Beyoğlu Municipality

Built as the first Town Hall of Istanbul in 1885, the building is considered to be the birth of the modern day municipality of the Ottoman era and still belongs to Beyoğlu Municipality, which is one of the disctrict municipalities that proudly represents modernity. This project aims to restore the structure and re-functionalize it whilst devising new additons to accomodate the current needs of the municipality and create a contemporary “municipality campus”.
During restoration, all the plasterwork, paint and flooring that have been piled on top of each other over the years have been stripped off the facade and the interior spaces which freed the building from unnecesary loads and aided the return of the facade to its original texture and detail. The facade restoration have been completed with the principal of keeping this original texture intact.
Taking in to account the original structure and the current sites historical identity along with the need to respond to the current needs of the municipality, 3 additonal structures have been designed. These additions bare the methods of contemporary building techniques and architectural styles but do not preclude the original simplicity of the original structure.
The building to the left of the main building serves as the office space, to the right serves as communications centre and canteen and the building behind serves as the exhibition hall. This addition behind is a transparent box that connects the main building to the historical cistern and the cistern have been reappropiated to be used as an exhibition space.
The uncharacteristic roof addition that was made in the 80’s have been removed. Instead, a steel and glass roof have been added to house the council functions. Steel coloumns have been designed referancing the era of architecture of the time the building was built, have been placed on a grid that matches the facade system and sat on masonry walls offloading the additonal weight throughout the walls. With the hopes of a transparent council, transparent glass have been used to fill in between the steel columns.

Statical Project:
Som Mühendislik
Mechanical Project:
Beta Teknik Mühendislik
Electrical Project:
Enkom Mühendislik
General Contractor:
Nik İnşaat