Akaretler’s row housing
The construction of the Dolmabahçe Palace Row Houses was started by Sarkis Balyan in 1875 during the reign of Abdülaziz. This building group is also known as the first mass housing project in Turkey. Some of the row houses were designed as lodging houses for the guards and landlords working in the palace, and some of them were designed as rental houses. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s mother Zübeyde Hanım, lived here for a while in building number 76 in Akaretler Row Houses. This house is also the house, where Atatürk met the linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and laid the foundations of the Turkish Historical Society and the Turkish Language Association. In 2008, it was restored beautifully by Serdar Bilgili.
Antik Konak
It is estimated that this building, which will be familiar with people who watched the famous Turkish series Avrupa Yakası, was built in 1889. The building, designed as a corner building at the junction of two streets, has a stepped facade system. It has seven floors including the basement. Although some people think that the series was shot here, the series was originally shot on a set in Elmadağ.
Basaran Apartment
Başaran Apartment was built by the architect Muhittin Binan and commissioned by the tobacco merchant Hakkı Başaran. It is most famous for the Konak Cinema on its ground floor, where well-to-do locals would turn up in a tuxedo to watch the era’s films. Although Konak Cinema is the first cinema outside the borders of Beyoğlu, it has managed to maintain its popularity for a long time. One more floor was added to the building, which was a 6-floor building in its first plan. It consists of 5 flats with 9 rooms on the floors, a ground floor and a basement. The cinema is in a state of disrepair and awaits sypmpathetic restoration.
Kamela Apartment
Kamela Apartment is primarily famous due to the people who lived in it. Rasih Nuri İleri, who lived in this building in the 1930s, was one of the pioneers of the socialism in Turkey, and hid the famous writer Sabahattin Ali in this house. Sabahattin Ali was wanted by the police because of the articles he wrote at that time, and he published his story “Sırca Köşk” in this apartment.
Marmara ve Sümer Apartment
The Sumer and Marmara twin apartments, in which Art Deco and Art Nouveau styles are used, were completed in 1932 by Rafael Alguadiş, who is also the architect of Emek Cinema. There are murals by Nikolay Kalmikoff in the entrance hall of the both apartments.
Pamuk Apartment
Pamuk Apartment is located in Teşvikiye, the family apartment of Orhan Pamuk’s family, the first and only Turkish writer to receive a Nobel Prize. It is known that the famous writer also has strong ties with this apartment, and he expressed many times that the memories of his time here were very valuable. According to some readers and critics, this apartment is the Şehrikalp Apartmen in the Black Book (Kara Kitap).
Ralli Apartment
Ralli Apartment, which carries the traces of Art Deco and Art Nouveau with its exterior, is also known for hosting the first solo exhibition of Fahrelnisa Zeid, the name that comes to mind when abstract art is mentioned. A year later, the artist organized his second exhibition here. In addition, this is one of the two places where former Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes met Suzan Sözen, whom he fell in love with.
Tozan Apartment
Villa Tozan, built by architect Giulio Mongeri in 1920, was planned as a 2-storey building, but after a while, it was converted into five floors at the request of the famous Turkish spy and collector, Satvet Lütfi Tozan. After the death of Satvet Lütfi Tozan, the building was donated to Darüşşafaka. Names such as Haldun Dormen, İlber Ortaylı, Zafer Algöz and Bennu Gerede lived here for a while.
Vedat Tek Mansion
This “mansion” was designed by Vedat Tek, who is known as Turkey’s first formally trained architect, and he resided in this building with his family. Although the house carries the traces of first national architectural movement, it has been implemented in a different composition from Tek’s other works. Nevertheless, Vedat Tek did not neglect the tile coverings in this work and did not hesitate to include them in the upper parts of windows.
