Idea Project Competition of Kurbağalıdere Valley

Our competition project aims to demonstrate that the city and nature can co-exist; that a mutual relationship is possible; based on the idea of making the Kurbağalıdere Valley work as an ecological filter against the dense İstanbul urban landscape. Our proposal highlights the creation and maintenance of a green network, and is very sensitive to the nature, history and topography of the city, and encourages pedestrian access and public transportation. Through those urban interventions and the gradual transformation of the out-of-date building stock of İstanbul to open, green areas, the project transforms, partially if not thoroughly, Anatolian side through making the Kurbağalıdere Valley a natural corridor at the heart of Kadıköy.

The most important emphasis of the project is on the basin preservation approach. The life veins of İstanbul (valley systems and bottoms – Kuşdili Meadow, Uzun Çayır, Kurbağalıdere) have hosted mostly agricultural activities until 1950s, and have become the major regional production center with their first-degree fertile soils. Current projects such as the Fikirtepe regeneration model, which tried to assume a savior role, are decontextualized and are deepening urban fractures.

This project won the first equal prize in the National Idea Project Competition of Kurbağalıdere Valley in 2013.