Zafer Karoğlu, Co-Founder of Iglo Mimarlık, Answers Our Questions

In an interview we conducted, Zafer Karoğlu, Founding Partner at Iglo Mimarlık, answered our questions. Karoğlu provided information about Iglo Mimarlık's award-winning projects both domestically and internationally.

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your education and professional background?

After graduating from Kabataş Boys High School in 1986, I enrolled at Yıldız Technical University Faculty of Architecture the same year. I graduated in 1991 and worked with Architect Saim Çil at MTM Mimarlık, where I had started while still a student, for 5 years. After military service, I worked for another 5 years within Ada Mimarlık, and then starting between 1999-2000, my colleague Esen Akyar and I began freelance work separately while supporting each other. In late 2001, we converted our collaboration into a partnership and founded Iglo Mimarlık. In late 2003, we also combined our lives and became a family with two daughters. In the years we founded Iglo, we began undertaking detached house projects in Bodrum. In 2002, we designed a factory building in Gebze for a French automotive company. Around the same time, design requests began arriving from the fast food sector, which was just emerging in Turkey. As the projects in Bodrum began bringing new clients, this expanding world that drew us in began to make us question our future expectations. As the influx of requests exceeded what we could manage from Istanbul, we had to think about whether to relocate to Bodrum or remain in Istanbul. Believing that, despite the exhaustion and risks, it would be more appropriate to pursue our architectural goals in a large city like Istanbul, we decided to turn down the Bodrum opportunities and continue our profession in Istanbul. Following this decision, our office primarily undertook decoration and fast food-café projects. From 2004 onwards, as Turkey began emerging from the economic crisis, intense activity commenced in the industrial sector. Our first factory building, which stood out among its peers, began attracting the attention of foreign and Turkish-foreign joint investors, predominantly foreign. Demands for qualified industrial structures began arriving from those years onwards. In 2007, upon winning the Logipark project, which was an invited competition, we had the opportunity to implement Turkey's first and largest logistics park project on an area of 270,000 m². Subsequently, we began receiving inquiries for projects exceeding 100,000 m². Meanwhile, in 2008, when the office's work in interior design and dining sector projects had intensified considerably, we had to make another strategic decision regarding the office's future. A challenging conflict began to emerge between interior design projects requiring close attention and architectural projects of increasingly growing scale. Faced with the intensive time and attention demands of both sides, the architectural projects side gained weight. On principle, we decided to handle the interior design of our own structures ourselves, thus moderating our pace in the interior design field where we had worked with so much effort over the years. Subsequently, with developments that unfolded as we expected, we concentrated in the architectural field.

How does the design process work at Iglo Mimarlık? How do you determine the concept? If there are sources that inspire you in this process, what are they?

At the beginning of the design, we try to analyze the client and their requirements well. We take care to understand how we can benefit from their experience and their working habits. Even if it is a subject we know well, current global examples are researched. Once we have a grasp of the basic functioning, we attempt to position the structure to best answer our design criteria, past experience, intuition, specifications and client requests. When beginning to create a concept, we try to identify priorities that require solutions. Once all data is correctly determined, we try to reach conclusions by blending solutions with function, aesthetics and our perception of life. Every building—its location, user profile, program requirements, climate, orientation, culture and countless other inputs that require attention—should be carefully examined without overlooking anything, and we take care to ensure that correct questions lead to correct answers. The pursuit of "there must be something better" and the understanding that "the solution lies within the problem" are expressions that define us well. Energy efficiency in buildings, sustainability and proper resource use are at the top of the issues we value. Everyone has much they can do for our world at every scale. In this respect, architects especially have much responsibility. With any structure you place in any part of the earth, you assume responsibility to your surroundings and to people. Besides finding answers to the needs of a building's users, one must try to add something to its surroundings, to nature and even to passersby. When planning a building, alongside the requirements of the functional schema, all elements such as the climate where it is located, texture, geographical position, cultural data and existing environment can serve as reference points. The truth is, if you know how to listen, what needs to be done doesn't whisper but shouts loudly. The source of inspiration in the formation of concepts is sparks that surprise us, arising from a blend of everything we have accumulated, places we have visited and seen, research, reading and experiences. Sometimes you see it the moment you sit down at your desk, sometimes you struggle through it like birth pangs. Despite all these years of experience, you cannot know when the answer you are looking for will come. In such cases, one must work with composure.

Could you tell us about the awards Iglo Mimarlık has won and the important projects it has completed?

