The Senan House is a private holiday home built in the tiny village of Yahsibey, beside Dikili, on the Aegean coast, 90 kilometres north of Izmir. In its use of local labour and traditional techniques and building materials, the project is contextually harmonious with the organic urban fabric and vernacular houses of the village. Following the main morphology, form, structure and components of the hayat Turkish house type, the residence is composed of one multifunctional volume, divided horizontally into two levels. A central void influences the different spaces and functions. The inside and outside only seem to intersect on the south side where the grand opening of the house faces the garden and the pool.
On a large plot of 700 square metres, a clearly defined rectangular cubic volume on 96 square metres was erected on the most northerly part of the land. The volume from the inside of the building is an open-functioning single space; a barn-like impression prevails. In spite of being a single volume, in reality and atmospherically, the house is divided horizontally into two levels. The upper level is divided into two spaces for sleeping, which resembles the musandira (gallery) element in the room of a hayat Turkish house. The ground floor contains an open, multi-functional space, with an open-plan kitchen and a separate small bathroom behind the kitchen. The two floors make a total of 160 square metres. A large void in the middle of the house connects the two storeys visually while giving focus and accentuation to the inside volume. Reinforcing this axial focus, the house opens onto the garden only from this void by means of a grand southern opening that covers the entire long side of the rectangular plan and extends to the full height of the house. In the middle of the opening, abutting it, a long clear rectangular pool, one metre deep, stretches to the south. The inside and the outside only seem to interact at the point of this grand opening. The ceiling is a double pitch of monolithic exposed concrete.
Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture
