Bostanli Footbridge and Bostanlı Sunset Lounge promise a new urban space to experience different forms of ‘idleness’
The ‘Bostanlı Footbridge’ and ‘Bostanlı Sunset Lounge’ by Studio Evren Başbuğ Architects were created for the İzmir Sea coastal regeneration project.
Opened in July 2016, the site has become one of the top public attractions in Karşıyaka, İzmir and has been embraced and visited by residents from all over the city.
Both structures were made from thermally-modified ash.
The Bostanlı Footbridge is formed by several cascading thermally-modified American ash boards, produced and provided by Novawood, installed on a steel frame.
Visitors get to enjoy the view of the bay either sitting or sprawling. In this way, the bridge goes beyond being just an infrastructural urban element, solely used as a thoroughfare, and instead, serves as a public leisure and attraction piece in relation to its environment.
Built from a series of wooden platforms reclining on a wooded hillside, all the way down towards the sea, the design encourages users to achieve a closer connection with the sea. In this way, the lounge helps users to re-discover a long-forgotten İzmir ritual and invites city residents to watch the sunset and spend quality time together in the evening.
Evren Başbuğ, founding partner of Studio Evren Başbuğ Architects, said, “Our client was the Metropolitan Municipality of İzmir and they didn’t really have a very detailed brief for this site but they rather had a general motivation to strengthen the links between the urban coastline and the inhabitants of the city. As such, these two urban installations, facing each other in the same spot, sustain the general framework defined in the ‘Karşıkıyı’ proposal.”
Given that the site is on the sea coast, all materials must be resistant to the corrosive effects of sea water. As a Mediterranean city, İzmir has a relatively high percentage of sunny days, leaving the thermally-modified ash vulnerable to the ultraviolet sunlight.
It has been almost a year since the bridge and lounge launched and the wood is still performing well.
