Step by Step to Güzelbahçe Campus

We will mark a historic start by building our new campus in Güzelbahçe, with the aim of providing Izmir with a world-class, environmentally friendly and state-of-the-art education base. We continue our work with the excitement and pride of completing one of the most modern education areas in the country, by completing new campus, where technologies to generate electricity from renewable sources will be used, buildings with optimized energy performance will be located, and transportation will be made by carbon emission-free vehicles.

Izmir Chamber of Commerce (IZTO) Education and Health Foundation, which is the founder of our University, which is among the leading higher education institutions in Turkey with approximately 11 thousand students, 23 thousand graduates and more than 900 academics, took action in October 2021 for the campus in Güzelbahçe. Aiming to realize an environmentalist, sustainable, innovative, economical and modern education base, IZTO Foundation decided to determine the design of the new campus through a national, one-stage competition.

SELECTED AMONG 52 PROJECTS

The first announcement of the competition was made on March 10, 2022, following a meticulous work to establish the terms of the competition and the jury. Applications continued until June 7. 52 projects across Turkey were evaluated in three stages by the 19-person jury. As a result of the opinions of the experts, the project led by Architect Kerim Miskavi, and M.Sc. Architect Elif Sarpaşar, M.Sc. Architect, Urban Planner Sabriye Derya Yüce, and Landscape Architect Cansu Güreser won the first prize. The project, prepared by a team of 14 people, received great acclaim. We held the award ceremony of Güzelbahçe Campus Architectural Project Competition on July 1, 2022 at Fuar Izmir. At the ceremony, a total of 9 projects were awarded, together with the first selected work, and we exhibited these projects prepared for our campus in detail.

STEP TO DIFFERENTIATION

Mahmut Özgener, Chair of IZTO Education and Health Foundation Executive Board and President of IUE Board of Trustees, said, “We are very close to the realization of an important project that we have dreamed of for a long time, which will bring a different vision to our university and which I believe will provide invaluable gains to our city and country. On the first day we took office at the University, which I see as the home of hope and trust, which was entrusted to us, we talked about a new vision and stated that we needed to differentiate when we consider the point of university education in our country. With this project, we realize the most important beginning of our understanding of differentiation.”

YOUTH LOOKING TO THE FUTURE WITH HOPE

Saying that “We are working for our university to have a more effective structure that can feed and support all the goals we want to realize for Izmir,” President Mahmut Özgener continued as follows: “With the realization of our new campus project, which is of great importance for our city and country and our future, we will fulfill our responsibility to future generations and leave them a beautiful gift together. The architectural project of the new campus was organized by IZTO Foundation as a national, one-stage and freelance architectural project competition. The highly valued jury members consisting of 19 people who are experts in their fields, made their choice among projects that adopt a modern, environmentalist, sustainable and state-of-the-art architectural approach. The prominent criteria when evaluating the design of the new campus were corporate identity, environmental sustainability, use of open spaces, accessibility and walkability, city-campus relationship, providing a sense of belonging and learning environment. On our new campus, we will raise young people who have the qualifications this country needs, who take science and reason as their reference, who have high self-confidence and who look to the future with hope.”

IT WILL START A NEW ERA

Noting that the project will start a new era for the University, the Rector, Prof. Dr. Murat Aşkar said, “Universities are institutions where existing information is assimilated, analyzed, new information is produced, and which aims to increase the socio-economic and technological level of society. The educational environment in universities is lively and living spaces that are active 24/7. Universities have to include new technologies, new socio-economic and cultural developments in their programs. In this case, new space needs are inevitable. Universities must be structures that grow and transform over time. As a university, we act with this vision and thought, and we attach great importance to the campus project in Güzelbahçe.”