Greater Bahcesehir

Greater Bahcesehir is the largest of a series of new towns built on the periphery of the metropolitan area of Istanbul. The entire town was built in five phases on three hills which come together to form a verdant valley between them. Mr. Mehta was part of a team at CHK Architects and Planners that consulted on the design development and prepared construction documents for fifteen urban parks located within the first phase 170 acres situated on the east side of the valley. Streets are designed to be public places and to provide connections between urban parks. Street edges are made in a series of layers that reinforce and enrich each other. Street trees are employed throughout the site. Front yards vary with the setbacks: 2 meters on smaller streets and five meters on larger streets. Building fronts together with privacy walls which extend and link the building fronts, create a continuous wall between the public and private rearms. The result is a carefully crafted comfortable, pedestrian streetscape.