Located beneath the Söğütlüçeşme Railway viaduct on Istanbul’s Anatolian side, Terminal Kadıköy transforms a residual infrastructural corridor into a civic and cultural destination.
Designed by TA_ Tabanlioglu Architects, the project rethinks one of the city’s busiest transfer points as an accessible public environment that combines food, culture, recreation, and mobility within a modular architectural framework.
The intervention is positioned within Kadıköy, a district historically associated with waterfront recreation, multicultural urban life, and civic gathering spaces. Over time, infrastructure expansion and traffic-oriented planning fragmented these public areas and weakened pedestrian continuity.
Terminal Kadıköy addresses this condition through an urban-acupuncture strategy that reconnects transport infrastructure with public life while activating underused land beneath the railway viaduct.
Modular infrastructure as urban framework
Rather than treating the viaduct as a barrier, the project reinterprets it as an active urban spine. A lightweight industrial steel scaffolding system supports a series of one- and two-story modular volumes distributed beneath and alongside the railway structure. These adaptable units accommodate restaurants, retail, cultural venues, food kiosks, galleries, and public gathering areas.
The modular strategy minimizes permanent intervention on the site while allowing flexibility in scale and use. Spatial layouts respond directly to existing trees and circulation patterns, preserving green assets and improving pedestrian movement through the area. The project includes approximately 27,700 m² of built area containing 19 restaurants, 27 street-food kiosks, 24 retail units, and a 2,500-capacity performance venue.
The food hall forms the project’s central circulation axis, extending from the station toward the open-air market beneath the viaduct. Twenty-four kiosks representing cuisines from seven continents are supported by a centralized production kitchen operated in collaboration with MSA Culinary School. Narrow pedestrian passages, open plazas, and varying ceiling heights reference Kadıköy’s dense street markets while creating a porous urban environment connected to surrounding neighborhoods.
Landscape and microclimatic strategies
Landscape design plays a significant role in reducing the environmental impact of the project. Native planting, endemic species, wildflower meadows, and permeable ground surfaces are integrated throughout the site to mitigate urban heat-island effects and improve outdoor thermal comfort.
The project prioritizes shaded circulation routes, seating clusters, bicycle movement, and open public plazas to encourage longer occupancy and reduce dependence on mechanically conditioned environments. According to the project team, these passive cooling strategies contribute to lowering ambient summer temperatures by approximately 2–3°C within the site.
The preservation of existing trees informed the placement and geometry of the modular units. Rather than clearing the site for a conventional construction footprint, the project uses a distributed layout that works around landscape conditions while maintaining permeability and visual openness beneath the viaduct.
Flexible cultural infrastructure
Paribu Art Center anchors the project’s cultural program. Designed as a black-box performance venue with a total capacity of 2,500 visitors, including 632 retractable seats, the structure accommodates theatre productions, concerts, exhibitions, and civic gatherings.
The venue is directly connected to the food hall and opens toward a landscaped forecourt, enabling indoor-outdoor continuity and supporting both large-scale events and everyday public use. An integrated LED façade transforms the building into a digital urban interface capable of hosting projections, public media, and cultural programming.
The viaduct itself is also conceived as a programmable surface for visual art, graffiti, and public installations, reinforcing Kadıköy’s established street culture and supporting future collaborations with local artists.
Low-impact construction
Sustainability is embedded primarily through modular construction, reversible assembly methods, and adaptive reuse principles. The project avoids large-scale concrete intervention in favor of lightweight steel systems that can be dismantled, relocated, or reconfigured over time.
According to the project information, the modular construction approach reduces construction waste by up to 70 percent compared to conventional concrete construction. Standardized structural components simplify maintenance and future replacement while extending the lifespan of the overall system.
The modular units are designed as flexible shells capable of accommodating changing uses over time. Restaurants, studios, galleries, retail spaces, and cultural programs can be reorganized within the same structural framework without requiring major demolition or reconstruction. This adaptability supports the long-term usability of the project while reducing embodied carbon associated with future renovations.
Operational energy demand is also addressed through passive environmental strategies, natural ventilation, high-performance acoustic panels, and energy-efficient lighting systems integrated within the performance venue. The project team estimates that these measures reduce operational energy consumption by approximately 40 percent compared to conventional venue typologies.
Reclaiming public space beneath infrastructure
Terminal Kadıköy proposes an alternative approach to infrastructure-led urbanization by converting underused transit space into a civic landscape that supports both everyday use and large public events. Direct connections to Söğütlüçeşme Station, Kadıköy Pier, nearby parks, and the Fenerbahçe Stadium strengthen pedestrian continuity while reducing the separation historically caused by transport infrastructure.
Designed for commuters, residents, students, artists, and football supporters, the project prioritizes accessibility, intuitive circulation, and flexible occupation throughout the day and night.
