VitrA Çağdaş Mimarlık Dizisi - Arkitera

Goldenkey Chalet is a hotel building with 41 bedrooms, constructed at the Kartalkaya
Winter Sports Center located at an altitude of 2,000 meters. Situated in a region
dominated by an authentic upland plateau architecture, the hotel was designed as a
modern interpretation of the vernacular plateau house and chalet typologies. Aiming
to take optimum advantage of daylight and the view of the Köroğlu Mountains, three
masses were designed and situated around the inner courtyard. The interior-exterior
relationship that varies depending on the user’s movement within the space creates
a playful façade. Continuity is the basis of the physical and visual connection between
the common spaces, which avoid the use of corridors. As a consequence of harsh
weather conditions that limited the construction period, the fact that the site is located
in a first degree seismic zone and financial constraints, a construction technique
using Ala-Sawa prefabricated post-tensioned concrete was employed. The façade of
the ground floor was finished with prefabricated concrete façade elements whereas
the upper floors were finished with steel seam wall cladding that is resistant to extreme
weather conditions.
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Hotel Goldenkey Kartalkaya, which belongs to the Goldenkey hotel chains, is located at
a popular ski resort, the Kartalkaya Ski Centre, which sits in the Köroğlu Mountains to
the southeast of the city of Bolu in the western part of Black Sea region.
Even though 25 regions have been declared Tourism Centers for Winter Sports by the
Ministery of Tourism, currently only 8 of them are active. The “Tourism area of the Bolu-
Köroğlu Mountains” is the third biggest ski center, with a bed capacity of 1,223 and
12 mechanic lifts. This region was declared “the tourism area of Bolu and Köroğlu
Mountains” in 1982 under the tourism promotion law and the region was divided into
3 development areas under the scope of the “Plan of Kartalkaya Region Environment
Arrangement”. There are five parcels in the First Development Region of Kartalkaya, and
in this region, early tourism facilities started rendering service in 1978. The Hotel Dorukkaya
was constructed on two parcels out of five and the hotels Kartalkaya and Grand
Kartalkaya were constructed on two other parcels. Hotel Golden Key was constructed
on the last parcel.
Kartalkaya Ski Center is 38km away from Bolu and at an altitude of 2000 meters, and
was brought into being based on the planning of a ski run by Austrian engineer Helmut
Senn along with the expert Julious Gertzmacher in the wide region allocated by the
Ministry of Foresty in 1975 with the loan support of the Tourism Bank.
Different from the other current hotel constructions in the region like chalet, the facility
is a modern version of lodge typologies and typical mountain house. It has 43 rooms
with different sizes and properties such as duplex suites, family suites and duplex lofts
in accordance with the concept of a boutique hotel. In the design, post-tensioned, prefabricated
concrete elements were chosen in order to eliminate problems of being on
a fault line as well as problems associated with harsh climate conditions. Apart from
these, steel was employed for the roof structure to make use of the loft.
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