Zulema Josa
ARQUITECTA
#Han#Istanbul
Han is a typology that can be found along the old commercial routes between East and West with the function of a hosting and protection infrastructure. It's an oasis, isolated from the different environments where it's placed and nowadays a model in ruin.
Istanbul, one of the main arrival locations and exchange point of these routes, a harbor, a city, a topography, a changing morphology, and a group of elements that establish relations between each other.
But, the Han was also an oasis inside the city that offered to the visitor protection from the environment and at the same time, it exercised the function of control towards the stranger and temporary.
When the commercial and economic model to which it belongs is abandoned, the Han becomes ruin and it is invaded by the environment and its vegetation, resting in an unexpected balance.
This is the idea that generates the Cebeci Han’s transformation project in the edge of the Kapaliçarsi in Istanbul.
FINAL DEGREE PROJECT. Feb.2010.
FINALIST AT THE 'INTERNATIONAL YOUNG ARCHITECTS' IDEAS AWARDS 2012. TURKEY