The Ziya Tanalı Initiative consists of individuals who have been influenced by the writings, actions, and expressions of Ziya Tanalı, a great master, teacher, thinker, and writer whom we lost too early. With this aim, it organizes a student competition and seeks to share this accumulation with young people.
The main purpose of the competitions is not only to select and reward "beautiful" or "successful" projects but to encourage students to think about specific topics and issues framed in a way that recalls the assignments Ziya taught us.
In this way, the competition serves as a free, open, and voluntary educational tool. Reflecting on the questions and problems posed in the way Ziya taught us and interpreting them constitute the essence of this effort. The organized colloquia can be considered as a kind of final jury for the projects. In the future, it is aimed to expand these activities beyond the competition, reaching more people with Ziya's accumulation and promoting the encouragement of fine arts.

tower

Transitional spaces appear before us, sometimes as a corridor, sometimes as a stairwell, sometimes as an unshapely courtyard, and sometimes as an out-of-scale lobby. These are some spaces we don’t fully comprehend as we pass between spaces, often overlooked, poorly designed, or even not designed at all, so we don't even consider them to be spaces at all.

When, somewhere in these spaces where the spatial construct is based solely on passing through, we stop for a moment and pause, the perception and construct of the space begin to change with the cessation of movement. Within the uninterrupted flow of daily movement, they become visible only when we pause; just as thought emerges at a moment when the flow stops. Now, that space accompanies you like an empty frame, ready to become whatever you desire.

Going up a staircase or turning in a hallway is not just orientation; it's a spatial narrative, a transformation. Transition isn't just a physical act. Each transition also generates physical, mental, and emotional awareness.

In the words of Bernard Tschumi, "Architecture is the combination of space, event and experience."

Thus, just so we were standing in the middle of a corridor or on the landing of a stairwell, gazing around, participants are invited to design a tower as the subject of this year's competition, to rethink these transitional spaces and to discuss how they are, and can be, approached with a sensitivity that goes beyond fulfilling a single function. The design is expected to handle both the concept of transition and the spatial and sensory distinction between vertical and horizontal movement with intellectual intensity.

Advancing horizontally and ascending vertically are not simply differences in distance or direction, but are entirely different spatial and sensory experiences. Horizontal movement is often associated with a sense of continuity and repetition, while vertical movement is interruption; it is a spatial rupture, a moment of decision, a transformation. For this very reason, the staircase can be seen as the space where the state of transition is most intensely felt.

A tower can be categorically defined as a narrow and tall structure that rises upwards from the ground, but this categorical definition does not convey the unique and distinctive nature of a tower. It would not be incorrect to say that almost the entire visible tower structure serves as a transition space, a means to reach the summit.

In this sense, the tower is, in fact, a journey of ascension to the sky; it is the spatial equivalent of the path between earth and sky.

When describing Zenobia in Invisible Cities, Calvino sees the state of ascension as an indispensable joy for the Zenobians. With its stakes and ladders in the air. Zenobia practically doesn't touch the ground, she seems suspended in midair, like a textile suspended in the sky from the ends of slender stakes. While the city sleeps, towers rise between earth and sky, between dreams and reality.

Sometimes three steps become a tower, sometimes three hundred aren't enough. Becoming a tower is an expression of an attitude, independent of height, of the desire to occupy a place in the skies.

"Sensibilities that lie behind the forms and are silently conveyed... Art is not the structure, but the space; sensibilities are conveyed through the 'place' created by the forms."

Ziya Tanalı

As the subject of this year's competition, the participants are asked to design a tower in a large urban park in their own living environment to be used for observation / viewing of the park area. The tower can be not only a vertical structural element, but also a plane of observation, a change of direction, or even the physical equivalent of an inner journey.

It is desired that the tower design be considered to remain within a volume of 12x12x12 meters.

● The evaluation of the award, which accepts Saint-Exupery's statement "perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away" is guided by the following principles that reflect Ziya Tanalı's architectural understanding:

● Simple, clear, pure

● Humble

● Transmitting sensitivities through objects - as in all art disciplines

● Genuine/self-resembling

● Suitable for the nature of the material

● Responding to human needs, human scale

● Focusing on the essence of things rather than forms

● Spontaneous - always there as if it has always been

● New - imagining the nonexistent from the existing

● Participants are expected to convey their ideas using as little text as possible.
The design concept and the thought behind it should be presented without an additional project report, except for short explanations on the presentation sheet.

● The competition language is English.

