Yonca Community Center
Ankara / Turkey, 2016

The Yonca Community Center building was proposed as a multipurpose building, apart from the usual community center buildings, in the Keçiören district of Ankara. The reason for this was the fact that the number of small-scale structures and the rapid increase in demand in certain regions were able to expand the program functions of the community buildings as much as possible and to respond more to their needs. While the proposed structure covers the needs of the people of the region and places various courses for the youth center and housewives, at the same time, it houses the emergency service coordination offices and the health center of the district. At the same time, it is connected with the local park. The social center, proposed in a form that is organized and tightened by the surrounding green, does not occupy as much as possible the green space and the open space. The Yonca Community Center building keeps the footprint of the area at a minimum despite the intense program, trying to balance the nature and the proposed block.

While the emergency service and health center function is running from the north road, the Youth Center takes entrance on the other side of the main road entrance. The oval form of the structure is obtained by integrating the recommended functional units to the inner perimeter of the floor and by different unit variations. Corner units, which break the rigid language of the building, can be extended and shortened to the side and down to allow flexible space usage at the same time. After the users entered the building, they encountered a gigantic atrium which can serve for different uses, such as the Youth Center and the Cultural Center. The technical volumes and service areas of the building are arranged in the basement floor. A bulk mass of the building is proposed by shifting the vertical divisions of volume and wooden panels. These divisions are designed to balance the use of the building's glass surface in relation to the solid-void relationship. Floor-to-ceiling glass facades are recommended to allow the building to take maximum daylight. The Yonca Community Center building is planned to start the tender process and construction in 2019.

Project facts

Project name: Yonca Community Center

Location: Keçiören, Ankara

Design: R. Güneş Gökçek, rggA

Project team: Binnur Aslan, Haktan Aksu, Mustafa Taşdemir, Osman Kurmuş, Hazel İlkay

Project date: 2016

Construction area: 3,552 m2

Structural project: Tanfener Engineering

Mechanical project: Ak Proje

Electricity project: Mustafa Aksu

Construction works starts: 2019