Green Campus
The Lake
The Sabancı University campus has an artificial and a natural lake.
The artificial lake used to be an amorphous pit with depth reaching 7 to 8 meters in places. Instead of filling the pit with excavated soil, it was decided to create an artificial lake. The bottom of the lake was leveled and covered with clay, onto which gravel was placed. Since it would take very long for the pit to fill with rain, stormwater drains of buildings were piped to the lake in addition to treated sewage. This filled the lake very quickly, and the lake served as a reservoir for irrigation water even in the driest seasons. In time, seagulls brought fish eggs to the lake, starting a natural life cycle.
The water in the lake meets the irrigation needs of the campus landscape even during the driest season.
Landscaping
Sabancı University’s campus construction and the landscape project were completed at the same time in 1999. In this project; geographic, architectural, social and cultural characteristics of environment were taken into consideration and also the plant, soil and water properties were evaluated in addition to the location and physical condition of the land. The existing flora on the field was observed and given opportunity for propagation; for the new-planted flora, attention was given to select plants which were suitable to local climate and nature.
Sabancı University planted more than 100.000 trees, flowers, bushes, shrubs, etc. since 1999, including the old protected flora the total number of plants are now more than 170.000. Now, on campus there are 100 natural, 150 new-planted species, and more than 350 sub-species which are important indicators for the variety of species.
Also on campus effort is made for planting unique species with characteristic features. Planting Sakura trees are one of these unique species. Over 1.000 Sakura trees are on our campus which is the richest plantation in our country.