Adana Hacı Ömer Sabancı Culture Center

  • Project Date: 2025
  • Location: Adana / Turkiye
  • Client: Hacı Ömer Sabancı Vakfı
  • Project Team: Tülin Hadi, Cem Ilhan, Ayşegül Ersin, Almira Su Köker, Samed Özkökeli
    Typology: 

Existing Hacı Ömer Sabancı Cultural Center is one of the symbols that has gained an important place in Adana’s cultural life. The main motivations of the project are that Hacı Ömer Sabancı Cultural Center, which could not provide sufficient response to earthquake investigations and had to be renewed, has a strong place in Adana’s cultural life, meets the needs and gains a city image value.

Land Use/Settlement

Today, Hacı Ömer Sabancı Cultural Center establishes a relationship with the city center to the north, and does not establish a relationship with the approach coming from the historical city center to the south, except for the service entrance. When the approach coming from the north following Fuzuli Street meets Hacı Ömer Sabancı Cultural Center, the relationship from north to south almost ends. Whether the new design will contribute to the continuity of this relationship is a research topic. On the other hand, the 400-person theater hall and 600-person concert hall specified in the program of needs, the requirements of the Adana Provincial Public Library, the presence of trees that need to be protected and the necessity of phasing, preach the placement of these main functions on the land and make them unchangeable decisions of the design. Despite the unchangeable locations of the new cultural center function areas, it establishes relationships with its surroundings that are suitable for meeting from all directions and tries to overcome the problem that has been defined in the present. While users who are reported to be mostly using minibuses by the library authorities will be able to enter the library from the closest point to the stops, concert and theater will be able to meet the users who are reported to be coming from the north direction.
Main structure
The main structure of the complex consists of the theater hall, concert hall, library and the foyer/circulation areas connecting these areas. The backyard is reached through a circulation that is like a street from the main entrance on Fuzuli Street. In addition to the areas that would be needed in a hall foyer such as reception, cloakroom, wet areas, buffet, small event area, exhibition, cafeteria, souvenir shop etc. are located in this circulation area like a street. Natural light is taken to the circulation area/street in a controlled manner from the roof and facades, but the effects of Adana’s burning sun are eliminated. The library, which can be accessed from inside the complex and also from the south, is positioned in a way that is suitable for 24/7 use and also for phasing. The main idea is to surround the halls that are close to each other in accordance with the land use and the library with a permeable perimeter of variable depth and angles, which sometimes acts as a deep sunshade and sometimes forms a border. The principle of preserving the existing trees as much as possible limits the floor area of ​​the library and the floors that come to the upper floors create a very large mass. For this reason, the children’s library is moved to the landscape area since it is in a cramped area within the library and its relationship with the ground will be preferred.

Plastic Effect

We find it important for the new cultural center to be a memorable structure that offers a new city image to Adana. The roof masses of the halls and library structures rise and create a harmonious mass plastic, transforming into sculptural structures that will take a place in the memory of the city dwellers together with the Hacı Ömer Sabancı Mosque in the city silhouette. The moving masses, dressed with precast elements that take their color from white cement, become the dominant elements of the city panorama under the sun.

 

Phasing

According to the needs program, the section containing the theater and concert halls and the library are planned to be constructed in two separate phases. The perimeter surrounding the entire complex also includes the library. Until the library is built, the area belonging to it remains within the perimeter, creating an inner garden or courtyard situation. During the period until the library is built, it is possible for this inner garden to host open-air cinemas or a wide variety of open-air events by taking advantage of the blind wall of the concert hall. With the planning of the children’s library as a separate building outside, the library has also gained a staged quality.

 

Sustainability

One of the biggest culprits in the formation of the climate crisis is building production. For this reason, we find it necessary for the structures to be meticulous about resource economy, to exist with the cycle that includes the pre-construction and use of the structure, and to provide nature/city/human comfort at the same time. The message that this newly designed structure will give about sustainability is also important. The sustainability of a structure is addressed in many layers, starting from the selection of location to the selection of electro-mechanical equipment and its ability to produce its own energy. The fact that Hacı Ömer Sabancı Cultural Center is a structure that will be demolished and rebuilt requires, first of all, thinking about the transformation and reuse of rubble. The use of recycled concrete, the production of new building materials from rubble, the dismantling and processing of the existing granite stones on the facade will respond to reuse.