It Takes a Village

Craig Kellogg -- Interior Design, 1/1/2013 2:00:00 AM

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Project Name:  Amanruya Firm: Emine Öğün Mehmet Öğün Architects Co Location: Bodrum, Turkey Square feet: 97,000-square-foot

“Life in Turkey is very fast and never comes to a complete stop,” says Emine Öğün, co-principal with her husband of Emine Öğün Mehmet Öğün Architects Co. As an antidote, almost three decades ago, her late father, architect Turgut Cansever, developed a small vacation village on the Bodrum peninsula, utilizing the Aegean stone-cottage vernacular. When the 123-acre property passed to the couple, they recognized that a part of it, a hidden valley of olive and pine groves, had the ideal castaway quality for an Aman resort.

The luxury hospitality operator agreed, and engaged the architects to create Amanruya, a 97,000-square-foot compound that includes 36 freestanding stone guesthouses connected by a labyrinth of stone paths. Walls are locally quarried strawberry stone,the regional name for rose-colored slate, grouted with pink mortar. “It adds a joyful quality,” Mehmet Öğün says of the effect.

The many lounges take the form of Turkish open-air pavilions ringed by traditional built-in sofas. Some have ceilings and floors of African mahogany, which gives way to Turkish marble in the major public spaces, guest rooms, and bathrooms, where it also covers the walls, one of the few touches of conventional opulence. But the resort mostly emulates the design aesthetics of its predecessor: traditional materials, forms, and practices used in a low-key modern way. Take the fantastical pebble-mosaic paths made by local women, for example. “The whole team became part of the design,” explains Emine Öğün, their contribution now literally set in stone.

Project Team
Akel Furniture Decoration Co.: Custom Furniture. Parlar Mühendýslýk Müþavýrlýk: Structural Engineer. Tanrıöver Engineering: Mep. Hb Tech Electrical Engineering Design And Consulting Co.: Electrical Engineer. Black Joinery And Furniture: Woodwork.

 

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