Omerli Park Residences

A Life Proposal at the Waterfront from Iglo Architects:

OMERLI PARK HOUSES

Omerli Park Houses, designed by Iglo Architects in Istanbul, aims to bring together users with Riva River and to provide a life in touch with nature by expanding water, one of the most important design elements, to the front of the houses at a great site where green and blue meet.

The residential compound is planned on a land where river, sea and forest meet. The long side of the land is parallel to the Riva River.

Iglo Architects planned a spacious promenade at the riverside and also took the water element into the landand placed the houses around the water so that all locations propose a similar experience.

The developer asked to fit as many units as possible into this land without loosing the sense of living in nature.

Iglo Architects planned narrow and long twin units and arranged the entrances and gardens in such a layout that, the inhabitants feel like living in a private mansion. Roof terraces were used to minimize the height effect.

The compound is comprised of 3 plan types. Private houses, and two different type of twin houses which are planned to have 2 facades looking over the promenade.

The land is located at Riva,a small town at North of Istanbul where river and forest meet the Black Sea. Riva is widely preferred by both developers and families who want a life close to nature.

The long edge of our land runs along the Riva river. This inspired Iglo Architects to design a wide promenade along the riverside. The promenade is connected with the passages scateered inbetween the ponds and parcels in order to create many alternative routes for jogging, running and cycling.

The residences located on the river side are favorable as this is the most valuable spot on the land. What Iglo Architects did is to engage the water element in the design in such a way that all houses on the land can benefit and enjoy the Vista and experience of living on the riverside.
How it is done; to extend the river into the land by creating an artificial pond and solve a layout plan where the garden of each unit has a water access.

The client asked Iglo Architects to fit in as many units as possible which is what any developer would do.
While trying to provide this, we did not want to sacrifice from the quality of life of the future inhabitants most of whom will choose this project for a life in nature.

So Iglo Architects had to find a solution for two contradicting principles; fitting as many units as possible into the land plot and providing as spacious outdoor spaces as possible between the units…
Iglo Architects designed this wide pedestrian road as a promenade to benefit from the Riva river vistas, People can do their jogging, biking etc. Not only at that promenade, but also on the routes that we placed between parcels and the water curved in the site.

Water is an important element for this project, besides; considering families with children , the biological pond has been designed with a depht of 15cm to 40cm to provide safety.

On the other hand, a leisure center with open and closed pools is planned for swimming. This center also has, sport saloons, sauna, turkish bath etc.

Additionally numerous child play areas are planned in the compound.
Instead of doing what comes first into mind and place the long facades parallel to the narrow and long parcels, they placed the long facade perpendicular to the parcels short side to leave the maximum garden space for each unit. Adding the water between two neighboring gardens, a significant distant is achieved between the neigboring buildings which enables both spaciousity and privacy even in such a dense settlement.

The main structures and the entrances of each plan type are arranged in a site planning to let each unit have a sense of individuality and privacy. Roof terraces are located at the neigbourside of each unit to minimize the building height perception visually.

Iglo Architects did not plan a private parking plot at each parsel, instead they designed wide car roads on the side of which each residence can park 2 cars. Narrow gardens are designed between each residential unit and its the parking places on the roadside. This planning let the buildings on each side of the spacious boulevard to have a significant distance inbetween.

3 plan types are designed. Limited number of private houses are placed on the corner plots with a wide vista. The twin plan type which is the majority of residences are held back from the car road to maintain a life style in its own garden and with the water vista. The 3rd type of housing are placed along the promenade next to the river and their living rooms are planned to have two facades one of which looks over its own private garden and the other looks over the promenade.

Credits:
Project Name: Omerli Park Houses
Function: Residential
Architectural Design: Iglo Architects
Team: Zafer Karoglu,Yildirim Gigi, Pinar Komurcu, Ayse Pek
Client: EFESAN Grup
Project Area: 88.000 m²
Project Location: Omerli / Istanbul
Project Date: 2016
Construction Date: 2018