Dursunköy Residences

Situated between the infrastructural arteries of Istanbul’s northern expansion bordered by the Northern Marmara Highway, Istanbul Airport, and the future trajectory of the Kanal Istanbul project this residential development presents a calm interiority within a rapidly transforming urban frontier. At once connected and secluded, the site becomes a new model for how ecological sensitivity, family oriented living, and infrastructural proximity can coalesce.

Defined by topographic variation, dense green buffers, and a restrained vertical profile, the project proposes a settlement pattern that privileges landscape, walkability, and spatial clarity.

Site Strategy and Urban Interface

The project occupies a liminal position between two dominant systems: major transport routes to the north and the future waterscape of Kanal Istanbul to the southwest. In response, the site plan leverages these dualities placing commercial programs along edge conditions to intercept traffic flow, while recessing residential clusters into the interior, where quietude and privacy can be preserved.

Five residential blocks are distributed across a stepped terrain, respecting both visual continuity and construction efficiency. The six-story height cap ensures that the skyline remains unobtrusive, in harmony with the surrounding topography and future developments.

Cut-and-fill strategies are minimized through strategic terracing, turning the site’s slope into a compositional advantage that generates shaded pathways, tiered gardens, and view corridors.

Design Principles

Ecologically Informed Architecture

The landscape is treated as a continuous system, where natural vegetation, permeable surfaces, and low-intervention grading reduce environmental impact. Buildings follow the terrain rather than reshape it, supporting water retention and soil conservation.

Community-Oriented Spatiality

Generous green courtyards and activity zones are placed between blocks to encourage social interaction among neighbors. Outdoor sports areas, family gardens, and shaded sitting spaces serve as the connective tissue between residences.

Programmatic Zoning and Accessibility

Two commercial nodes, placed on the northern and southern edges, offer services, shops, and amenities within walking distance supporting the larger mobility network while reducing reliance on external trips.

Compact Verticality with Human Scale

All buildings are limited to six floors, creating a calm urban rhythm and ensuring that light, ventilation, and views are preserved throughout the development.

A Landscape Led Alternative to Urban Expansion

This project reclaims a peripheral site not as a sprawl extension, but as a quiet, structured, and ecological residential enclave. It offers a new vision for living near the city’s edges—rooted in natural topography, calibrated for community life, and consciously distanced from the chaos it leaves behind.