Gökhan Avcıoğlu

• Gazhane Istanbul (1995)[2]
• Kadikoy Public Park Facilities İstanbul (1997)[3]
• Esma Sultan (2000)[4]
• Borusan Parkorman Expedition Center Istanbul (2001)[5]
• KUUM Hotel and Residences (2009)[6]
• Exploded House (2003)[7]
• Castle Rock Bodrum (2007)[8]
• Beşiktaş Fish Market (2009)[9]
• Borusan Music and Art House (2009)[10]
• One & Ortaköy (2011)[11]
• SUSONA Bodrum (2011)[12]
• DIVAN Kurucesme (2012)[13]
• TASIGO Eskişehir Spa and Thermal Hotel (2013)[14]
• Serra Gate (2013)[15]
• NewADA Istanbul (2014)[16]
• Mandarin Oriental Hotel and Residences (2014)[17]
• Trump Cadde (2014)[18]
• Swissotel Resort Bodrum Beach (2015)[19]
• AHK Kndu Villas (2016)[20]
• YKAD House Ankara (2016)[21]
• Four Seasons Sales office Bodrum (2019)[22]
• Book Less or More (2022)[23]Book Less or More

The project is located in Kadıköy, İstanbul with its unobtrusive structure sitting in the middle of a natural park surrounded by a bustling, almost chaotic metropolitan atmosphere. The project demonstrates a high level of consideration for both people and the environment. The building's design is based on early Ottoman hammams (public bathhouses), which were often designed as cubic or rectangular masses with a primary dome over the central space. The architect decided to invert the old dome and place it above the cubic structure popping out of the ground. The intention was to make landscaping a key component of the project. The roof, which was the most noticeable piece protruding above ground, was treated as a landscaping feature or a huge planter to fit a bamboo garden.[24] The graphic imposition of the proposal on the existing landscape is provocative, but with good reason. The relandscaping of this modest but essential urban park and public facilities have a lot of potential. The decision to bury the building, on the other hand, has helped the site by allowing green plants to continue above it.[25]

In Istanbul Ortakoy district, Esma Sultan Mansion is a multi-purpose event and exhibition hall located right on the Bosporus Strait. The project uses the concept of transparency to showcase the historic brick shell while creating a contemporary interior space for events, which was built inside the ruins of a 19th century Bosphorus Ottoman yali that was devastated by fire. The design concept centers on placing a glass box behind the remaining façade walls, preserving the building's heritage while adapting it to the needs of Istanbul's modern city. The box, composed of glass walls and stainless steel with reinforced concrete columns, was designed to operate as a vibrant remnant, a functional record of bygone ages with old brick walls, as part of the "building inside a building" construction approach. This first proposal was based on a technical constructive aesthetic, which was accomplished with little adjustments in the finished structure. The bare brick walls face the Bosporus on the outside, a palimpsest on a shoreline previously dotted with these yalıs. The design addresses the issue of maintaining continuity with Istanbul's ancient urban fabric, particularly along the Bosporus, which has a rigorous building code that restricts new development to the rehabilitation of buildings that predate the mid-twentieth century.

Being awarded as 2012 World Luxury Spa Awards "Best Luxury Destination Spa"[26] and 2011 International Hotel Awards "Best Hotel Architecture", The KUUM Hotel Spa & Residences brings an innovative concept for the boutique’s lifestyle of resorts. The regional beauty, resources, and historical Mediterranean legacy inspired the conceptualization of the Hotel. The Kuum is located in Bodrum, an international destination known for its mild climate, turquoise waters, and cosmopolitan atmosphere. The resort's diverse building typologies are organized to satisfy varied programming purposes, resulting in heterogeneous zones. The zones are divided into public and private zones. Another technique to add variety is to use the senses, especially the visual, tactile, and olfactory ones. Material diversity provides visual and tactile richness, as well as a sense of wholeness via difference.

The Exploded House design illustrates classic Aegean vernacular homes with newer techniques and formal advances while maintaining the same attention to interior climate mediation. The project approach is to use passive ventilation based on wide overhangs, natural air circulation, and rainwater as an organic cooling system, whereas vernacular dwellings in Bodrum, use thick natural stone walls to buffer temperatures in the hot Aegean region. The House's angular structure protects it from the sun and serves as a formal synthesis with the asymmetric topography that fits into the rocky clefts of the hillside.[27] The main house's open layout coins that it is light and airy, which is essential in the summer. As an additional precaution, the building's roof is filled with ponds that collect rainwater and act as a heat sump. Water flows from one building's roof to the next, then circulates back around, producing a natural cooling system for the summer months of April to October. This climactic performance is achieved while the architecture is being created in accordance with building code constraints of 75 square meters in a layout where each unit is erected close to one another with a small space connecting them with a glass atrium.[28]

