Projects

Helis Maltepe

Year

2013

Client

Helis Yapı

Category

Residential

Area

6,000m²

Team

Fuat Taşkıranoğlu, Beylem Taşkıranoğlu, Miguel Zapatero

Helis Maltepe Apartment stands on a site with a sea view in the Maltepe district. The building rises 17 storeys. The apartments are arranged to face the view. Shops occupy the ground floor, while the upper floors hold 2+1 and 3+1 apartments. The effects worked into the precast façade are intended to make the building stand out and register from the road.
Upper floors of the Helis Maltepe residential building — arched balcony openings formed by white precast panels, with the panel-clad side façade alongside
Front façade of Helis Maltepe — white precast bands repeating across the floors, with shops at ground level
Helis Maltepe seen from the street — a 17-storey building rising among the low apartment blocks around it

The residential building sits on the Maltepe ridge, commanding a sea view. To turn the upper floors towards the panorama that opens up with height, the core was pulled to the rear of the building, so that the residential units on each floor command the view without interruption. The character of the façade follows the same idea: the view side is entirely transparent, while the core at the back is designed as an exposed concrete shell that reinforces the contrast.

Helis Maltepe floor plan

On the 17-storey building, the repeating horizontal lines are made of custom-designed GFRC (precast concrete), pigmented white throughout rather than painted. This shell tapers towards the corner of the building; on the residential floors it forms no parapet, and where it reaches the exposed concrete shell at the rear it thickens abruptly and finds its own particular form — a cruciform geometry whose points also sharpen along the opposite axis at its centre of gravity. Together with the shadow the building takes through the day, this movement in the third dimension presents a different façade composition at every hour.