Gokhan Avcioglu, GAD

For GAD – Global Architecture Development – Istanbul offers the perfect backdrop – a complex context that challenges modern interventions while still providing enough room for investigation. “Istanbul is not like Dubai,” the firm’s principal and founder Gokhan Avcioglu describes. “You can’t alway design new buildings.” GAD (Global Architecture Development) works on a wide range of international projects – in different scales – to bring forward new concepts that address media, contemporary culture and technology. In doing so, they also pay close attention to longevity and userability. With offices in Bodrum, Kazan, Kiev and New York, the same balance of old and new translates through the firm’s approach – modeling in both digital and physical formats. “Architecture is not only architect’s business,” Avcioglu confesses. For him, the practice of developing new cultural centres, residential towers and urban master plans requires a strong understanding of history and human interactivity. Most recently, GAD designed Rixos Eskisehir Spa and Thermal Hotel, Trump Cadde shopping centre and ÌSTNY – a new multi-use complex re-employing lost space at a major Istanbul intersection. Avcioglu and GAD’s holistic approach is best captured at the GAD Lab – the firm’s research department, exploring architecture’s cultural implication.