The first and perhaps most important award was a success award won in 1987 at the Taç Foundation Awards, a national competition for architecture students. From 2010 onwards, in competitions we entered with completed works, we have received national and international awards. Cimpor Cement Plant in 2010, Mecaplast R&D Structure in 2011, and Logipark Logistics Facilities in 2012 were included in Arkiv Selections. P Block Production and Post-Production Studio won first place in the "Office" category at the 2010 Intera Interior Design Awards and was a finalist in the "Commercial Building of the Year" category at the 2013 Leaf Interior Design Awards. Logipark Logistics Facilities designed in Tuzla also earned the 2013 Arkiv Employer Award. The ICI Factory and Management Building project achieved finalist status in the "Office Projects" category at the 2014 World Architecture Festival (WAF), while in 2015 it was deemed worthy of the Best Industrial Building award in the "Ongoing Projects" category at the Sign of the City Real Estate Awards. That same year, it was among the winning projects in the 19th project cycle of World Architecture Community, a prestigious sharing portal featuring international architectural and interior design projects from around the world. Parsan General Management and Administrative Building designed by Iglo Architects reached the finals in the "Commercial Buildings of the Future" category at the 2015 Cityscape Architecture Awards, while the ICI Factory and Management Center and Ortana Factory and Management Building projects achieved finalist status in the "Production" category at The Plan Awards.   The ICI Factory and Management Center competed as Turkey's sole finalist selected in the "Best Futura Project" category at the 2016 MIPIM Awards. The ICI Factory and Management Center received the 2016 American Architecture Prize "Honorable Mention" award, and in 2017 received the iF Design Award in the "Office/Industrial Buildings" category. Anatolia Tiles & Stone project reached the finals in the 2017 2A Asia Architecture Awards 2017. In 2017, Anatolia Tiles & Stone was selected for the 24th Cycle of World Architecture Awards in the "Factories" category, and the İzmir Sales Office project in the "Office" category.

Particularly in developed countries, significant emphasis is placed on sustainability, green buildings and passive house concepts. Could you provide information about your work in this area? What can be done in Turkey in this field for a greener future; could you share your views and recommendations?

Leaving a habitable world to the generations after us has become an even more important responsibility. Our consumption-driven lifestyle that forces production, the resulting waste, growing population and housing needs, global warming, declining water resources, disappearing agricultural lands, economic tensions and the wars and refugee problems they cause are threatening even our near future. We must not overlook the fact that the most effective remedies for these ills can be produced through collaboration between science, technology and architecture. The use of clean energy, proper waste management, technological agriculture and livestock raising, measures to reduce carbon emissions, incentives for green construction, avoidance of waste, the establishment of efficiency and sustainability understanding, and quality education to enable proper comprehension of all these matters are priorities. The awareness of states and each of us as individuals in these matters and their application in our lives will initiate a very rapid transformation and change. There is still much to be done, our time is short, and it is not too late. In Turkey's environmental policy, alongside the necessities of developing technology, turning to alternative energy sources, increasing recycling awareness, opening the way for high-value-added sectors and strengthening industry, I believe that further developing agriculture and livestock raising, which still have various advantages, is of vital importance. Good use and development of the resources at hand will bring valuable opportunities and ways out for all of us.

In industrial facilities and related structures, naturally functionality is prioritized over aesthetics. However, considering their large volumes and the areas they occupy, these types of buildings can have an impact on the city's architectural silhouette. In this context, how would you evaluate industrial buildings from an architectural perspective? What approach should be followed for both functional and aesthetic industrial buildings; could you share your thoughts?

Industrial buildings are essentially giant machines. The form of the building is given by building regulations and process requirements. Architectural decisions such as its height, openings, doors and natural lighting needs derive from process schemas. The architect tries to shape this massive form with what is at hand so that it looks beautiful and comes to human scale. Actually, they are extremely brutal structures for the environment. They challenge and are discordant with their dimensions. Generally, since they are planned in areas outside the city center, they do not enter the silhouette. Large space requirements mean they must be located in regions with inexpensive land. However, this situation can change over time as the city's development is directed towards these areas. In such cases, due to the value of large land parcels, they are either transformed or relocated. They are generally the first structures encountered when entering the city. We try to make these structures look aesthetic by capturing a rhythm. We take advantage of solid-void ratios, material variations, continuous lines, color contrasts and particularly light-shadow interplay. If there are tall blocks that break the rhythm in the structure, we try to make them disappear through material changes, sometimes also with color. But no matter what is done, providing the fastest and most efficient working conditions in industrial buildings is the priority.