EnPlaza, Luxury Lifestyle Awards 2023 Turkey list: an award in the “Commercial Architecture” category.
The organization behind the award
Luxury Lifestyle Awards is a global program, running since 2008, that evaluates companies, projects and individuals in the luxury sector. A Research and Selection Committee carries out the evaluation. Nominees are selected using category-specific criteria, based on the information submitted, public research and reputation in the market. The program states that it evaluates more than 400 categories across over 100 countries; the nomination and evaluation process is free of charge.
In the architecture section, 2023 awards for Turkey were given in categories such as commercial architecture, residential development, single residence and architectural visualization. EnPlaza is an office building rising above retail floors; it received the award in the “Commercial Architecture” category. Winners are listed on the program’s website with their categories and years.
EnPlaza
EnPlaza is a 20,000m² office building completed in 2015. In the part of Ümraniye that is rapidly turning from an old industrial area into commercial fabric, it stands on a busy street connecting Alemdağ Avenue to this growing business district. The site’s location, its elevation rising to the west and the dense street-front shops to the east determined that the shop facades open to the west and north. The terraces designed for the first-floor restaurants and cafés with wide terraces face north and east.
The building’s most distinctive decision is the facade. The rectangular mass, fed by a linear core on its south side, gives its long facade to the north. White sun blades fixed perpendicular to the facade reflect the oblique east and west light arriving from the north into the office volumes and keep daylighting balanced. The blades become denser on the east and west facades to preserve the proportion of the facade, and also give extra protection against glare. Their depth changes at several points along the building’s height. The change is not noticeable at window scale but reads at building scale, and it creates a wave effect of shadows on the smoked glass.
The plan is flexible as well. Because the building was designed for lease and sale, the floor plans adapt to the rapid fluctuations of the office market: the same core can be divided from one office into eight without major construction expense. The building has offices ranging from 140-590m² and shops ranging from 80-150m².
The design team included Fuat Taşkıranoğlu, Beylem Taşkıranoğlu, Miguel Zapatero, Ece Yurdakul, Oğuzhan Solmaz and Muhammet Kahraman. Photographs are by Gürkan Akay. EnPlaza was previously published on ArchDaily, Archello, YEM Yayın and Arkiv. For the drawings and photographs, visit the project page to see them.
Credits: EnPlaza, Ümraniye, Istanbul. 2015. 20,000m². Award: Luxury Lifestyle Awards, October 5, 2023, Turkey, Commercial Architecture. Photographs: Gürkan Akay.