The competition is organized by the Tanalı Family in collaboration with the Ziya Tanalı Initiative. The Ziya Tanalı Initiative includes the following individuals, not limited to:

Erhan Akça, Sait Onur Edeş, Ayşe Ece Onur, Alper Gündüz, Ozan Sarıkaya, Oya Kuyumcu, Faruk Şahin, İsben Önen, Babür Ülgüner, Aslı Sarıkaya, Şebnem Özdemir, Taner Aslan, Özlem Önen, Bora Tubay, Zeynep Yağmur, İlhan Kesmez, Gözdem Tubay, Berna Aslan, Zeynep Onur, Ayşen Çerşil, Beyza Çebișli.

The jury members for the 2025 competition are as follows:

Primary Jury Members (in alphabetical order):

Ekin Sakın, Architect

Gabriel Comstock, Architect

Kozan Uzunoğlu, Architect

Sait Onur Edeş, Architect

Teun Spruijt, Architect

Consultant Jury Member:

Kaan Tanalı, PE

Alternate Jury Members:

Nuray Bayraktar, Architect

Alper Gündüz, Architect

Reporters:

Beyza Çebișli, Architect

Ayşen Çerşil, Architect

Zeynep Onur, Architect

Babür Ülgüner, Architect

Undergraduate architecture students currently enrolled in universities in the Republic of Turkey (T.C.) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (K.K.T.C.) who meet the following criteria are eligible to participate:

● Must not be involved in the selection and appointment of jury members and reporters.

● Jury members (advisor, primary, substitute) and their first-degree relatives, partners, assistants, and employees must not be among the participants.

● Should not participate in any part of the jury's work.

● Must not be involved in any process related to the competition within the Ziya Tanalı Initiative and the Tanalı Family, responsible for organizing the competition, including preparation, execution, finalization, and approval.

● Should not be among the advisors acting on behalf of the Ziya Tanalı Initiative and the Tanalı Family, and their employees.

● A participant can submit more than one proposal for the competition.

● Group participation is allowed. In the case of group participation, all group members must meet the above-mentioned conditions.

● Announcement of the competition: September 30, 2025

● Deadline for asking questions: October 24, 2025 (e-mail to: ztodulleri@gmail.com )

● Announcement of answers: October 27, 2025

● Submission deadline: December 22, 2025

Participation is free.

● 1st prize 30.000 TL

● 2nd prize 25.000 TL

● 3rd prize 20.000 TL

The awards have been determined by the Tanalı Family.

Presentation conditions:

● All projects must be arranged horizontally as an A1-sized poster and submitted in JPG or PDF format. Resolution should be 300 DPI or higher, and file size should not exceed 50MB.

● A five-digit code (alias) starting with "zt" (e.g., zt02345) will be placed in the top right corner of the poster.

● Participants should provide brief explanations on the submission sheet with minimal text, covering their general approaches to the area, usage scenarios, understanding of the site, comments, research, and the design strategies they will follow.

● Visuals using tools to express micro and macro-scale design concepts, such as drawings, sketches, diagrams, two and three-dimensional representations.

● Alongside scaled technical drawings, plans, sections, perspectives explaining the design, include three-dimensional visuals and/or model photographs.

● All works must be original, and any materials used as references must be specified.

Submission conditions:

● Submissions for the competition should be sent to the email address ztodulleri@gmail.com by December 22, 2025, at 24:00. Submissions made after this date and time will not be considered.

● Alias (e.g., zt02345) should be written in the subject line of the email.

● The email should contain the A1-sized competition submission sheet in Jpg or Pdf format, the filled-out application form downloaded from www.homageziyatanali.org (Prize, 2025, 10. Documents), and the student ID.

● Alias on the submission sheet, alias on the application form, and alias written in the email subject line must be the same.

● Participants submitting multiple proposals should use different alias for each proposal and submit them in separate emails. Each email must adhere to the specified submission conditions.

● Participants entering as a group should fill out a single application form, attaching the student IDs of all group members.

please also see schema for presentation and submission conditions:

● in english
● in turkish

The competition results will be published on the competition website.

After the announcement of the jury evaluation results, the prize amounts stated above will be paid to the participants within 30 days.

Details regarding the format and date of the colloquium will be announced after the declaration of the competition results.

Competition Brief:

● in english
● in turkish

Application Form:

please fill out the application form below and submit together with A1-sized competition submission sheet in Jpg or Pdf format and student ID via email untill December 22, 2025 at 24:00.

● doc / ● pdf

● please click here for Questions-Answers

The competition results will be published on this website.

27.10.2025

please see the document for Questions-Answers

30.09.2025

zt prize 2025

We wish success to all participants.

Submission deadline: December 22, 2025