Office Space

The offices of Bilsar, in Istanbul's revamped Beyoğlu district, are just as stylish as the brands they represent   It started out in 1947 as a small textile company in Çorum, a town of 200,000 in Turkey’s Anatolian heartland. Today, 66 years and three generations removed, Bilsar, currently run by the brothers Selman and Süha Bilal, is one of Turkey’s most recognisable brands. The company produces more than 2 million shirts every year, operates stores in Istanbul, Ankara, Antalya and Kayseri, and manages brands like Fred Perry, Muji and Original Penguin, all of whom opened their first shops in Turkey during the past decade.   In the early 2000s, with business expanding rapidly, Selman and Süha concluded that Bilsar, then based in the shopping district of Nişsantasşı, needed to move shop. ‘We had offices in a couple of buildings, which made it difficult to manage the company,’ says Süha who, at 48, has now been with the brand for more than two decades.   The brothers went shopping for a new headquarters in Beyogğlu. The heart of Istanbul’s European district, its main avenue lined with residences and former embassies, Beyoğglu had fallen on hard times in the second half of the 20th century, earning a reputation as one of the city’s seedier neighbourhoods. Even around 2000, as gentrification began to take hold and as the brothers readied to invest in the area, Beyogğlu was not very popular with business, says Süha. ‘There were very few companies there at the time.’   To find the proper space for Bilsar, as well as for the brands they manage in Turkey, the Bilals turned to an old friend. Han Tümertekin, the acclaimed Turkish architect, had already worked with the brothers on two different projects, including a house in Istanbul and a summer home in Çanakkale, on the north Aegean shore. It was the second of these, completed in 2001, which earned Tümertekin the prestigious Aga Khan Award in 2004.   The brothers, together with Tümertekin, eventually settled on a six-story art nouveau building on Meşsrutiyet Avenue, just down the street from the famous Pera Palace Hotel and less than 300 metres from the Galata Tower, a 14th century Istanbul landmark. The century old building, which had previously been used as an apartment home, was in dire need of a touch up. Tümertekin not only had to revamp its interior to fit Bilsar’s needs, but also to reinforce the whole structure to meet earthquake regulations. (Istanbul, which sits near the North Anatolian Fault, has seen numerous large-scale tremors. The most recent, which hit about 60 miles east of the city, claimed about 20,000 lives in 1999.)   The work lasted almost two years, says Süha. Bilsar’s new home finally opened its doors in 2004. Tümertekin decided to leave the building’s façade intact but gutted its insides to make the space suitable for Bilsar’s offices and showrooms, as well as the company’s signature ‘urban lifestyle shop’, Bilstore, which occupies the ground floor and part of the first. By removing most of the walls, retaining only the main axes as well as the narrow winding staircase, and by fitting the windows with smaller, barely noticeable frames, Tümertekin managed to bathe the building’s interior in natural light.   The effect was on full display when I visited the site on a sun-drenched afternoon in late March. The upstairs showrooms, with their sprawling views of Beyogğlu from the front and of the old city from the back, felt light, airy and unimposing, an apt setting for the clothes and other merchandise on display. ‘The interior doesn’t overwhelm the product, the elements support whatever you put inside,’ suggested Ceren Taşkent Acarol, a Bilsar design manager who works in an office on one of the floors.   This was exactly what Süha had in mind when he and his brother commissioned Tümertekin to revamp the building. A good fashion space in general and a showroom in particular, Süha told me, needed to be accommodating, unassuming and flexible. ‘You should be able to separate the showrooms into parts depending on the season,’ he said.  ‘If you have smaller brands, you can divide the showroom and if you have a big brand, you can use all of it.’   Location is also key. Less than a decade after Bilsar moved to Beyoğglu, the neighbourhood has become one of Istanbul’s trendiest places to live, work and go out. For a brand that prides itself on selling an urban lifestyle, the area has made for a perfect home. ‘We feel active, because we’re in the middle of the city,’ says Acarol, the design manager. ‘Here, you have the chance to live the city life, to be inspired by it,’ adds Tuğçe Baykut, a marketing manager.   The Bilstore, located downstairs, plays by the same set of rules as the rest of the building. Near the entrance, daylight enters through large windows that open onto the street, blurring the border between sidewalk and store. In the shopping area out back, the light rains down through a glass ceiling that Tümertekin placed over what was once an empty lot between two buildings. The walls and the exposed steel supports are painted in dark grey, effectively highlighting the elements – lamps, shelves and tables – painted in canary yellow.   Tümertekin has blown the space wide open, lending breathing space to shelves stocked with stationery by Muji, watches by Nixon, shoes by Penguin and a number of other brands. Clothes, books, bags and photographs comfortably cohabit the same area. ‘It feels like a chic flea market,’ said one shopper. ‘They’re not afraid to free up the space. I can breathe, and I don’t feel confined. I feel as if I’m outside.’   Photography: Aydan Cinar