Exploding House in Bodrum, Turkey By GAD

Bodrum is a Mediterranean port-trade settlement in the Southwest of Turkey. The area boasts a rich history of over three thousand years, including Hellenistic times. The venerated scientist Heredot was born there and sculptures by artists including Leochares, Bryaxis, and Timotheos were exhibited there and can now be found in museum collections around the world. The outdated codes restrict new forms of architecture being introduced to the landscape.



To overcome this and create a more flexible building type, GAD created a house made from three separate buildings – a metaphor for a single building that has been “exploded” into many parts.




Operated electronically, the windows have the capacity to slide open flush to the ground, allowing for sea breezes to flood the interior.



This innermost space is the focal point of the house and is connected to the three houses by a series of concrete ramps that reconcile the building with the landscape. An additional slope that can be used as a sun deck and for light recreational activities descends to the contiguous swimming pool located on land set at a slightly lower grade from the house.



From here the ramp leads down the hillside to an additional self-contained apartment building that is set within the land and hidden from the house above.



Each individual unit, which complies with the regulatory size of 75 square meters, is built next to one another with a narrow space in between and is linked by a glass atrium. Conceived as a single house, each building has a separate function: a master bedroom and bathroom; a kitchen and dining room; and a guesthouse with an adjacent study room.



The central glass vestibule acts as the entrance to the building as well as the main living area with 180° vistas of the stunning landscape and bay made possible by floor to ceiling windows.






The open-plan of the main house ensures that it is light and airy, a must in the summer. As a secondary precaution, the roof of the building is covered with pools that collect rainwater.


above: the water cascades from the roof of one of the buildings to the other and is then circulated back round, creating a natural cooling system for a hot climate.



The “Exploded House” reinterprets traditional dwellings in the area, yet its angular structure that fits into the clefts in the hillside, remains in keeping with the natural environment and when seen from above the pools mirror the surrounding landscape and the endless vista of the bay and help mask the presence of the building on the hill.

Architects: Gokhan Avcioglu / GAD
Location: Bodrum, Turkey
Interior Design: Hakan Ezer
Client: Vedat Semiz, Sureyya Semiz
Site Area: 5,000 sqm
Project Area: 600 sqm
Project Year: 2003
Photographs: Ali Bekman, Ozlem Avcioglu

The Safe House In Poland Is A Modern Fortress With Sliding Walls.

It looks like a modern fortress and is built as such. The Safe House by architect Robert Konieczny of Polish architecture firm, kwk promes, is a giant concrete cube whose walls were designed to move. The house was recently a shortlisted entry for the 2009 World Architecture News Awards.







The House is situated in a small village at the outskirts of Warsaw. The surroundings are dominated with usual 'polish cubes' from the sixties and old wooden barns. The most essential item for the clients was acquiring the feeling of maximum security in their future house. This objective determined building's outlook and performance.





The body of the building is a cuboid in which parts of the walls are movable. When the house opens up for the garden, eastern and western side walls move towards an exterior fence, creating a courtyard. After passing the gate one cannot enter the house or the garden any other way but through the main door, waiting in that safety zone, for its opening. The innovation of this consists in an interference of the movable walls into the urban structure of the property. Consequently, when the house is closed (at night for example) the safe zone is limited to the house's outline. During the day, as a result of opening of the walls, it extends to the garden surrounding the house.





Even the staircase is built to be concealed until use:




Accomplishment of this idea required a lot of technically complex solutions. The sliding walls (both 2.2m high, 15 and 22m long) are not the only mobile elements of the building. Apart from these, there are large shutters – all 2.8m high, with width ranging up to 3.5m, and a drawbridge, leading to the roof terrace above the swimming pool.





A giant roll-down gate closing the southern elevation also functions as a movie projection screen. All the movable elements are based on built-in electric motors. The whole building is a concrete monolith, while its mobile parts – for the sake of considerable size – are light steel frameworks filled with mineral wool. As a result, the building is excellently insulated when closed. The whole house and all movable elements are finished with waterproof alder plywood. It resembles wood widely found on surrounding houses and barns, which makes it fit well into the landscape.





Once the house opens, the interior merges extensively with the garden. Wide glazings behind the movable walls let the building acquire energy during the day, in order to store it at night, when the house is closed.







This proceeding repeats every day – the house wakes up every morning and closes up after dusk. Such routine reminds processes occurring in nature – the house resembles a plant in its day and night cycle. (text description courtesy of world architecture news)

Construction and materials

The construction is a concrete monolith. Only the movable elements are made in light steel structure. Both concrete and steel walls are insulated with rock wool, and covered with 15 mm slabs of waterproof alder plywood, that was stained to darker tone, in order to make the house look alike the other buildings in the surroundings. The fence, that unites with the movable walls, is the same 2.2 m high, and is covered with an identical dark plywood. The interior, to stay in contrast, is kept in white. The floors are made of concrete and whitewashed oak. The walls and ceilings are finished with concrete and whitewashed cement plates.


above: architect Robert Konieczny of KWK Promes

location: Okrzeszyn, near Warsaw
client: private
architect: Robert Konieczny - KWK Promes
collaboration: Marcin Jojko

site area: 2500 m2
usable floor area: 566,51 m2
volume : 1719 m3
design : 2004
construction : 2005-2008


kwk promes architects

Richard Meier Does Modern Architecture In Turkey. The Bodrum Houses.

Bodrum Houses
2007-2010
Yalikavak, Turkey

Yalikavak, overlooking the Agean Sea, is the most prestigious residential area in Bodrum, Turkey. In 2006, Berggruen holdings purchased over 168,000 sq/m of land with panoramic views of Yalıkavak Bay and the marina. They then hired world renowned architect Richard Meier to design a series of modern homes for the hillside. The project, called “Bodrum Houses” is comprised of 23 houses designed in 5 different design styles.





Each of the Richard Meier designed homes has 3 levels in addition to the pool area, a canpoied 3 car garage and a detached guesthouse. Each house contains a kitchen, living room, dining room and powder room on the ground floor; three bedrooms on the upper floor; and a media room, laundry room and three staff bedrooms on the basement level.

Each house has a total exterior and interior of approximately 1,100 square meters and each house has a separate pool, emergency power generator and a waste water treatment plant.

Materials are cast in place concrete with a plaster finish and large areas of glazing. The interiors feature stone and hardwood flooring and numerous skylights.

Due to different typographical features of each plot as seen below on the models, each house (including the same design type) has a unique ground level configuration and an uninterrupted view of Yalikavak bay.




House 1:



House 2:



House 3:



House 4:



House 5:



Images and information courtesy of Richard Meier and Berggruen