By Ali Halit Diker, NCS
Istanbul (NCS) — For years, the Botter Apartment was straightforward to miss. On İstiklal Avenue — Istanbul’s busiest pedestrian road, the place a classic purple tram rattles previous music retailers, cafes, and boutiques — most individuals by no means seemed up. Above the shopfronts, a sleek Art Nouveau façade, as soon as on the forefront of a metropolis redefining itself, quietly decayed.
The constructing was greater than an ornamental façade. Commissioned by Sultan Abdülhamid II, designed by Italian architect Raimondo D’Aronco, and constructed for the Sultan’s Dutch tailor, Jean Botter, it was one of the constructions that launched Istanbul to fashionable European structure and formed the aesthetic of its wealthier streets.
Over the subsequent century, nonetheless, the condominium modified arms a number of occasions, was uncared for, and slowly pale from view.
Now the Botter Apartment — or Casa Botter — is back. A current restoration has returned it not solely to the road however to public life, reopening as a cultural middle and shared workspace. It’s a reminder to each locals and guests that Istanbul nonetheless has treasures ready to be found, excessive above the bustle of the crowds.
Sultan Abdülhamid II, who oversaw some of the ultimate days of the Ottoman empire from 1876 to 1909, was a person of contradictions. Politically, he’s remembered for his authoritarian rule, however privately, he had a fascination with European artwork, music, and design. He was a fan of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, loved opera and ballet and employed overseas specialists in his court docket.
A sultan, a tailor and an architect
Among these specialists was Jean Botter, the Sultan’s official tailor. While Abdülhamid sourced his fits from Paris, Botter dealt with the exact fittings and alterations in Istanbul. In 1900, the Sultan gifted him a plot of land in Pera — Istanbul’s most cosmopolitan and European-friendly district — to construct a mixed residence and trend home.
To understand it, Abdülhamid turned to his chief palace architect, the Italian Raimondo D’Aronco. Completed in 1901, the Botter Apartment was Istanbul’s first Art Nouveau constructing.
It was distinctive for the daring class of its whiplash curves, delicate floral motifs, and sculpted Medusa-head particulars. The constructing was additionally technologically pioneering. It was the primary steel-framed condominium constructing in Turkey and, after the Pera Palace Hotel, doubtless solely the second within the nation to embrace an elevator — a logo of modernity rising above Istanbul’s crowded streets.
“The story of the Botter Apartment is an abridged history of Istanbul’s modernization,” says journalist Emrah Temizkan. “It was a representative space for a Western lifestyle, confined to the palace circle in its time. Its reopening to the public today, as a cultural center, holds a great parallel to the early Republican idea of democratizing culture and art.”
On the bottom flooring, Botter’s atelier shortly turned a hub of Pera’s social life, internet hosting trend exhibits and fittings for Istanbul’s elite. The higher flooring housed the Botter household. The constructing’s connection to Botter and architect D’Aronco added to its status, says Merve Gedik, architect and initiatives supervisor for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Heritage. “It was a structure born out of art and design.”
On the verge of collapse
The constructing’s glory, nonetheless, was short-lived. After the Balkan Wars and World War I, the cosmopolitan way of life of Pera dwindled. The Botter household bought the condominium in 1917 and moved to Paris. Over the many years, as Turkey emerged as a contemporary republic, the constructing was deserted, its grand façade deteriorating.
“The building was in a very dilapidated state,” Gedik remembers. “There was no glass in the windows, the roof was in a very bad condition, and water damage had rotted the wooden floors. It was on the verge of collapsing.”
Its destiny modified in 2021, when the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality launched a cautious restoration.
The philosophy, Gedik says, was one of minimal intervention, preserving as a lot of the unique texture and element as potential. Layers of paint and plaster had been eliminated to reveal the constructing’s authentic colours. Metalwork was cleaned and conserved fairly than changed, letting the indicators of its century-long weathering stay seen.
The most profound change, nonetheless, was the constructing’s transition from non-public standing image to public cultural beacon.
When the decrease flooring reopened in April 2023 because the Casa Botter Art and Design Center, the constructing discovered itself in sudden demand. Initially, the higher flooring had been earmarked for use as municipal workplaces, however guests had different concepts.
“People showed so much interest during the opening week that we could not use it as an office,” Gedik says. “The structure spontaneously started to gain a new function.” Students, distant staff, and creatives started utilizing the intense, open rooms as a communal workspace and shared workplace house.
“This is very satisfying, as it shows that when an area becomes public, it gains its own usage habits organically. We didn’t force it.”
A residing architectural museum
Visitors to Casa Botter shouldn’t miss the elliptical elevator on the coronary heart of the constructing — a visible reminder of its standing as each an architectural and technological pioneer — its shaft, bounded by ornate ironwork, suits completely into the curve of the constructing’s elegant foremost staircase.
They must also recognize that they’re transferring by means of a residing narrative of Istanbul, from the Ottoman-era fascination with European model to fashionable Turkey’s reclaiming of that legacy for its residents.
The constructing’s restoration has additionally breathed new life into the Pera district. Reborn, it stands as a testomony to a time when the Ottoman Empire started to set up a brand new identification, fusing custom and modernity — a way of model that also lingers in modern-day Istanbul. This period additionally set the stage for Turkey’s First National Architectural Movement, led by figures corresponding to Mimar Kemaleddin and Vedat Tek, as home architects responded to imported influences.
And the Botter Apartment is just one entry level into this wider architectural story. Walking between the districts of Tünel and Taksim, guests encounter an extraordinary combine of structure that displays Istanbul’s late-Ottoman embrace of European design.
There’s the Mısır Apartment, or Misir Apartmanı, which shows delicate Art Nouveau prospers and stands as one of Istanbul’s earliest reinforced-concrete buildings.
Nearby, the Ravouna 1906 Suites affords one other prime instance of Art Nouveau, its designer and inside architect nonetheless immortalized within the carved stone of the façade.
The Çiçek Pasajı, or Flower Passage, has Neorenaissance particulars that recall its origins as a elaborate condominium advanced, whereas the Grand Pera and Azaryan Apartment boast Neoclassical and Neo-Baroque façades constructed for the town’s elite on the flip of the century.
The Casa Botter Art and Design Center is open to the general public on İstiklal Caddesi.
The-NCS-Wire
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