Quite surprisingly, the intention of the Gürallar Yapı construction company was not for it to be an office building at all. Initially, architect Nevzat Sayın was selected from six architectural companies to design a 21-storey high-rise residential block. However, a couple of months later, the strategy of the development had been shifted from residences to office spaces, which was found to be more suitable for the location. After the function had been altered, the number and size of the different individual units were carefully calculated in order to satisfy the potential customers as well as the landowners who will rent their spaces. Lapishan is the first commercial building project of construction company Gürallar Yapi.

Sayın was given a quite complex puzzle to solve, which involved having to fit variously sized individual office spaces and shops, as well as some social spaces, into a high-rise building with a footprint of almost 850 square metres. “We as architects know that if you have a small building footprint, the core of the high-rise building takes the most valuable part out of it. It is not clever to make a high-rise with a footprint smaller than 1000-2000 square metres”, says Sayın.

He convinced the client to make a lower building which would use the entire lot but still be eye-catching. The formula was quite simple: In order to make an iconic tower that would be visible from a distance among other high-rise buildings nearby, a large rectangular prism was proposed that would be visible to drivers on the motorway for a longer period.

Historical typology

“Lapishan is actually the contemporary interpretation of the old historic office blocks (‘han’ in Turkish) in Anatolia and in Istanbul”, says Sayın. Small craft workshops workshops around a corridor surrounding a courtyard are still seen in historic parts of the city. Karayel adds: “We used the technology of contemporary architecture to turn a very convenient and accepted building typology into a contemporary business centre.” The ground floor and courtyard are designed to be open to the public and are also very accessible by the metro and mass transit hubs nearby. The ground floor shops and sports centre serve both the public and the people working in the building.

As a result, even though the original intention was to sell all the units, the construction company was so pleased with the building that they decided to move their headquarters to the top two floors of Lapishan. They are not the only ones who think it’s a successful building: Lapisan is winner of the 2013-2014 International Property Award in the category ‘Best International Office Development’.