Black and white axonometric drawing of a long timber pier on stilts reaching from a sandy beach into a dark sea, with open frame pavilions along it, people swimming, sunbathing and gathering on the deck, and kitesurfers and windsurfers on the water

Competition Project

Beginning, Living, Ending

Year: June 2024
Classification: Competition Project
Status: Competition entry
Location: Güzelyalı, Çanakkale, Türkiye
Team: Gökalp Kalfa
Sertaç Erbilgin (opens in a new tab)
Zehra Çelik (opens in a new tab)
Organizer: ZT Awards, The Ziya Tanalı Initiative
Recognition: First Prize, 2024

beginning.

The coast has become idle and lonely. Today, shore in Çanakkale, Güzelyalı looks lonelier than ever. It is no longer possible to swim in the sea with pleasure, and there are no surfers catching perfect waves around. The shore is dysfunctional, materials are abandoned, and people have moved away. It all started with a call for help from the shoreline.

living.

Life begins again on the shore the moment the first step is taken. In fact, nothing has changed on the coast, all the materials are the same; timber, sand, sea. But now it has a different life, the place is the same but has a soul. Children are building sandcastles, couples are strolling, the sea is full of surfers and swimmers. People now have a reason to use this beach, to live again.

ending.

Nature took back what was already its own. The shore became lonely again. There was only one lighthouse left, the rest was under water. The tower in the sea illuminated the path of those who came to it throughout its life. What remained under the water gave life to millions of sea creatures. No material was idle, it was just waiting for its turn.

Beginning

01 / 03

An empty, littered beach at Güzelyalı with a girl standing on dark sand, a torn flag and abandoned boats, and the rotten timber posts of an old pier running into the sea. — 01The idle shore today.

Black and white axonometric of the dark sea and the light beach, with only rows of old pier posts standing in the water and a few scattered swimmers. — 022024: the old pier posts left in the water.

Section of the bare pier posts standing in the sea, with a close-up frame above and the full length of the posts along the shoreline below. — 03Idle: only the posts remain.

Living

01 / 03

The beach brought back to life, with children building sandcastles, surfers carrying boards, kitesurfers on the water, a timber welcome frame with surfboards and the new pier with its tower in the distance. — 01Life returns to the shore.

Axonometric of the new timber pier built on the old posts, with pavilions and a tower at its end, beach huts on the sand, and swimmers, sailboats and kitesurfers around it. — 022030: the pier rebuilt from the same timber.

Section of the pier tower full of people, a swimmer diving from the deck, cyclists and walkers on the pier, and the whole pier with its pavilions drawn along the shoreline below. — 03Vivacious: the tower and pier in use.

Ending

01 / 03

A family and their dog rowing a small boat on open water, with only the pier tower standing out of the sea behind them and boats and buoys around. — 01Only the tower remains above the water.

Axonometric of the sea after the water has risen, the pier submerged as a reef and only the tower at its end above the surface, with boats passing. — 022100: the pier under water as a reef.

Section of the tower standing above the risen sea with the pier below covered in coral and sea life, and the submerged pier drawn along the shoreline below. — 03Stoic: the tower as a lighthouse, the pier as a home for sea life.