Beşiktaş Fish Market

Beşiktaş Fish Market project, which received Archmarathon Crowd Award 2014[29] and International Architecture Award 2012 by Chicago Athenaeum,[30] offers vibrant open space use for with its wide entrances on each side enabled by the steel and concrete structure without internal columns. Being located in one of Istanbul’s most populated and diverse neighborhoods, Beşiktaş Fish Market Project's main ideology regards to its formal and conceptual organization is to achieve a public and vibrant welcoming appearance,so the surface was permeated along its periphery resulting in a dynamic overwhelming form in concrete that generates programmatic and circulation elements to easily mix and flow.[31] The design is a modern and practical solution for this significant urban location's famous Fish Market, and it has become a proud symbol of the community's efforts to upgrade their market and area. The design that met the programmatic needs of the Fish Market as a retail outlet, but perhaps more importantly realized a modern public space with an innovative approach to form and materials in the traditional fabric of the city, working collaboratively with the primary stakeholders, the municipality, and fishmongers.[32]

Locating at Istanbul’s art and culture center İstiklal Avenue,[33] Borusan Music and Art House hosts music and performance events, the visual arts, annual exhibitions, and other curatorial exhibitions. The project transformed the historic building into a multipurpose cultural center. While the modern box at its core includes a lightweight steel diagrid enabling open and flexible floor plans to facilitate events, the historic core has been restored. The building’s new functions are visible solely at street level vanishing behind the neo-classic façade on the upper floors in an ideology of the limited role modern architecture can offer in this historical urban fabric dominated by Istanbul’s 19th century past. Many artworks are attached to the building with LEDs illuminating the V columns. The project targets at symbolizing İstanbul’s colorful and artistic renaissance in a dualistic tension between past and present by preserving the city’s heritage.[34]

Close-up of the windows of One & Ortaköy

One & Ortaköy is a mixed-use project composed of two buildings and a courtyard adjacent to the Bosporus hillside and the urban surroundings. The courtyard connects the main residential building, which has four connected cylindrical volumes, and to the amorphously shaped smaller student dormitories. Buildings' roofs are designed to be leisure areas as playgrounds. The formation and typology of green roofs create a morphological connection with the existing topography. Another key ecological feature is the rainwater collection system on roofs, which is used to irrigate the gardens and dense plantation areas. The two buildings' façades were totally covered in Ünye stone, a form of yellow-beige limestone from Turkey's northern Anatolia region with a 3-million-year history. This stone, which comes in a variety of colors, is known for its thermal insulation characteristics in construction keeping interior spaces cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Therefore, the major motivation for using Ünye stone in the project is that it covers the various shapes of the building's exterior and that its surface reflects sunlight differently during each of the four seasons of the year, allowing occupants to feel the changing of seasons.[35]

The project lies on a private peninsula surrounded by turquoise water and forest in Torba, Bodrum which is a little seaside village with olive gardens and pine forests around it. The facilities were developed by Gokhan Avcioglu & GAD to reflect the Mediterranean lifestyle. The need for seclusion and the pleasure of being in the area are properly balanced. The concept of water drops with a strong energy center and concentric rings radiating outwards inspired the design. The resort's size and scope are in keeping with Bodrum's historical existence. The buildings have a maximum of two floors and are painted in the distinctive white color of the area. The resort's sleek and contemporary architecture forms are a key feature, signaling the resort's high level of luxury. Timber screens are also used to provide climatic relief as well as a distinctive visual component. A number of layers of buildings structured on tiers cascade down to the water's edge. Lush gardens with a variety of plants and trees may be seen in between the terraces. The programmatic requirements result in the formation of a cell-like structure with a nucleus at its core. The characteristics of the Forum and Agora are also reflected in the design, which combines multiple programs to create a network of public and private spaces.[36]

Divan Kurucesme is located on one of the Bosporus' magnificent coasts and has a great cityscape. The project is critical since it must be in keeping with the city's silhouette, surrenders, and nature. Therefore, restoration efforts concentrated on maintaining the wall and trees that had already been there. With all of these new volumes, the project has also a multipurpose venue, meeting rooms, and topography incorporated into four hotel rooms. Parking and servicing areas are included in the project. Some features of the existing building, such as stone walls and vaults, have been maintained to preserve the social and constructed character. It is aimed that walls and vaults transform into living design structures. The building's roof is supposed to be a fluxion of green surrenders. Simultaneously, the roof captures sunlight through controlled roof windows. Building elements' interior materials are made of sustainable and local materials; for the internal surface of the roof, rough wood panels were used, and natural stone was used for the floors.[37] With the brick walls, arches, and vaults above, the semi-transparent steel and glass canopy accentuates the historical fabric of the Bosporus in an architectural strategy that also provides a dynamic, modern architecture in a spatial sense. This spatial dynamism and historic architectural continuity in materials and forms do not always imply a restoration paradigm for updating the traditional building. Instead, the exposed ruins of prior building foundations and terraces have been combined to provide unique spatial linkages and views up and down the site, within the ancient remains, and, most crucially, from the Bosporus itself.

