An Apartment in Beyoğlu

A quote from episode 27 of the programme MİM, broadcast on TRT2:

“Nevzat Sayın: The work you do so meticulously feels like restoring the dignity of buildings like these. How did this come about?

Selda Baltacı: I found it so enjoyable to play inside an existing building. When the plaster comes off, there’s brick underneath; you lift the boards and you see something. I really liked that. Maybe because buildings aren’t made that way anymore, it interests everyone. A lot of people love these things.”

Every effort in this project matches this quote completely. Even though the building is a later rooftop addition, the project is simply about restoring the dignity of the “things” revealed as the plaster and additions were removed. Everything is in plain sight, while of course meeting the needs of the new occupant…

In this project, where we took on both the design and the construction, we fundamentally questioned the widely accepted ideas about “home” that we find problematic, and made it our core principle to use every “thing” as it is, with nothing hidden, as “itself”. Everything with its own potential, its own reality…

We think it is a good example that reminds us once again how important it is for designing and making to be intertwined…