Backstage With Seyhan Ozdemir and Sefer Caglar - Creating a New Look for Modern Istanbul

Posted on July 17, 2008 
Filed Under fashion news

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The young century has been good to Istanbul. Turkey has become a more prosperous place, and its largest city has turned into an international style capital.

The city’s changing fortunes are embodied in the hip young design duo Seyhan Ozdemir and Sefer Caglar, who founded their firm, Autoban, in 2003 (the invented word comes from the Turkish “otoban” and the German “autobahn,” both meaning highway). In the past few years, they have become the face of contemporary Turkish design, with regular appearances in leading interior-design magazines.

Both Istanbul natives, Ms. Ozdemir, 33 years old, an architect, and Mr. Caglar, 34, who studied interior design, met in the 1990s when they were students at Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. They are noted for their furniture and lighting designs, and for the interiors of some of Istanbul’s hottest restaurants and retailers. An Autoban design is marked by sleekness, solidity and humor. The Bergere bed, from 2007, has a wood-and-leather headboard that suggests an armchair. A 2003 wooden rocking chair — with continuous arms and legs – has a spaciousness that belies the clean lines of the design.

Ms. Ozdemir and Mr. Caglar have their studio in the shadow of the Galata Tower, the 14th-century landmark just north of the Golden Horn. Built by Genoese traders, the tower was for centuries the center of Istanbul’s enclave of Western diplomats, merchants and adventure-seekers. These days, the Galata Tower is a symbol of the city’s rapid gentrification, and the surrounding area is a blur of old and new, with traditional artisans from Anatolia rubbing shoulders with artists and designers in the district’s narrow, winding streets.

A favorite watering hole near Galata is the House Cafe, with an Autoban interior of mix-and-match wooden tables and chairs and geometric lamps. Started in 2002 by Ms. Ozdemir’s sister, the House Cafe has 10 locations around Istanbul, each designed by Autoban. The firm also did the interior for the recently opened M

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