Various awards holders such as 2012 Highly Recommended Hotel Architecture, International Hotel and Property Awards,[38] 2013 Green GOOD DESIGN Award for Eskisehir Spa & Thermal Hotel project,[39] 2015 WAF shortlisted,[40] 2016 Pool Vision Middle East in the category Tourism and Leisure,[41] the project re-evaluates the city’s quite rich history and former civilizations existed on this land such as Hittites, Phrygia, Alexandria, Rome, Byzantium, Anatolia Seljuk Empire, and Ottoman Empire, and particularly Odunpazarı region that has great tourism assets with its historic texture. The idea was heavily influenced and inspired by the hot spring resources of Eskişehir. For years, the people believed that the hot water had a therapeutic effect and that anyone who sat in it for a time would improve their health; this led to a rise in the amount of attention that local and foreign visitors gave to the region. Because of the increasing growth in tourism potential, there is a demand for superior accommodations for both Turkish and foreign visitors. The project is a contemporary interpretation of the vernacular architecture and historical texture of Odunpazarı. In a hillside pine forest, there is also a hotel, a wedding venue, and guest cottages.[42] Because of its proximity to the geothermal water source, the project site is ideal for a thermal spa. To take advantage of the land's geothermal qualities, the spa, and wellness facility are buried in the ground. The project incorporates sustainable design elements by utilizing wind and solar energy. Geothermal energy is not only employed in spas but also for space heating during the winter months, thanks to a geothermal heat pump system. “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” is a fundamental waste mitigation approach that the property adopts. Cardboard, plastic bottles, glass bottles, steel and aluminum cans, office paper, newspaper, fluorescent light bulbs, cooking oil, toner cartridges, batteries, pallets, and crates are all gathered around the facility.[43]

Serra Gate

For a long time, architects have been focusing on developing new forms through the development of new fabrication techniques. Thanks to affordable 3D printers, almost every designer today has the technical competence of experimenting with the possible designs that these new technologies might bring into the architectural world. Not only did it expand the production limits, making the entire process much faster with -literally- more outputs, but it also gave a solid face to the long-debated digital design methods, allowing them to "stand on their own" and refute the argument that digitization of design will inevitably and solely lead to paper architecture.[44] Serra Gate sculptural design has been placed in various locations including Taksim Square in Istanbul, just in time for Istanbul Design Week.[45] GAD Principal, Gokhan Avcioglu, once mentioned that: “We are delighted that Serra Gate has been featured in Taksim one of the most important squares of Istanbul. Being a ground-breaking structure, Serra Gate will make the residents of Istanbul question how public spaces have been defined by urban interventions.” The Serra Gate's steel form was manufactured using cutting-edge technology and is named after the minimalist sculptor Richard Serra whose work inspired the design. The sinuous curve was created using the software Mathematica and modeled using the latest up-to-date 3D printing techniques.

• GDKP Istanbul (2010)[46]
• Mudanya House Bursa (2012)[47]
• Topkapı Cultural Center Istanbul (2013)[48]
• Kıyı Hotel Branded Villas Residences Bodrum (2015)[49]
• Varvarka Moscow (2016)[50]
• Pınar Academy Logistic İstanbul (2017)[51]
• Tashkent City (2017)[52]
• Rvky (2017)[53]
• Media City Istanbul (2017)[54]
• Folkart Residence Halkapınar Izmir (2018)[55]
• ITU Library Istanbul (2018)[56]
• Science Center Ljubljana (2019)[57]
• Cappadocia Spa Hotel (2020)[58]
• Cappadocia KEPEZ (2020)[59]
• Montenegro (2020)[60]
• Next Generation School / Arnavutkoy (2020)[61]

• Andalus Villa Libia (2007)[62]
• Osmos Tower Kazan (2009)[63]
• Topkapı Park (2014)[64]
• Maslak (2015)[65]
• Mixed Use Project Istanbul (2015)[66]
• GADHouse Los Angeles (2017)[67]
• ITU Library Istanbul (2018)[68]
• CIP Lounge Istanbul (2018)[69]
• Ist Marina / Istanbul (2018)[70]
• China Town New York City (2018)[71]
• Park Avenue New York City (2018)[72]
• Hyde Park Library London (2020)[73]
• TIRANA Municipality Building (2020)[74]
• Balmumcu (2021)[75]
• Cysus (2021)[76]
• BDPT Hungary (2021)[77]