ELAZIĞ POST-TRAUMA CENTER

Elazığ Post Trauma Center

This project aims to create a post-trauma center in Elazığ however its concept is only limited to neither earthquake nor the context of Elazığ. After the Elazığ earthquake happened in the winter of 2020, together with the citizen’s lives, the urban fabric was damaged. This traumatic activity brought up a whole new question: How architecture should respond to traumas? Is it possible to create a post-trauma center to restore life in traumatic communities? This particular project aims to restore life around a bazaar axis which is a tool to stitch the so-called crack in the city that was existed before and was damaged after the earthquake of 2020. The bazaar axis connects urban with rural, agriculture with trade, and the local community to newcomers. Since one of the first things that get damaged after an earthquake is business, this project aims to restore the business together with the education and therapy activities. A disaster coordination center welcomes the visitors and local people to the site. After that, there are vertical gardening pods introduced to bring agriculture to the city as well as to create a broad opportunity for education and healthcare as well. While the vertical gardening pods work as part of a production and restoring the business, they can also be flexible to be used as therapy spaces as well as workshops and education spaces. Also, the accommodation units were included in the program as a response to the disaster moment and to create temporary shelter for the local community.