In an industrial satellite town 100 km east of Istanbul, the vocational and training school provides opportunities for low-income high school students who are unable to attend university. Educational facilities are provided in 24 classrooms and 12 workshops organised around a lower courtyard and an upper gallery, as well as a 420-person conference room, a cafeteria, an indoor sports hall, and an open football pitch. The intentionally industrial-style buildings are of reinforced concrete and composite steel structures; façades are of exposed concrete or polycarbonate panels, with photo-voltaic panels on the south- and southwest-facing areas. In this project the architects sought to instil students’ pride and to improve the perception of vocational schools in contemporary Turkish society.

Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture