GTU Students Place Second in DASK Competition

The GTU Marvitae Team achieves second place in the "DASK Earthquake-Resistant Building Design Competition," which they participate in for the first time.

Aiming to raise awareness about earthquakes among future architects and civil engineers, the "DASK Earthquake-Resistant Building Design Competition," organized by the Natural Disaster Insurance Institution (DASK), awarded its winners for the seventh time this year. Hosted by Hasan Kalyoncu University with the participation of the Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek, Gebze Technical University received the second-place award. The first-place award went to Altınbaş University, while the third-place award was given to Istanbul Technical University.

Taking place at Hasan Kalyoncu University in Gaziantep and lasting for four days, the Earthquake-Resistant Building Design Competition, aimed at architecture and civil engineering students from universities across Turkey, saw 24 teams pass the preliminary rounds. In the final stage, these teams presented their designs in the form of building models to the jury members. The building models were evaluated by subjecting them to earthquake simulations on a shaking table. Models that withstood the earthquake test without collapsing were further assessed based on economic and aesthetic criteria.

The team, participating for the first time under the name "Marvitae," a clip-blend of "Maraş," referring to Kahramanmaraş, and "vitae", the Latin word for "life," competed with their project also titled Marvitae, which is a 29-story hotel project incorporating greenhouses and gardens contributing to ecological balance.

The GTU Marvitae Team, which secured the second place in the competition, consisted of students from the GTU Faculty of Engineering's Department of Civil Engineering: Emir Can Kaman, Ayşenur Selvi, Aziz Yılmaz, and from the GTU Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture: Şule Camadan and Hatice Taçyıldız, under the advisorship of Associate Professor Dr. Onur Şeker from the GTU Faculty of Engineering's Department of Civil Engineering.

We congratulate our students and wish them continued success.