BEING A DEEP-ROOTED TREE NOURİSHED BY THE UNIVERSAL PROJECTS IT HAS DESIGNED

Aslı Architecture was founded on November 22, 2000 by Yücel Karaarslan and Aslı Karaarslan Özcan in Istanbul. It has developed many projects for the public and private sectors in Turkey and Azerbaijan, Russia, Uzbekistan, Dubai, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Algeria and Libya. Baku Office of Aslı Architecture was opened in 2018. Our major public projects include;

In health category; Büyükçekmece Mimar Sinan State Hospital, Çekmeköy State Hospital, Ministry of National Security Azerbaijan Hospital,

In sports category; Bursa Nilüfer Tofaş Sports Complex, İstanbul Beylikdüzü and İstanbul Güngören Sports Complexes, Cyprus Retractable Olympic Swimming Pool,

In the category of historical artifacts; Interior restoration of Hagia Sophia Museum & Mosque, restoration and renovation of Adam Mickiewicz Museum, interior restoration of Orhan Kemal Provincial Public Library, Istanbul Çeliktepe Public Library, Turkey’s first steel library. Moreover, the restoration projects of the Hagia Sophia, which has been going on for 8 years, have an important and special place among them. Restoration projects prepared together with the Directorate of Hagia Sophia Museum, Ministry of Culture, university advisors and private sector business stakeholders under the leadership of the Academic Board established for the restoration of Hagia Sophia, has been the subject of many national and international seminars and publications.

In the urban design category; Ceremonial area arrangement in Kadıköy Square, 100th Anniversary Memorial and visiting areas Turkish Air Force, Istanbul Gaziosmanpaşa Municipality Square projects are among our realized projects. We have many designs prepared for the private sector as well as for public projects on architectural and antiquities restoration. For example, the Istanbul Finans Şehir Time Project, which we have recently designed, was selected as the project with the highest investment value by Forbes magazine.

In the mixed-use and residential category; Sinpaş Finans Şehir, Reference Kartal Towers, Reference Başakşehir, Reference Kordonboyu, Olimpa Park, Azerbaijan Keshla Living Complex, Azerbaijan Yasamal Living Complex are our projects realized in the private sector and they are also projects with urban characteristics, each of which includes an average of 2000 residences or more. Hotel buildings designed by Aslı Architecture; Tashkent Tryp By Wyndham, Azerbaijan Mountain Hotel, Azerbaijan Gulbaghi Resort Hotel projects are our projects whose site manufacturing processes are continuing and at the same time, Interior Architecture design processes have been started by Aslı Architecture Design Centre.

Aslı Architecture, which bases all its designs on R&D studies, leads Turkish companies especially in countries where it takes part in international design projects. It aims to contribute to the production and service sector by using Turkish products in the projects it has designed. In particular, the designs prepared in Aslı Architecture Design Centre create new market areas with Turkish manufacturers in different countries by developing new products in line with the needs of the country and users. Aslı Architecture, which has gained recognition in all countries where it produces design projects with national and international cooperations, workshops on academic platforms, use of technology and design standard quality understanding, has created a new corporate identity in the 20th anniversary of its establishment. It has made it its mission to create designs that will be a part of the architectural culture that has been going on since the existence of humanity and has adopted the principle of coming to the fore with its values ​​as well as its designs. Our values that bring our designs to life…

ABOUT US

OUR PERSPECTIVE

Architecture, which is considered to be the oldest profession in the world, is an integral part of the building sector. The building sector, on the other hand, is the largest sector in all countries of the world and is considered to be the driving force of other sectors. For this reason, architecture is the profession of visionary individuals who will prepare the future with the accumulation of their past and create the living environments in the future. Aslı Architecture, founded in early 2000 by Aslı KARAARSLAN ÖZCAN with this vision, serves in the sector with the understanding of solution partner with its partners by carrying on the knowledge that Vitruvius started by saying “Utilitas, Firmistas, Venustas” (Utility, durability, beauty) in the 1st century BC and matured by Frank Llyod Wright in the XX. century by saying “Architecture is life, or at least it is life itself taking form”. Aslı Architecture, which rejects the idea of “the art of drawing” for the last fifty years, respects modernity, life and humanity, and reflects today’s technology and innovations on its projects, offers optimum solutions to its partners.

Yücel Karaarslan /

Co-Founder

Yücel Karaarslan was born in 1943 in Gelibolu. He has completed his primary, secondary and high school education in Çanakkale and his graduation in Bursa. He continued his teaching profession, which started in Urfa, in Gelibolu. He continued his professional career as an administrator by transferring his experiences to the teachers as the Ministry Chief Inspector. He developed himself enthusiastically in mathematics, in which he was an expert. He retired when his job, which required him to travel frequently, began to take a toll on his health. To support her daughter, he continues to transfer his experiences in education, supervision and disciplined work to young architects at Aslı Architecture, of which he is a founding partner.

