S House

Architectural Design and Construction: Büro Simpelt
Lead Architects: Yiğitcan Ülkücü & Nazlı E. Ünsal
Architectural Photographer: Hacer Bozkurt

Located in Istanbul, in a recently developed area, the project is prepared for a couple and their four children. As Büro, we looked for the answers to the following questions for a family that will visit this house once in a while, since they are living abroad, are: “Can we define this place as a” house” if the life inside this space is not regular? How can we define quality in a building complex where the program and capacity are valued more than the quality of the space? For us as Büro, the carefully curated material selection and detailed manufacture of the carpentry work can answer this question and define a new quality for this space. To answer the first question, to provide a “house away from the house “ rather than a hotel room, we tried to create a space where memories can be collected and these mediums to collect memories, in our view, are pictures and books that are gathered through time. And for that reason, visible from the entrance of the house, a corridor that hosts family pictures at different heights is designed, where also a wallboard at the height of a belly is designed to ensure the classic warmth of a country house. The upper level of this wallboard created a principal guideline for the following geometries of the metal doors and carpentry works inside the other rooms.
Büro worked on different contexts for each of the rooms rather than a holistic approach, per the request of the client. In the master bedroom, simple colors in cream tones, boho style in the young girl's room, the galaxy concept in the boy's room, and a design that encourages the interest of painting in the room of two girls aged 9 and 12 were given as a design brief by the employer. Creating a balance amongst the rooms is by the use of continuation of material and geometries, let us create a series of carefully crafted spaces in this house. Visual continuity was tried to be provided with the suspended ceiling work that separates the dining table area and the sitting area in the living room, the longitudinal alignment of this suspended ceiling with the television unit, and the presence of the console that goes along the two sections. The legs of the seats previously purchased by the employer were replaced with metal legs according to the new concept and the amount of color in the space was reduced as much as possible. Thus, a background was obtained in which the user could decorate the interior with different colors of his/her choice over time. As many shelves and surfaces as possible were provided for the books, which is one of the materials that can help in accumulating memories, which is an answer by us to one of the questions of the project text.
In the master bedroom, instead of throwing out the bed, headboard, and wardrobe that the employer bought before, it was desired to keep them and to obtain a stylish and at the same time elegant space with appropriate carpentry works. For this, brass profiles were used to divide and balance large carpentry works horizontally and vertically. A 2m diameter mirror on the make-up table is also divided according to the same principle, providing space for the make-up table. In the design proposal, in which four children were placed in three rooms, different concepts were developed for each of the rooms, according to the wishes of the user, without departing from geometric principles. Considering the galaxy concept desired in the 9-year-old boy's room, curved corner forms in the form of a spaceship capsule were preferred, while the desired "boho" style in the adolescent girl's room was interpreted with appropriate material selections. In the room of two little girls, whose ages are close to each other, a common work desk was set up to further increase their interest in painting, and spaces that all users in the house would love were tried to be created.