Re-Functioning of a Dead Shopping Mall As a University

Abstract

In Istanbul, which is one of the cities with the highest population growth in Turkey, changes have occurred in socio-economic conditions, public space requirements and supply-demand balance due to this increase. In the last 20 years, Shopping Malls and Life Centers (AVM) that provide socialization, culture-art activities and shopping opportunities are the most functional spaces that meet the public indoor space requirements on an urban scale in Istanbul to a certain extent. However, the recent construction of shopping mall investments, especially in a way that will create a surplus of demand regionally, has caused some shopping malls to turn into structures that lose their function and cannot meet the changing requirements. These idle buildings, which lost their function but continued their structural life, brought the concept of “Dead Shopping Mall” to the architectural literature. This study aims to get investors and decision-makers to think about the re-functioning of dead shopping malls in the public interest. The structural functions of dead AVMs that they are compatible with in terms of functional transformation due to reasons such as their location, structural and physical properties, dimensions are limited. According to the research carried out within the scope of this study, it has been determined that the number of examples of many dead shopping malls converted by foundation universities is gradually increasing. Although there are publications in the existing domestic literature on the transformation of dead shopping malls into various commercial functions, there have been no sources examining their transformation for universities. The study interprets this transformation with the method of a foundation university that pioneers the public transformation of dead shopping malls, the flow chart of original design steps with designer experiences, stain studies of floor plans of old and new functions, comparison of old-new interior and exterior building visuals and aims to contribute to the domestic literature in this sense.