INSTITUDE FRANCAIS D'ANKARA | GÜL GÜVEN

French Culture Centre in Ankara designed by VEN Architecture. Following the damage after the 1999 earthquake in the old building in Kızılay, the French Culture Centre continued its operations in various addresses. While in search of a new building, the officers of the Centre find the building in Yıldız and they decide to purchase it after positive comments of the ambassador who visited the building. A 2 stage competition is held to transform the building into a culture centre. As the architects of the building, we expressed our belief that this practice would be wrong, however, we still joined in this competition. First we were qualified to first 5, and then we were announced as the winner of the competition. We provided consultancy service to the structure after the project process and the structure was inaugurated as the French Culture Centre in May 2010. A new project was drafted for the centre within a very limited budget and new constructions were limited. The interior is simple while the ventilation system is exposed. Minimum intervention is made to the structure which will be the new home of the centre. 1st basement floor opening to the side street of the structure is the media centre. A children library is located there in a separate section. The ground floor is the reception area and includes book sales unit and a cafeteria. Pedagogy unit and administrative units of the centre are located on the 1st floor. Classrooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors are shaped by transparent partition walls. Thus the light is transferred to the interior halls. 4th floor is dedicated to embassy officers. Therefore it has an access control and limited connection with the other floors. A movie hall and cocktail terrace are located on the 5th floor. Movie hall has layout of a multipurpose hall allowing various activities to be held. The 2nd basement is allocated to car park, technical volumes and archive.