We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Inan Gökçek about their original and creative Turkish Restaurant and Bar design work. Inan Gökçek is an award-winning architectural designer, that makes our world a better place with their original turkish restaurant and bar works.
Inan Gökçek ("IG") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Hattusa Turkish Restaurant and Bar. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
IG : The ancient Anatolian civilisation called The Hittites
IG : The priority was to create a good quality space that the client needed. But I wanted to do it with telling a story about The Hittites.
IG : I would like to use it as a tool to reach to the people who would have different stories in their mind and want to reflect it to their spaces.
IG : 4-6 weeks to conceptualise and detail it. Sourcing materials and hand made objects added another 3 weeks to this.
IG : I lead the client to look at the deeper roots of Turkey and Anatolia and reflect it to the interior.
IG : It is a site specific product but I am happy to work on variation of this in different sites.
IG : It was right for the nature of the business which is a Turkish Restaurant
IG : Anatolian crafts people were my main inspiration.
IG : The project Hattusa aimed the locals first. Thanks to its commercial success, the 4th branch has just been opened in Kent, United Kingdom.
IG : Unlike the most commonly known Turkish elements today, Hattusa brings the deeper cultural and historical aspects of Turkey but it also present them within a contemporary context.
IG : Hattusa was the name of the capital of The Hittites.
IG : Sketches, scaled drawings, 3D model and lots of reading and researching.
IG : The salvaged hand carved ceiling piece that I found in a second hand shop in Turkey.
IG : The client, Sefa Karatay, was a big supporter of the design but also Guy Valentine, who carved the war scenes on walls, is a great talent who made this possible.
IG : If we are talking about modern day technology, CNC-Laser cutting added an amazing, contemporary element to the interior: I designed panels, shelves, frames and dividers based on a Hittite pattern which created a great contrast to the wooden, hand made objects. Other than CNC, all the objects were handmade, including the cross shape seat and of course the clay walls. In the end, both "technological" and handmade parts were in an unusual harmony and created a sophisticated, enjoyable environment.
IG : Yes, it involved lots of reading about The Hittites which included search of visual material both in digital and analogue ways. I even visited ancient site of Hattusa!
IG : As in each design project that you try something which wasn't made before, there were challenges with attaching the old and new parts together and finally installing at the site. However, the most challenging part was the carved walls; how can you create an effect which was made 4000 years ago? Carving on rocks (cuneiform) was almost the only way to communicate in Hittite times and as they left amazing script and symbols on the rocks in Hattusa, which we wanted to reflect on the walls. We first tried to carve on basic plaster which didn`t give us the right firmness to do that. I also thought about a CNC cutting/carving method but concluded that it would look too fabricated and therefore the end result would be very artificial. Then we discovered raw clay plasters which differ from many other plasters because they do not contain any lime, gypsum or synthetics. Unlike lime-based plasters for example, pure earthen plasters do not go through a chemical reaction as they naturally air dry. Consequently, they not only retain their intriguing tonal patina, but their extraordinary textures, sculptures and sharp definitions. We first worked on a sample board with Clayworks Ltd and the very satisfactory result led us to apply it to all walls which were about 40m2. We used projectors to reflect very high resolution images of the historical war scenes and eventually carved the figures.
IG : Always wanted to take part in A Design Award and Hattusa was the best reason I had so far.
IG : A lot learned at the site from those challenges I explained earlier, but curating new and old together was the most enjoyable experience which I would like to explore more, in different sites and context.
IG : It was great when the customers started using the space and asking questions about the carvings and signs. They were amazed by The Hittites and hopefully they looked at further!
