If we consider a day as it is a year, times spent in here are the vacation times. If we consider Taşkışla as our home, the courtyard is the living room, where there’s no responsibility for the time spent there. It’s the place where people break free of the pressure. It’s unique tranquility takes its form from that feeling of relaxation. As I look down at its floor, i can see that it is a place where some people just use for a dirty habit, but for me it’s a different story.

Three different layers create the uniqueness of Ortabahçe, the constants, the trees and the variables, which are the living beings inside it. It is a space outside the roofs of the building, but it is actually in it. There are no borders between the inner and the outer space, it doesn’t matter whether you are under the roof or under the sky, you are in Taşkışla. The windows which create the transparency makes Taşkışla and the courtyard a whole, makes each other reachable with the eyes. Even if the eyes reach the sky, the historical building gets its place in the eyesight, makes me think about it, wonder about the times when it was used for a different purpose. The color of the pool creates a dark reflection, absorbing every color, making a more depressed view of the sky and the building. Now it’s easier to think about past times.

With the comfort of being in the center of a place I consider a home, every state of mind can be reached in here, from the deepest talks to meaningless laughters. After a productive day in the studio, and after being given loads of work for the next studio lesson, a coffee or a nice talk with friends can take the stress away easily, and when this two meets at the courtyard, it forms a matchless relief.

The hour grows late and people slowly left, the courtyard became quiet. Now it is easier to hear the swishing of the leaves, and every little wave I create in the pool. As I take a sip from my coffee and feel the bracing chill from a breeze, I feel comfy like I’m in my home.