Meydan Retail Complex and Multiplex, Istanbul

The Meydan Retail Complex and Multiplex performs not just a as an efficient retail complex but as an urban centre in one of the fastest growing areas of Istanbul. Located in a suburban area on the Asian sector of Istanbul, the site borders an IKEA as well residential plots to be developed in the near future. Through its geometry and circulation strategy, the Meydan complex anticipates its subsequent integration into a dense inner-city context as an alternative to the usual out-of-town retail box development.

The different retail spaces are clustered together and parking is placed underground, liberating ground for a large urban square in the centre of the complex. The central square is activated though a number of pedestrian routes which link the underground car park to the ground level and are accessible from the wider city context though two new routes across the roofs of the retail spaces. The different retail spaces are connected with one another and form a ring like continuous volume around the central square. Roofs of these retail spaces, some of them sloping,  are designed as gardens with extensive vegetation. Ramps connect the level of the central square with the roofs of the retail spaces which coincide with levels of the surrounding neighborhood. In addition to the physical continuity created between the retail spaces and the surrounding context, roof lights introduced to the retail areas create visual contact between the shops and the roof gardens.

Meydan is a different model of retail to the common out of town retail sheds such as IKEA which are designed as sheds deployed onto an asphalt platform and surrounded by car parks. Instead of a car park, shoppers move through a public square which is physically connected with the urban space beyond and visually surrounded at once with retail space and roof gardens.

 

Architect - Foreign Office Architects

Photography - Metro Asset Management, Friedrich Ludewig

Location

Istanbul, Turkey

Client

Metro Group AG

Date

2007

Total area

55,000m²