Istanbul-based architecture practice SO?, led by Sevince Bayrak and Oral Goktas, installed an interactive sky garden in Istanbul's Ortaköy Square, which is one of the most touristic and busiest squares in the city. The design studio installs an interactive sky garden on the ground in such a congested area would reduce the walkable surface and make the square even more dense. SO? proposed to hang the garden while keeping the ground still accessible. 

The architecture studio used the existing slab in the square as a base for the new garden which will also serve as a canopy made of pots during sunny days. This garden with assorted plants, provides seating and shadow as well, during the flower festival. Being suspended, the garden acts as a roof which people can stay under and watch Bosphorus. Just like a tree with different branches, the garden flies between the sky and the Bosphorus with each pot, while the pulley system lets the pots go down for a closer look of visitors.

The mechanism that lets the hanging pots move up and down, is a simple pulley system. Since the pots are equally weighted, they remain aligned when in balance. If a visitor pulls one of the pots to look at the plant closer, than the equivalent pot is lifted.

SO? considers public installations as a tool to question the architect’s power over design. When the visitor is being able to change the installation, architect is no longer able to control the form, up to a certain point. The installation is a challenging experience to expand the borders of control even with small gestures like in this project, while the temporary installation urges to transform an established public space.

SO? is an Istanbul based studio focusing on design, architecture and urbanism. It was founded in 2007 by Sevince Bayrak and Oral Goktas whose projects won numerous awards from both national and international competitions. 

In 2013, they won the Young Architects Program by MOMA/PS1. In this project they built Sky Spotting Stop for Istanbul Modern, that was exhibited in MOMA and MAXXI. In 2015 they designed Unexpected Hill, which was a public installation realized in London by Royal Academy of Arts and Turkishceramics. 

They designed an installation in 2015 that was exhibited in MAXXI, called Lost Barrier. Their recent projects include a housing project in Bodrum, and a renewal project for a public cultural center in Istanbul. 

Project Facts

Name: Sky Garden

Type: Public Installation

Area: 60 m2

Location: İstanbul

Client: Beşiktaş Municipality

Status:  Built, 2016

Team: Sevince Bayrak, Oral Göktaş, Sevinç Yüksel, Emre Üngör, Ana Latorre Martinez, Hazal Seval, Julia Tarsten, Arda Bakıryol, Büşra Ekici, Laura Villeret, Chiara Vaccaro

Plantation: Zeynep Hagur

All images © Yercekim

> via SO?