CommonLab
Kadıköy Municipality Building
Civic Building, Competition
Type: Civic Building / Status: Competition Entry / Location: Kadıköy, İstanbul / Year: 2025 / GFA: 50.227 m2
Architect: CommonLab in collaboration with Set Studio
Project Team: Aslı Aydın, Tuğçe Nur Coşkun, Derya Ertan Şen, Selen Gündüz, Tansu Dinçer (İnşaat Mühendisi)
Architectural Concept
Kadıköy Municipality Building is located at the intersection of major transportation routes in Istanbul, in an area marked by intense pedestrian and vehicular movement. The site also holds significant potential due to its proximity to important cultural, sports, commercial, and recreational destinations, as well as surrounding residential neighbourhoods, including Yoğurtçu Park, Salı Pazarı, Kuşdili Meadow, Museum Gazhane, and Fenerbahçe Stadium. One of the main priorities of the proposal is to reinterpret the existing municipal building, a typical example of an institutional public building, as a more open and civic structure that moves beyond bureaucratic formality and shares its spatial and infrastructural capacities more fully with urban life. At ground level, the project seeks to establish an active public realm, transform this centrally located site into a park in reference to the former Kemikli Meadow, and reorganise the fragmented uses of the area in favour of a more continuous public landscape.
In this part of the city, where green space is limited and both the built fabric and pedestrian and vehicular density are high, the effective use of public open space becomes particularly important. For this reason, the open areas of the municipal building are reconnected with the open space along the Kurbağalıdere waterfront, which is currently used as a parking area, and reimagined as a City Park (Kemikli Meadow): a public landscape where people can spend time, gather, and experience a sense of openness within the dense urban fabric. To enable this transformation, the vehicular road separating the municipal building from the existing open parking area is removed and incorporated into the proposed urban park, while vehicular access is reorganised through a new road running parallel to the planned tram line. In this way, the proposal introduces a more integrated mobility framework for users of the Marmaray, High-Speed Rail, Metro, and Metrobüs lines. It also aims to transform the underused areas around Kuşdili Meadow and along the Kurbağalıdere waterfront into green space, forming a continuous urban green network connected to the Kurbağalıdere Life Valley. These open areas are also intended to function as earthquake assembly areas. The Metrobüs stops are relocated into the park and moved away from the Marmaray station exit. In place of the current fenced and constricted condition, a more open and accessible pedestrian environment is proposed. The area serving the pedestrian entrances and exits of the Marmaray and High-Speed Rail stations is expanded, replacing a vehicle-oriented approach with a pedestrian-prioritised urban setting.
The building is shaped primarily by the urban design decisions developed for the site. A linear form is adopted to make use of the existing footprint as much as possible, while the building is positioned to avoid existing trees wherever possible. The ground floor is open to public use, with programs distributed in relation to pedestrian intensity, and new passages and connections introduced in response to proposed pedestrian flows. In this way, the building moves beyond its inward-looking, office-based character and is redefined as a civic and social hub through the introduction of publicly accessible programs. The removal of the fences surrounding the existing municipal building opens the site both physically and conceptually to the public, reinforcing the principles of accessibility, transparency, and civic openness. The Atatürk Monument and Ceremonial Square are also relocated to the City Park.
The ground floor is designed as a cluster of pavilion-like structures set within the park. These volumes extend into the landscape and are positioned in relation to the existing trees to minimise impact. Trees that can be preserved remain in place, while those that must be relocated are replanted elsewhere within the site. In addition to public programs that can be used throughout the day, including a conference hall, multi-purpose hall, retail units, café, exhibition space, amphitheatre, co-working area, and a library accessible to residents, the ground floor also includes spaces for staff, such as a nursery, gym, and cafeteria. Frequently used municipal units, including the municipal police, social support services, payment counters, the İBB Solution Centre, and the council chamber, are also located on this level.
In addition to the strategy of opening the entire ground floor to public use, a vertical internal void is introduced to connect the upper levels and create spaces for encounter, interaction, and shared work. On either side of this void are modular office volumes, organised according to the hierarchy of the deputy mayor units. The central void accommodates meeting rooms, shared workspaces, and areas for waiting and informal use, creating opportunities for encounters for both staff and visitors. In this way, the public movement established at ground level is carried through the upper levels.
A hybrid structural system combining timber, steel, and reinforced concrete is proposed for the building. In response to the site’s weak soil conditions and seismic behaviour, relatively lightweight systems are preferred. One of the reasons for choosing structural timber is that, although this system is becoming increasingly widespread internationally, it remains underexplored in Türkiye and has not yet been sufficiently integrated into design and construction practices. As a public building, the Municipality Building has the potential to encourage the use of structural timber and contribute to the development of alternatives to the dominant concrete-based construction culture. This approach is also supported by the Timber Buildings Regulation, which came into effect in 2025, and by ongoing work related to domestic structural timber production.
While the ground floor has a more articulated spatial organisation, the office layout on the upper floors follows a more rational system, based on a modular grid with a 6.40 m × 8.20 m structural span that allows flexibility and future adaptation. In the main building, the columns above ground are glulam, the beams are a combination of glulam and steel, and the cores are reinforced concrete. A steel structural system is used at ground level in spaces requiring larger spans, such as the conference hall and multi-purpose hall, as well as in the pavilions located within the garden. The timber and steel structural systems, together with the building components, are designed according to simple principles and connection details that allow disassembly, reuse, repair, and multiple life cycles. The building is also intended to be dismantled at the end of its life.
