VitrA Çağdaş Mimarlık Dizisi - Arkitera

With its first phase completed and second phase in progress, this project aims to renovate
a redundant area at the entrance to the historical town center through a landscape-oriented
urban design project. The proposed pedestrian promenade, squares and
shops have introduced new public open spaces and commercial areas to Alaçatı. The
project also involves the ongoing restoration of the historical windmills and the creation
of new social recreation areas surrounding them. Continuing the historical typology and
the urban texture of Alaçatı, the project takes local proportions and building materials
as a starting point and adapts them to modern techniques used in the construction process.
This urban design project aims to achieve variety and harmony with the historical
texture, avoiding an artificial historicist approach. Thanks to this, the promenade, the
squares and the buildings have been rapidly adopted by users.
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The historical settlement of Alaçatı followed a natural line of development until the
second half of the 1970s when the construction of summer houses accelerated in its
periphery. The touristic demand for the region was triggered by the declaration of
the town as “Alaçatı Tourism Zone” in 1982 and opening of the Alaçatı-Çeşme exits
of the İzmir Çeşme Motorway in 1996. While the former entrance of the town center
was located on the main artery along the east-west axis, the new entrance has been
shifted towards the windmills at the periphery due to the declaration of the region as
“Çeşme Alaçatı Culture and Tourism Conservation and Development Zone” in 2005 and
the definition of Değirmenaltı area as an “Urban Design Area” in the Conservation Based
Municipal Plan in 2007.
Visited initially by fans of wind surfing during the 1990s, and later by admirers of stone
houses and authenticity in the 2000s, the town of Alaçatı was totally overwhelmed
by the increasing tourism activity within the five years following the opening of the
first small hotel in 2001. As the natural condition of Alaçatı was not considered to be
authentic or genuine enough and it did not match the fictional Mediterranean image in
tourists’ minds, the identity of the town was rapidly transformed by its new inhabitants
from the metropolis. Taking the Greek Islands and Southern France as models with their
harmony and attraction, the town center was rapidly aestheticized and transformed
into a series of touristic views staged for cosmopolitan tourists. These attempts of embellishment
have also been embraced by the local administration, who considered it
necessary to develop an urban design project for the Değirmenaltı region, the former
periphery zone that has transformed to become the entrance point of the town center
after urban developments in the area. Planned to be completed in two phases, the first
phase of the project was completed in 2008, with the completion of the high-priority
components of the program such as indoor parking and the design of the public square.
In order to achieve unity in the general pattern, an architectural repertory has been
developed for use in new buildings as well as façade improvements. The second phase
of the project involves the restoration of the windmills to be used for cultural activities
and the design of the park around them. Aiming to redefine the entrance axis of the
historical town and reproduce local identity with a modern language, the project succeeds
in overcoming the lasting tension between modernity and tradition.
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