention points across categories — intrusions into protection bands, car-dominated streets, idle green spaces, poor runoff management, and disconnected landmark patches. The method reveals systems that appear unrelated but operate in tandem spatially and temporally.
Masterplan 1:500
The Kırkçeşme Historic Park Masterplan integrates the reclaimed protection band into a continuous public landscape. Historic Balıklı Pool is placed at the spatial and programmatic center, connected by topographic seatings, a 5.5m priority pedestrian path, bioswale edges, and a symbolic water trail.
Transport Plan 1:500
Four transport interventions restructure the street hierarchy: road axes optimised, traffic focus shifted north via a Turbo Roundabout, road hierarchies redefined with 4m pedestrian lanes and 2m bike lanes, and Woonerf traffic calming implemented throughout. Vehicle roads narrowed to 7.5m to prioritise pedestrian flow.
Landmark Plan 1:500
The landmark plan reveals the Historic Balıklı Pool as the visual and experiential anchor — surrounded by bioswale, external pool, and topographic seating. Balıklı Aqueduct is restored to focal prominence by lowering surrounding elevation. Water Chimneys are highlighted with the water stream design feature at the northern edge.
Water Plan — Journey of Water
The Journey of Water traces the full hydrological cycle within the park — from surface runoff and slowing through paved slopes, to collection, purification via bioswales and stone-filled channels, ground transfer, and finally program and auditory functions. The water stream bed is textured to create distinct sounds for noise isolation and recreational purposes.
Program Plan 1:500
The program plan distributes seven distinct spatial characters: High Activity Social Space, Multi-Use Aqueduct Space, Stop-by Seatings, Lunch Time Area, Vista Deck, Experience Playground, and Relaxed Aqueduct View. The Modern Balıklı Pool functions as a three-storey public stage — skating rink in winter, cool oasis in summer.
Physical model of the Modern Balıklı Pool Square — the centerpiece of the project. The lasercut topographic base demonstrates the relationship between the built intervention and natural contour lines, showing how the pool structure integrates into the sloping terrain of the Sultangazi valley.
Constructional Design 1:200
The 1:200 constructional design resolves the full material and lighting palette across the Balıklı Pool section. Paving transitions between stonewrap pedestrian surfaces, porous granite slab, permeable bike lanes, and wooden decks are governed by a flexible metal separator system. The lighting strategy layers ground strip lights, handrail LED strips, water strip lights, and vegetation floodlights — ensuring the landmark reads equally as a nocturnal spatial experience as it does in daylight.
Planting Design 1:200
The 1:200 planting design for Balıklı Pool establishes a layered palette of 13 species selected for ecological performance and spatial character. Canopy layer is anchored by Fraxinus excelsior (15m), Populus alba (15m), and Populus simonii (13m) — deciduous species that provide seasonal variation and large-scale structure. The understorey introduces Aucuba japonica, Crataegus carrieri, and Cyrilla racemiflora as transitional masses between tree rows and ground cover. Ground cover is dominated by Phlox divaricata (207 units) and Juniperus horizontalis 'Wiltonii' (361m²), creating dense, low-maintenance surface cover. Perennial accents — Lobelia siphilitica, Heuchera americana, and Stylophorum diphyllum — are distributed to mark pedestrian edges and bioswale zones.
Making the Invisible Visible
Kırkçeşme is one of Istanbul's most important historic water lines — a roughly 55-kilometre aqueduct threading through many of the city's key points.
Because it crosses valuable land, it collides with development interests — left underground, sometimes deliberately forgotten.
This project surfaces it: wherever the line re-emerges above ground, the design makes it visible and legible — buried heritage the public can see, and protect.
Every move serves visibility — from a single wide render down to a network of annotated nodes that trace how the water line was lost over time.
