DS is a leading design office for architecture and landscape architecture, founded in 1994 in Istanbul. With an interdisciplinary approach to complex design issues, DS has extensive experience in master planning and design, landscape interventions, public and private landscapes and historic preservation.
We Think- The key motivation in every project is to create a specific microcosmos for each project. In order to achieve this objective, our design team combines artistic qualities with economical and ethical values and considers multilayered, multidisciplinary, multicultural and contemporary complexity as a source to design unique, livable and innovative environments. We are experienced in various fields of environmental design and we integrate our skillsets to practice design as interpreters and synthetic thinkers.
We Design- We focus on diverse forms of landscape architecture – built landscapes, planning frameworks, research, books, and exhibitions – with the ultimate goal of connecting people with nature and creating dynamic and adaptive landscapes of the future.
We Deliver- We work closely with our clients to ensure that their design requirements are met with applicable and effective solutions from design concepts to the process of building landscapes. To achieve high-performance public urban landscapes, we combine new technologies with novel and affordable construction techniques and materials.
Deniz Aslan is a founding partner of DS Architecture and has more than 30 years of experience in all aspects of landscape design and architecture. He has been a leading voice around the integration of innovative design methods into the processes of landscape design and construction to increase efficiencies, improve natural and public landscapes and elevate the quality of design.
Sevim Aslan is a founding partner of DS Architecture where she has focused on the architecture, landscape design and historic preservation for both public and private clients. She has extensive experience with novel 3D-optical surveying techniques, architectural conservation, materials and methods for restorative interventions in historic buildings.
As the architectural project is in its entirety, the landscape project was progressed in the direction of preserving the environmental texture as a richness of vegetal diversity; particularly making the existing plants healthier and rejuvenating them in accordance with the landscaping survey and technical report, as well as removing the unhealthy ones. However, the design of the hardscape of this project was addressed by the approach of industrial archeology special to the site. Every original piece is kept in the place, deformed ones are restored with new additions, and new additional hard floors are restored or redesigned with either local basalt stone plates or bulk materials. Therefore, in this sense, this project is about the concept of recapture. The main entrance, the square between the main allée and the meadow supporting this area, was created with the rediscovery of existing trees and contours of the original plans. The entrance courtyard of the museum is preserved with almost its all elements. While plain and simple additions in floors together with vegetation texture describing the main attitude of the design principle, the museum is considered to overflow time to time. The rails of the existing wagon line along the main transportation axis are part of the created hybrid flooring characterization, aiming to locate all directional information elements and equipment. Furthermore, an important issue of the landscape approach in this project is that the density of students is supported by the strong campus life and the creation of the sense of belonging. For that purpose, the old cooling pools are transformed into amphitheaters as to be interaction and socialization areas.
Terkos Pumping Station, which was the source to accommodate Istanbul’s drinking water demands for over a hundred years, has lost its function and was repurposed as a water technologies museum. Alongside its new function as a museum; transforming the area surrounding the lake into a recreative area while at the same time, restoring the corrupted ecosystem in the wetland became the primary aspect for the design. Also, since the groundwater level rises during winter, all the walkways which are inserted into the existing landscape were designed to be elevated from the ground, therefore providing the possibility to visit the area even during those months. The varying connection every visitor from every age group makes with the element of water was established through the creation of stopping-resting-viewing points that embraces different flora and topography interactions all through the area, as well as the development and perception of the entire area in the concept of an ecological park. The walkways contribute to the visitor’s experience of perceiving the area as a whole while transform itself into the elements of design that fortify the connection with water by forming piers and terrace. The observation towers that are attached to these spots not only create a place for surveillance of water birds and bird immigrations while offering special perspectives and exposures, they also provide visitors with areas to stop and spend time in.
The aim of the project is to reevaluate the idle coastline and hillside zones being isolated by the impact of industrial pressure in Gebze and readdressing them as a new ecosystem. These achieved climatic and ecological zones are planned to enrich the life of coastline and hillsides. Vision has been to exhibit that the reclaimed nature in city can and should be protected by occupying, using and programming rather than isolating. First of all design intends to reclaim the polluted stream bed by introducing it as a new water ecosystem, also proposing smooth topographical uses on hillsides and developing existing macquis groves. Coastline is planned to be connected to the hillsides through various activities and new experiences. The detailed studies with ecologists has lead to the development of the existing flora and fauna by analyzing and reclaiming plantation of the land and also introducing a new micro biotope garden and extended flora collection. Eskihisar Castle has been connected to the coastline and the city by alternative circulation paths that are mostly above the ground exposing the surface and natural tissue without touching. The project aims primarily the reproduction of nature and introducing this new nature to the citizens with a smart usage plan leading people to experience environment without disturbing. Adventure park is installed to the topography delicately so that activities are distributed to the land suiting the character of the action and specific advantages of the location.
Ulus Savoy Housing is a special project, with its fractured structure of parking ceiling which gives a unique character to the site and yet, that forms the base/ shell of the landscape. This unity within the architectural construction gives opportunity to the landscape itself to become an integral part of that brutalist structure. In this sense, architecture makes the landscape much more meaningful. Ulus Savoy is a multi-housing project with 26 blocks settled on a garage structure which is the substructure of the new landscape topography as well. By means of sharp and hard parts, the amorphous structure of the garage (the shell) is used to embody the landscape. While some parts of the shell are covered with vegetation, other parts are paved with natural stone. On the other hand, this shell works as the backdrop for all of the connection axes and recreational activities. In other word, the constructed topography of the settlement shapes the landscape/garden features of the common spaces. Throughout the project, flat areas serve as the private gardens and the recess areas host the social facilities. Providing a promenade to stroll around the gardens, the partially elevated path plays a great role in the perception of the fractured surfaces of the site. The steep fragments of the fractured surfaces which are covered by natural stone with particular details become the background of the circular skylights that provides dramatic lighting effects for the garage underneath.
We were excited by the idea of designing the landscape in a vineyard characteristic where users can swim, rest and walk while binding the architecture into very special morphological features of the project site, Kapadokya, Uçhisar. It was a great opportunity and experience for us to connect this modern investment with rural elements. The hotel and the garden, located directly on top of the hill, were built entirely of local materials from hardscapes to planting characters. The way to the hotel and walls were designed and implemented with the existing local elements of Uçhisar. Also, the lighting is designed to illuminate existing geological structure and morphological texture in a very soft character. As an output of the landscape design of this project, a brand new character that was so proportioned was obtained.
