T
PROJE BOĞAZ YÖNÜNDEN BIR RIHTIM ETKISI YARATIYOR.
THE BUILDING RESEMBLES A QUAY WHEN VIEWED FROM THE BOSPHORUS.
he new wing to the Istanbul Naval Museum,
2013, designed by Istanbul’s Teğet Architecture
opened last October as one of the few modern
structures directly on the shores of the Bosphorus
in the Beşiktaş district. The project specifically
designed for the historic Ottoman boats collection of
the museum was the winner of a national competition
in Turkey that attracted the leading names in the field.
Following the competition in 2005, Teğet’s partners
Ertuğ Uçar and Mehmet Kütükçüoğlu focused on the
technical aspects of the building and also prepared the
restoration project for the existing historic building that
is still in-progress. When the restoration of the historic
building is completed in 2014, the two buildings will be
connected through a glass bridge for a seamless museum
experience. This relation between the old and new
architecture is also reflected in the traditional versus
contemporary understanding of museumship seen in the
exhibition design.
The existing museum building was built between 1947
and 1950 for the Beşiktaş Treasury but re-assigned to
be the Naval Museum in 1961. Set in a major urban
plaza where the city meets the sea the urban character
of the building is achieved through the extensive use
of stone cladding and paving with the ground floor
of the historic building clad in marble while pink
colored dense limestone is used for the upper floors.
As a complementary gesture, the new extension clad
in Turkish “rainbow sandstone” is used as one of the
major building materials especially on the intermediary
surfaces where the new building meets the old. The
smooth texture and color of the rainbow stone in
the new construction contrasts with the rough and
monochromatic stone surfaces of the old building.
These material contrasts are part of the well-planned
relations between old and new that is a reflection of the
architectural team’s strategy to balance the social and
urban dynamics of the program and urban context.
Teğet Architecture is an Istanbul based architecture firm
working to create architectural and urban design projects
in various scales. Their designs could be considered
as a continuation of modernism in Turkey as a type of
late modernism due to their structural and material
honesty, strength of architectonic expression with a
concern for the public and social role of architecture
yet with an eye to international architectural trends.
Internationally Teğet Mimarlık has been honored with
awards such as the Archdaily Building of the Year: Best
Education Building (2009) and XII. National Architecture
Exhibition and Awards (2010) for their Yapı Kredi Bank
Academy, Istanbul, design. The also have won first prize
at numerous competitions including the Bandırma
Cin Çukuru City Center Project Competition (1996);
Istanbul Naval Museum (2005), Istanbul Bar Association
Building Competition (2008) and the Izmir Opera House
Competition (2010).
The history of this project starts with the existing
building. The Istanbul Naval Museum is the first museum
designed specially for a historic collection in Turkey
OCAK - ŞUBAT 2014 / JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2014 • NATURA 73