Articles by Hana Abdel

Within the scope of the ‘İzmirDeniz’ project, which has been ongoing since its con-ception in 2011, ‘Papilio’ was designed as the focal point of the Bostanlı Sea Square by Studio Evren Başbuğ. Situated across the Bostanlı market hall, this section of the coastal waterfront, which is 350 meters long and 21 acres in size, was given special interest within the scope of the 1.3 km long coastal planning of the second stage application area of the Karşıyaka coastline.

This house was built by a son for a sick mother. An important concept of this house is the way private and society interact. Eventually, I proposed a house with no windows on the wall except for the entrance and the rear entrance. Instead, he suggested installing 32 fixes and five large windows that could be opened and closed on the ceiling.

While designing this house, I remembered the Rwanda forest where I visited a few years ago. It is a vast forest of the Virunga Volcanoes, where the border of the three countries of Rwanda, Congo and Uganda is, and where wild mountain gorillas live their everyday lives as they travel. When we caught up with a troop of gorillas by the guidance of local people, they just sat down and rested among soft bushes in an open space of the forest. Infant gorillas played upon the trees and ran around among adult gorillas, while each adult settled comfortably in the grass, to groom themselves or to eat grass and tree bark. It was like a scene in a house. They found their places among dense trees and improvised their houses. Though there are no walls or roofs, trees, tall grass and creepers entwined with them, the overlaps and outlines created by unevenness of the terrain, were enclosing the presence of inhabitants, to form a comfortable density that can be called a house. This is the vernacular architecture in the gorilla forest.

There are two islands where no people live, called Chagui-do and Wa-do near a small village, Yongsu-ri, located in the west coast of Jeju Island. Staring at these two islands at certain point, they look magnificent and mysterious like a humpback whale in a legend that came up on the surface to take a breath. STAY1METER is located at this certain point.

26 Nam Ngu is a homestay located in Nam Ngu Street in the city centre. This street is narrow but quite crowded with full of restaurants and shops. Also, there are various houses, including old, rebuilt and new buildings. The homestay is 6,5m wide in the facade and 25m long. Other sides of the construction are considerably close with different houses. Our architectures have decided to create more space for this project as a solution. In the facade, a large wood deck right near the entrance is a place for visitors to rest and view the street. A tree is planted in the deck as a green area for the building and also for the populous neighborhood. Behind the deck , there are a spacious reception room and airy stairs leading to the mezzanine and the bar in the basement.

Komorebi [木漏れ日] – a Japanese word depicting the interplay between light and leaves when sunlight shines through trees. The exact definition of this word is difficult to interpret in other languages since it has many layers of special meanings. This is a renovation project for an old house located on a hill in the center of Da Lat city.

“House and Office in Hofu” is a renovation project of a 40-year-old building. The steel-frame structured building was remodeled to include various spaces such as living, office, warehouse, shop and more. The client for this project is the owner of a brewery founded in 1865. Apart from the traditional products soy and miso, the company also work on developing new products using the old techniques refined through the brewery’s history.