Honorable Mention of the International Architecture & Design Awards 2026
Vibe Residential Project
Architecture
Concept / Professional Category
Architect / Designer:
ORÇUN ERSAN
Studio:
ACE ARCHITECTURE
Design Team:
Orçun Ersan ,Sabiha İrem Ardıç, Feyza Nur Tekdemir, Simay Demirel Üstündağ, Miraç Aleyna Yüce, Oğulcan Korkmaz, Berna Balçık, Enes Topçu, Beyza Yağlı
Copyright:
ACE ARCHITECTURE
Country:
Türkiye
Located in Çayyolu, Ankara, the project is conceived as a prestigious residential development on a sloping and elongated site. The architectural approach is shaped by the site’s strong topographical character and its relationship with the surrounding landscape. Composed of three residential blocks resting on a continuous podium, the project positions itself within the luxury housing segment while questioning conventional residential models. The primary design intention is to redefine everyday domestic life through spatial flexibility, long-term usability, and a closer relationship between architecture, landscape, and user. Responding to the linear geometry of the plot, the massing is articulated into three distinct blocks to avoid a monolithic presence. This fragmentation introduces rhythm and movement into the urban silhouette, establishing a dialogue with the skyline. The composition balances openness and solidity, creating a cohesive architectural identity.
The sloping terrain is treated as a generative design parameter. The podium functions as a mediating layer between the topography and the residential volumes above, anchoring the project to the ground while accommodating base-level apartments. This relationship is reinforced through façade articulation, where balcony parapets gradually become darker and more opaque toward lower levels, emphasizing continuity with the slope.
Rising from this base, the residential blocks introduce differentiated typologies tailored to evolving living scenarios. Block A is designed as a single-apartment-per-floor structure, embodying a “home within a home” concept developed to support the sustainable use of large residential units. The concept responds to changing family structures by allowing younger or elderly family members to live independently while remaining part of the same household. Each apartment integrates a fully independent 1+1 unit, enabling residents to live both together and separately. This strategy supports privacy and long-term use. Each residence is accessed through three separate entrances: a main entrance, a service entrance, and an independent entrance to the internal unit. Blocks B and C, with two apartments per floor, adopt the same organizational logic.
Across all typologies, interior layouts clearly separate living areas from private rooms. Primary living spaces such as living rooms and kitchens are oriented toward the landscape to maximize daylight, views, and natural ventilation. The roof of the podium is conceived as a collective landscape and designed entirely as a green roof, hosting shared social spaces elevated above street level. At the terminal points of each block, loft apartments enrich the vertical profile and reinforce the layered character of the development. Ultimately, the project proposes a contemporary residential model that moves beyond standardized typologies, offering adaptable living environments rooted in landscape, topography, and long-term sustainability.
ACE ARCHITECTURE
ACE ARCHITECTURE
ACE, founded in 1985 in Ankara, has been operating as ACE Architecture Engineering Consultancy Inc. under the management of A. Can Ersan, Orçun Ersan, Nilgün Deniz, Uğur Furtana, Esra Toygar, Sedef Yıldız and İrem Ardıç, with a multi-partner structure.
ACE Architecture offers services, singly or in association with local and international partners, in architectural and engineering design, and in engineering and management consultancy providing the most appropriate projects solutions and consultancy services on the basis of all conceivable parameters such as functions, economy, aesthetics, sustainability, environmental awareness, energy position and user comfort principles. The company has been working with high concentration, determination and discipline by the experience gained in more than 40 years not only with its permanent 61 staff, but also with numerous affiliated freelance experts and part-time professionals.
