The project area is located in the Kilyos region of Istanbul, Turkey.
Istanbul is a city with a very crowded human circulation and people are very tired of the chaotic city life. People who have lost their life purpose and happiness, who only go to work every day and spend their time on public transport, need retreat and well-being.
Kilyos is a calm, quiet, and peaceful place, 60 km away from the city center, in the north of Istanbul, with a coast to the Black Sea, with long sandy coastlines, generally used by holidaymakers for swimming and surfing in the summer months, and fishing in the winter months. It is an ideal spot to get away from the chaotic city life of Istanbul for a moment and to renew.

There is a discourse that the name Kilyos derives from the Greek word Kilya, which means sand. The name of the project was inspired from here.

The concept of the project is to keep all five sense organs active and to gain experience thanks to visual and sensory transfers of adults who want to escape from the city for a short time and whose whole life consists of working.
To provide a balance between the senses and emotions in life here, by using the balance elements in nature and architecture. While doing this, it is actually to enable people to face the elements such as wave sounds, plant smells, and sea views, which we constantly encounter in nature, and to increase the experience of space while providing intersensory transfer.

Architecturally, this was done by using the walls in a different way. The first is to make the walls of different natural materials (compressed soil, basalt stone, plants with different colors and smells specific to the region) and perhaps by placing works of art on them, to enable people to orient themselves in the area with their own feelings. The second is to create an atmosphere with walls. Third, creating spaces and street routes with walls.
Compacted soil is generally used for walls. Compressed earth is a sustainable material that is 100% recyclable and keeps the senses of sight and touch active. Different colors of compressed earthen walls can be obtained with different pigmentation processes.
Another prominent material is basal stone. Basalt is the local material of Kilyos. During the field visit, we come across basalt stones along the coastline. It is desired to include all the elements of nature that the project area offers to us in the project. All the masses are placed in a way that they can see the view parallel to the sea.

The program includes an accommodation area for 50 people, education and workshop areas, a yoga meditation area partially away from the entrance and intertwined with nature, pool restaurants, and spa - treatment (sauna rooms, steam room, salt room, ice room, Turkish bath, dietitian therapist, etc.). .) area, healing garden, and beach.

In the plan schemes, buildings with more openings and semi-open with the outside were also used in more open plans in the interior. Units with wider openings were created in the social and common areas. While doing this, walls, which are the architectural language reflected in the main concept, were used to define the spaces.

In the social areas, instead of the buildings surrounded on four sides, the area was defined with walls and then a roof detached from the structure was placed on it. In this way, areas that are more related to the landscape and its surroundings were created that allow both open and semi-open spaces. While removing the roof from the building, it also increased the natural daylight entering the indoor space and allowed natural ventilation.

For the Accommodation units, the walls were rhythmically placed, and then spaces were created with the spaces in between. Here, spaces were created that are a little more closed to the outside and contain privacy, but still relate to the front facade, the landscape, and its surroundings. By offsetting the walls in both vertical and horizontal planes, a three-dimensionality was gained both in the language of the façade and in typology.

While I created every space I created in this way with thick natural textured walls, it was aimed to make the user feel these sensory feelings both outside and inside.Endemic plants of Kilyos were used in the landscape and on the streets. Apart from these, wind-resistant plants (pine tree, oak tree, magnolia, etc.) were used because it is a windy area.