Interior & Architecture
2020 – Istanbul, Turkey
1500 m2
Fotoğraf- Sinan Çırak
Strada is conceived as a spatial framework capable of responding to the shifting rhythms of the day. Operating from breakfast through late evening, the project negotiates multiple modes of occupation within a single architectural identity, allowing atmosphere, light and intensity to evolve without fragmenting the overall experience.
Warmth, ease and energy informed the initial brief, yet these qualities are articulated spatially rather than decoratively. Proportion, materiality, light and landscape become the primary instruments through which the interior is defined. An existing wall punctuated by a sequence of niches was retained and absorbed into the new intervention, preserving a trace of the site’s previous condition while establishing a point of departure for subsequent architectural layers.
The expansive garden is approached through a strategy of fragmentation and scale. Rather than reading as a singular, undefined volume, it is articulated as a sequence of more intimate territories for gathering. Wrought-iron furniture, stone paving, climbing vegetation and an earthy material palette soften the scale of the exterior, creating the impression of an urban courtyard that has evolved organically over time.
Within the interior, architecture, art and lighting operate as a continuous composition. Elements are not introduced as isolated decorative gestures, but as components of a broader spatial narrative. The staircase becomes one of the project’s defining architectural moments: through its geometry, material expression and integrated lighting, a functional transition between levels is transformed into a sculptural intervention.
Strada deliberately resists a singular stylistic reading. Its identity is instead constructed through contrasts — openness and intimacy, familiarity and abstraction, daylight and the more concentrated atmosphere of evening.
As the space transitions throughout the day, its architecture remains constant while its perception changes. Familiar references are reinterpreted through a contemporary vocabulary, creating an interior that is not fixed at the moment of completion, but designed to accumulate character, memory and traces of use over time.
