The Seferihisar Threshold

Project idea

The Seferihisar Threshold is a modular lifeline providing adaptive hybrid infrastructure for post-disaster resilience. Designed as a public facility during normal times, it functions as a neighborhood market and café that supports community interaction and local economic activity. Within 48 hours of a disaster, the structure transforms into a strategic Life and Operation Base, operating as a logistics distribution center and emergency kitchen for affected communities.

Through its adaptive triangular shell system and flexible spatial organization, the project promotes resilience, sustainability, and preparedness. Its primary objective is to create a multifunctional public infrastructure that serves everyday urban life while ensuring rapid and effective emergency response when needed.

Project description

The project integrates slow-living philosophy with high-tech disaster resilience in Seferihisar, Turkey's first Cittaslow city. A fluid parametric shell defines an open public space for daily use, hosting a café and marketplace. In disaster scenarios, a rail-based closure system transforms the space into a protected logistics and emergency hub without altering the main structure. The buffer zone strategy positions the project as a resilient threshold between the dense urban fabric and potential disaster impact areas, allowing controlled transition, coordination, and emergency response. Biophilic design strengthens psychological comfort and emotional recovery by reconnecting people with nature through light, airflow, organic structures, and natural materials. Seferihisar was selected due to its unique Cittaslow identity, strong community culture, strategic location near major gathering and logistics networks, and its vulnerability to earthquakes and tsunami risks.

Technical information

The project is designed as an adaptive hybrid infrastructure that operates in both everyday and emergency conditions. The activation timeline begins with its normal use as a neighborhood market and café (0h), followed by emergency response operations (+2h), spatial reconfiguration and logistical preparation (+24h), and full transformation into a Life and Operation Base (+48h).

The design adopts a layered resilience strategy consisting of community life, local economy, disaster preparedness, and emergency response systems. The adaptive triangular shell structure provides environmental protection, shading, and flexible spatial organization while enabling rapid functional transformation. Sun path and prevailing wind analyses inform the orientation and environmental performance of the structure.

The project is informed by post-disaster analyses of the 2020 Seferihisar earthquake and tsunami. Recorded tsunami run-up heights, inundation patterns, and coastal impact assessments were used as key inputs in the development of the resilience strategy. These datasets informed the spatial organization, transformation scenarios, and emergency operation framework, ensuring that the proposal functions as an adaptive and community-centered response infrastructure.

Documentation

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