Competition · Heritage
Dereiçi Open-Air Museum
- [ Location ]
- Mardin, Türkiye
- [ Year ]
- 2025
- [ Area ]
- 9 ha
- [ TURA role ]
- Masterplan, heritage strategy, visitor centre
- [ Status ]
- Competition entry
- [ Client ]
- International competition
01 / 03Visitor centre in Dereiçi: ground-floor plan with lobby, expo, café, conference hall and the amphitheatre courtyard
An abandoned village in Mardin becomes an open-air museum – a palimpsest of memory.
Traces of Syriac Christians and Muslims, of different eras and languages, remain side by side – without restoration or reconstruction of what was lost.
[ Scope of work ]
- Masterplan and visitor routes
- Visitor centre: plans and sections
- 01
Visitor Centre
Slow tourism supports cultural awareness and the revival of the local economy. A circular building is the way in: an exhibition on local history, with stories of former residents’ descendants, a café, a conference hall and a bookstore.
- 02
The wall of languages
A circular perforated wall carries inscriptions in the languages once spoken here. As visitors walk through, the layers overlap and shift from the contemporary to the oldest.
- 03
Three paths
Stone – linear history told through architecture and writing. Water – agriculture, gardens, vineyards and cyclical time. Light – faith, inner experience and the sacred. Each path links the key places of the village and its site-specific installations.
- 04
Key places
The Square of the Three Churches for performances; an archaeological park with paths through and above the ruins; a market square with a crafts centre.
- 05
What comes next
The market square can become a platform for local producers, and the crafts centre with the houses around it – an art residency.
A similar site or task? Tell us what you have – we will reply with the first steps.