No champion in mosque project competition

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

AA Photo

An architecture competition organized to help bring a new mosque project to life on Istanbul’s Çamlıca Hill has come to an end without revealing a grand prize winner.

According to a written statement issued by the Environment and Urban Planning Ministry, 62 projects were entered in the competition titled “Çamlıca searches the architect behind its new silhouette.”
The projects were reviewed by a jury comprised of seven people and headed by Site Planning Director General Mehmet Ali Kahraman.

After the last review meeting held this month, the winners of the competition were to be announced. However none of the projects were awarded the 300,000 Turkish Liras first prize. Two projects, on the other hand, were awarded second prize. The developers of these two projects received a total of 225,000 liras in monetary reward. Five other entries also received honorable mention, each being rewarded 25,000 liras.

Istanbul’s Association for Constructing and Maintaining Mosques and Educational-Cultural Service Units is going to determine which mosque project will be implemented.

It has also been decided to build a television and view tower on Çamlıca Hill in order to remove the transmitters that have caused visual pollution in the area. Another competition was organized in 2011 to find an appropriate tower design. In this competition, a 340-meter high tower compliant with Istanbul’s silhouette will be designed for the hill.

A 15,000 square-meter mosque will be built on a tract of land in Istanbul’s Çamlıca district, and will be visible from all parts of the city, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced in May.

“We are going to build a mosque over 15,000 meters square next to the broadcasting tower in Çamlıca. The planning work is nearing completion. I believe the bulldozers will begin working within two months. This giant mosque in Çamlıca was designed so as to be visible from all parts of Istanbul,” Erdoğan said late May 29, while speaking at the opening ceremony.