Gölcük Shipyard Özdemir Bayraktar Mosque — Turnkey Project in Progress

A mosque’s fate is settled at foundation level. The membrane laid under the raft, the alignment of the column starter bars, the cover to the reinforcement — these are decisions that cannot be corrected later. On this project in Gölcük we began with excavation, blinding concrete and tanked waterproofing.

The fact that the site sits inside a working shipyard shapes the planning directly. Cranes and concrete pumps can enter only at set hours, the laydown area is limited, and safety rules have to align with the traffic outside the building. The sequence of works was therefore built around the shipyard’s own routine.

Three things that matter in a raft foundation

In buildings with a dome and minarets, the foundation carries loads that concentrate at single points and spreads them out. The headings that stood out on this project were these:

• Tanked waterproofing — the membrane wraps continuously from beneath the raft up the sides; there is no chance of an external repair later.
• Column starter bars — the alignment of the starters for the minaret and the main frame sets the whole geometry above; there is no tolerance for drift.
• Cover — on a site close to the sea, the thickness of cover to the reinforcement bears directly on the service life of the structure.

A site inside a working facility

On a site set up while the shipyard is operating, the programme depends less on your own trades than on the rhythm around you. Pump position, crane slew and material deliveries for each pour are planned in writing beforehand and coordinated with the relevant department. On sites like this there is no room to say “we’ll sort it out later”.