The Museum and Biodiversity Center is located on the campus of Hacettepe University in the Beytepe district: this is the western outskirts of Ankara, a key development area for the 5 million city along the highway to Eskisehir. Like any area of new active development, it is under the threat of chaotic urbanization and fragmentation.
In the case of a university campus, this is planned to be avoided. The complex relief of its northeastern half with valleys and "ridges" between them will be preserved, partially turning into a National Botanical Garden, and partially leaving the existing ecosystem. The future garden - and the already built campus - is preceded by the university museum and biodiversity center on the side of the center of Ankara.
The building, placed on a hill, includes the museum itself (exhibition spaces) and a research center (laboratories, scientific collections, offices of employees and management, a conference room). These two parts each received their own entrance - opposite each other on a small "plaza", but in the interior they are connected.
The project itself is based on a series of geometric cells - they correspond to the multiplicity of subsections of the interdisciplinary topic of biodiversity, but are interconnected - as required by the functional program.
The museum halls on the first and second floors are occupied by exhibitions on zoology, medicine and anthropology, while the botanical section is located on the basement, sunk into the slope. In the course of the next stage of construction, it will be connected with the botanical garden and its greenhouses.
