6.3 Suspended Ceiling Design Process - Bilkent University

project completed by TEPE Construction Co. when the study was being
undertaken. Thus, it was expected that tracking the information flows in the
process would be easier.
The complex consists of eight individual buildings; namely, customs
directorate and passengers’ hall, TIR customs office, customs inspection
hall, 2 social buildings, customs management hall, warehouse, entrance
and exit control units. The architectural and engineering systems of all the
buildings in the complex are similar to each other; therefore, the analysis of
a single building would be sufficient for the purposes of this dissertation.
The TIR customs office building is chosen as the focus of the research,
because the participants reported that this building truly reflects the whole
design process.
The TIR customs office building is a two-story building with a basement
floor. The building serves TIR drivers and contains two main functions. One
part of the ground floor is allocated to the customs offices such as
registration, entry-exit approvals, accountant’s office, management offices,
and computer hall. The other part of the ground floor is designed for
recreational facilities and it includes a waiting hall surrounded by duty free
shops and a restaurant. There are medical and management offices in the
first floor. The building has a structural steel frame system. The bi-partite
nature of the building is also reflected in the structural system so that there
is an expansion joint separating the building into two parts (Figure 6.4).
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