Description
Sevki Pekin’s attractive approach to individual living in a group was realized recently in the form of this group near Izmit on the Turkish coast. Individual houses are the key features, on a scale borrowed from the conventional detached house, but losing any sense of isolated independence in their varied accumulation.
Four houses, almost exactly the same, are arranged in a line on a flat plot with a view of the sea on the horizon, bedded in hilly vegetation. The sweep of the surroundings and the view means that the façades can be lavishly broken down on the sea side, creating a sense of a carefree and peaceful existence. The luxury of a location of this kind is combined with the idea of social interaction and community, though to a limited extent. The individual house clearly defines the boundary between the private sphere and community, but it is an ‘individual in a group’, a personal area, but one where the neighbour’s proximity is appreciated and needed. This is probably the attractive feature of this concept, abandoning the loneliness of distanced family living in favour of close proximity, without having to abandon individuality and natural space.
Despite the linear quality, Pekin creates movement of the buildings by slight differences in position, thus avoiding rigidity and simple accumulation. An access space between the row of houses and the garage area is a courtyard-like communication zone, while the lawn at the front invokes the atmosphere of a park. All the houses are the same height, and all two storeys high, with the same area and the same façade structure, suggesting that the occupants are from the same social background. The living, cooking and dining area is on the ground floor in all the houses, with the bedrooms above. To underline the community idea in architectural terms, the architect has added a linking cornice band, meaning that the houses and their occupants seem to ‘hold hands’.
Drawings
Site plan
Axonometric diagram with disposition of the buildings
Ground floor with main entrance and living, cooking, dining area
Second floor with bedrooms and bathrooms
Longitudinal section through the whole complex
Photos
Exterior view of the four houses from the south side
South side view with continuous balconies
Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.