How might earthquake readiness inform architectural landmarks?

We are living in a volatile and complex world. Climate change, energy crises, economic downturns, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasing natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods push us architects to reconsider our design priorities. In order to address the urgent need to create equitable, resilient, and nature-centered cities, we need to change how we practice architecture and set new standards for the construction industry.

Global design studio SOUR joined forces with Bartels & Vedders on the proposal for Izmir Sustainability Center: SAL - designed as Türkiye’s first floating public building. Through its floating structure, SAL is an answer to the need for constructing earthquake resilient buildings. In addition to avoiding earthquake loads and ground improvements on a site with a high risk of liquefaction, SAL significantly reduces embodied carbon footprint and responds to rising sea levels. By tapping into Izmir’s traditional shipbuilding know-how, SAL aims to answer future problems related to natural disasters, energy transition, port relocation, and climate change.

SAL is designed as a journey between modern and traditional, local and global, calm and bold. It provides viable yet elegant solutions to energy and water usage, material and resource wastage, supply chain inefficiencies, and embodied carbon footprint. It is a self-sufficient structure that can sail to different ports, becoming a traveling landmark within the city’s public infrastructure.

SAL is Türkiye’s first carbon-negative floating public structure that serves as an educational and recreational venue, serving Izmir’s socio-cultural, environmental, and climate database.

Building on a site that is at high risk of and requires extensive ground improvements, how might we create a substructure that is naturally isolated from earthquake loads, floods, and rising sea levels?

How might we rethink the ground conditions to minimize the impacts of earthquakes? Is it possible to have a building with no foundation?

How might we tap into the shipbuilding industry that Izmir is traditionally good at, to solve future problems of energy transition, port relocation, and climate change at once?

How might we take the first step towards a future floating city for Izmir?

Project: SAL

Typology:  Public Building, Administration Building, Sustainability Center, Park

Location:  Turan, İzmir, Türkiye

Date: 2023

Area: 5885 m2

Client: İzmir Metropolitan Municipality

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https://www.sour.studio/projec...

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