Publications & Papers
SÜREN RESIDENCE IN BEYLERBEYİ
From Üsküdar to Boğaziçi the second wharf is Beylerbeyi. It is said that the name of Beylerbeyi came from Murad The Third Beylerbeyi Mehmet Paşa. The coastal road from Beylerbeyi to Çengelköy is known as "Yalıboyu Street". At the beginning of Yalıboyu Street, on the land part of the road, there is a water reservoir which was restorated. A large door near this water reservoir-Yalıboyu Street number 41-is the entrance of 6.000 square meter area which includes the XIXth century building.
This parcel which has a small garden at the street level is formed with a serie of a terrace garden on the slope of the hill with a high wall. The first terrace is as almost as the entrance garden. But the second terrance on this is 50 meters deep and there is a large building on it. The kiosk which is formed with a roof floor and two complete floors on a stonework basement floor, was probably built by Dr. Miralay Fuat Bey and the end of XIXth century. Our opinion is that the kiosk should have been built on a part of Minister of Educator Kocayusufpaşaoğlu Haşim Paşa's lands. The building which was used by his daughter Talat Hanım and his son in law Prof. Nedim Mazhar Yüzak, was evacuated because of its oldness and put it to sale. The building was ruined because of the neglect of the building and the alterations made by time. With a principle decide of Real Estate Old Works and Monuments High Committee 14.1.1978 dated and 10200 number, it determines the scale and the deep of the interventions to cultural entities. This decision which was prepared by TAÇ Charity Science Committee was prepared to solve the chaos of the intervention of the buildings in Boğaziçi Shore Line. This principle decision degenerated by the people whom is devoided from the cultural sense and turned to the classification of the buildings instead of the determination of the intervention's scale or deep. The cultural entities needed to conserve can not be discussed. It either is a cultural entity needed to be conserved, and is listed or it is not. However it is needed to propose about the kind of intervention. Because especially civil architecture examples are the ones which shelter the people. Humanbeings life changes by time, the need of confort rises and especially for the big scale buildings the peoples expectaions increases. It is sure that the cultural entity needs to be conserved can not respond all the contemporary expectations. However, designing a prestigious building can provide compromise between the user and the building. The members of the conservation committee are responsible of this compromise.
I explained these for Süren Residence because Süren Residence is listed from GEEAY Committee. However, the building is lack of good care for a long time because of the economic difficulties of the host. In this phase Süren Family asked my opinion about their purchase of the building. I said "we can recover it immediately". The only thing is your decide about carrying over this buildings to the future.
Süren Residence is a life story of a cultural entity needed to be conserved. This building is reconstructed with reinforced concrete which is a contemporary material. The small volumes are removed to have larger rooms. The one storoyed annex which was adjacent to the building moved to the back level and continued its original function. The seperate entrance of the building is protected and the corridors combined with the staircase hall. The chaos occured by time is solved and the plan scheme of the building got a clear scheme. The interventions on the facadesof the building are removed and it is tried to get the original appearence.
I think that telling his design is very hard for an architect. Because it is such an action about why we decide on this, why we get this result, thousands of datas and decisions. I think the result is important, a building which was almost dieing is surveyed and the users are living happy in it.
Approximetely 3 months earlier. Prof. Dr. Cevat Erder said that "some one should be good architect to make restoration". I guess this determination is the basic point of all the speculations of these years. How many architects in our country exists whom interrogate the century's building culture. The answer of this question will expose the real restoratons in our country.