HAVVADA: A new land and a vision commissioned by turkish developer Serdar Inan A century after the Republic of Turkey was proclaimed; Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan presents the Canal Istanbul project and offers to re-visit the map of the city. One billion cubic meter of soil may be carved out of the main land in order to create the canal. Turkish developer, Mister Serdar Inan, proposes to reconstitute the soil to create an island off the shore of Istanbul and a home for a new community. Mister Inan commissions New York based designer Dror Benshetrit to draw his vision for the project; one that blends innovative design ideas, state of the art technology and cultural legacy with inspirations from the work of chief Ottoman architect Mimar Sinan. Like the Nurai Island in 2008, this project came to Dror as the most-unexpected chance to investigate the idea of the living environment at a scale his mind had never touched before. Dror chose to look at the intimidating project as an opportunity to think about urban design and the life of a community. He spearheaded a reflection group to explore ideas. The team of experts included the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Buro Happold, Shoji Sadao from Fuller, Sadao & Zung Architects. Six months of rich interdisciplinary dialogs have allowed him to draw a radical urban design vision that aims to make the island a home for a new community with the highest quality of life and a positive environmental impact. Dror's vision for HavvAda is one that raises question rather than one that intends to bring answers. The vision unveiled in Istanbul on September 29, results from Dror's fascination for structure and spatial geometry. With HavvAda, he stretches physics principals that he has long investigated such as the Quadror geometry. He offers to revisit concepts and ideas for urban environment, such as urban design theories, including the Garden City by Ebenezer Howard and studies of Buckminster Fuller's legacy in structural engineering. Today, Dror has drawn a landscape that will keep adapting to the dynamics of the site. A green island made of 6 hills of different sizes circling the downtown center of the land. Each hill up rises on top of a mega structural sphere that supports the residences on the hillsides and a community life at the center. The diameter of the island is 3 km long with a 1 km diameter valley in the center. Each hill is drawn as a mega-dome structure inspired by engineering and structural principals studied and implemented in architecture since ancient times and further developed as a geodesic dome in the last century by Buckminster Fuller. The design proposed for most of the island relies on compression and tensional integrity; it maximizes the material utilized to build the structure and infra-structure of the island. The urban planning optimizes the slopes of the hills and their panoramic view on each side for greater residential areas. Traditionally, communities have built their residential areas around the center of the town where political decisions or trade was made, and spiritual and religious temples were built—the community would grow around those centers with extended skirts of residence buildings and neighborhoods. The center valley of the island offers ideal space and planning for parks and recreation centers. Some of the buildings are covered with green living-roof. They fade in the natural environment in an organic way, while contributing to the constant energy recycling of the island. More information on http://www.studiodror.com/html/work/architecture/dror-for-hava/