earth-covered domes and brick vaults shape liberation museum of manisa in turkey

brick, earth, and topography shape Liberation Museum of Manisa

In Manisa, western Turkey, the Liberation Museum by Yalin Architectural Design is a memory space shaped by absence, loss, and collective resilience. Developed for the Greater City Municipality of Manisa, the 3,800-square-meter project narrates the local civil resistance movement that emerged independently of central authority between 1918 and 1923, during and after the First World War. The museum is conceived as an experiential landscape, guiding visitors through a spatial narrative of occupation, destruction, liberation, and rebuilding.

Earth-covered domes, brick vaults, and sunken courtyards give the building a grounded, almost geological presence. Instead of standing apart from its context, the museum appears embedded within it, its green roof folding into the surrounding landscape. Brick, used extensively throughout the project, forms thick walls, stepped seating, arched ceilings, and long corridors. The repetition of vaults produces a rhythmic spatial sequence that feels neither ceremonial.

all images by Egemen Karakaya, unless stated otherwise

Yalin Architectural Design shapes lived memory

The museum by the Istanbul-based team at Yalin Architectural Design focuses on Manisa’s lived experience of war, the gradual encroachment of occupation forces, the burning of the city during their retreat, and the long process of reconstruction that followed. This local perspective shapes the curatorial approach of the project, foregrounding the everyday courage of unnamed civilians who risked their lives, families, and futures for the ideal of independence. 

Narrow passages open into larger chambers, while filtered daylight enters through openings. These transitions are meant to mirror emotional shifts from uncertainty and compression to endurance and cautious hope. According to the narrative framework of the project, the exhibition avoids dramatization, instead aiming to sustain a mood in which optimism persists despite destruction, pain, and scarcity.

The architectural shell of the Liberation Museum participates in the storytelling of the exhibition, with its curved roof structures, ribbed brick ceilings, and stepped platforms functioning as spatial metaphors. Visitors move through spaces that feel protective, heavy, and enclosed before encountering openness and light. 

a topographic composition of paths, voids, and planted surfaces | image by Hacer Bozkurt

earth-covered domes and sunken courtyards shape the museum as a landscape

curved retaining walls and planted enclosures carve out contemplative outdoor rooms | image by Hacer Bozkurt

a framed opening reveals the vaulted interior

ribbed brick arches form a continuous structural rhythm

light enters from above

a curved brick ceiling compresses the space before opening toward planted courtyards beyond

low openings connect enclosed rooms to open-air garden pockets

filtered light descends through vertical elements

a narrow brick passage compresses the body | image by Hacer Bozkurt

daylight enters through a faceted opening | image by Hacer Bozkurt

1/5

a linear vaulted passage guides visitors through alternating zones of shadow and daylight

narrow apertures admit controlled light

a planted courtyard appears between thick masonry walls

the arched brick ceiling forms a protective shell over the exhibition route

openings between spaces preserve visual continuity

project info:

name: Liberation Museum of Manisa

architecture: Yalin Architectural Design | @yalin_mimarlik

location: Manisa, Turkey

client: Greater City Municipality of Manisa

construction area: 3,800 square meters

project team: Ömer Selçuk Baz, Okan Bal, Ece Özdür, Atakan Koca, Merve Çakırgöz, Irmak Okumuş, İbrahim Zeytinci, Aslı Tusavul, Eda Gürhan, Enver Yiğit Doğan

landscape design: Arzu Nuhoğlu, Belma Hekim, Gizem Türker

structural project: Ömür Özger, Orhan Mete Işıkoğlu

electrical, mechanical & infrastructure: Piramit Mühendislik

technical specifications: Engin Kömürcü, Heval Zeliha Yüksel

fire consultancy: ETHOS Yangın Danışmanlık

exhibition & graphic design: Deniz Yıldırım, Erbil Algan

curatorial content: Heval Zeliha Yüksel, Yalın Mimarlık

photographers: Egemen Karakaya | @egemenkarakaya, Hacer Bozkurt | @studio_hcrbzkrt