Minicity Model Park (dismantled)

Tourism has become common in the everyday life of Antalya and has become even more demanding due to new investments that have been made both in the city and its surroundings. The enormous dynamism that characterises consumer tourism has resulted in the development of ‘alternative’ images and attractions in order to continue stimulating the number and frequency of visitors. Moreover, postmodernity has blurred social and cultural territories causing them to be understood in a rather superficial manner. In this sense, the Minicity Model Park - where 1:25 scale models of specific buildings in Turkey are exhibited - is an attractive tourist scenario in that it promotes the consumption of signs and images instead of the experience of the authentic culture.
In an era in which the relationship between representation and reality is becoming more and more dubious, the dilemma between what would remain open or enclosed became the main basis for the design. In accordance with the dictates of the project’s investor, while the park had to attract the consumer tourist by being a place that is highly visible, the displayed models had to be inconspicuous from the outside.

Utilising unconventional structural methods, the long interface on the south between the park and the public space was formed by a series of shells that act as both an essential separator and a cover. Visual transparency for the building is created by intermittent extensions of the inner space that puncture the shells, becoming exterior terraces. The block on the west edge, which is elevated from the ground, was designed as an element that silently separates the building from the street. It contrasts with the expressiveness of the shell on the south, wavering between being a border that defines - or not - the inside from the outside.