Establishing a workshop model that has continuing trainings and creates its own control system, rather than being an architectural office…

1.Can you tell us a little about yourself, your education life and the establishment story of Aslı Architecture?

When I was establishing Aslı Architecture, my purpose was to be with my daughter and support her. While my daughter was pursuing her passion for architecture, I took up the management part. I meticulously created the order and system that makes Aslı Architecture a family. I believe in the continuity of education for the institution to renew itself. With this belief, we came up with the idea of transforming this office into a workshop together with Aslı and Hüseyin. We aimed to create a working order that would increase the passion of our team for their profession and reinforce their respect for themselves and their profession. We organized trainings to make the office competent both technically and institutionally. We have organized workshops where our experienced architect colleagues in our team can transfer their experiences to other architects in the team, and following up-to-date architectural approaches with our young architect colleagues on a weekly basis. We have developed a system that allows people to make their own controls by creating control mechanisms that ensure the meticulous functioning of the order. As a corporate, we have an approach to management that includes the entire team. Team members are actually self-managed by taking part in workshops, sales and marketing, and R&D departments on a voluntary basis. We call it being a deep-rooted tree.

Aslı Kararslan Özcan was born in Çanakkale in 1977. She has completed her primary, secondary and high school education in Ankara. She has many awards in her art life, which started with the paintings she made under the direction of primary school teacher Sevinç Han İçmeli in 1984-1990. Between 1994-2000, she completed the Istanbul Technical University Department of Architecture and the Department of City and Regional Planning with a double major program. The studies she carried out with the support of Prof. Oruç Çakmaklı during her university period shaped her career life. After completing her graduate education, she founded Aslı Architecture with her father Yücel Karaarslan in 2000. As the general manager of Aslı Architecture for 20 years, she undersigned more than 300 national and international projects. She still continues her work at Aslı Architecture.

Aslı Architecture, the deep-rooted tree nourished by the universal projects it has designed

1.As an office that also carries out projects on the international area, you have been providing project, consultancy and application services to many global brands and institutions for 20 years. Do you have certain criteria that you consider when you receive a project?

Our focus in all our projects is people. Design has the power to improve human life and strengthen the spirit of coexistence. Every space has a story.  People feel this story most deeply when using the space… As Aslı Architecture, we aim to write stories that will make people feel good in the spaces we design. We prepare meaningful and emotional projects. The things we feel happy about are hidden in small details. For this reason, we prepare and detail our projects with the perfect design principle.

2.As Aslı Architecture, what would be the plus values that you will add to your designs by receiving the title of Design Centre?

As Aslı Architecture, we united a part of our team under the umbrella of the Design Centre in 2020. As an office, we carry out our designs on customer orders. One of the most important contributions that being a Design Centre would provide for us will be to make independent designs on the subjects we have determined without receiving customer orders. We aim to develop our products by obtaining a design patent for these designs and to use our own design products in the projects we prepare. At this point, our Design Centre will increase the scale of our R&D studies and move them to another platform.

3.What would you like to say to young architects or candidates who are in the process of shaping their careers?

Architecture is a profession that should be done with passion. It is necessary to be willing and determined, to follow your passions. We experience many cases such as insomnia, fatigue, economic conditions, process difficulties, for that day when we will stand as a good architect. As architecture is an individual profession, it is possible to work with a team at the stage of the idea to become a project. There are many architects in the Aslı Architecture Team. Regardless of age, all our teammates do their job with passion. It is this passion that creates the team spirit. At this point, we see ourselves as a deep-rooted tree.

Aslı Karaarslan Özcan /

Co-Founder

Hüseyin Tonguç Özcan /

Executive Architect

Hüseyin Tonguç Özcan was born in Sakarya in 1971. He has graduated from Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Architecture in 1992. He started his career as an architect at Teknik Yapı A.Ş. in 1993 and continued in the office of architect Reşit Soley in 1996-1998. Following this period, he started to work as a freelancer in 1998-2010 and carried out many projects. He has worked as a consultant for projects in different disciplines and scales and has been working as a executive architect in Aslı Architecture since 2010. However, he has many awards in different scales and qualities.

Architecture is, first and foremost, ‘culture’ and ‘idea’. Generating ideas is only the beginning of architecture …

1.What does architecture mean to you? What do you think it means to be a well-qualified architect? Can you evaluate Aslı Architecture in the context of the architectural environment?

First of all, I’d like to point out that architecture is, first and foremost, ‘culture’ and ‘idea’. It is not a profession that can be done without a certain knowledge. Differences in working and thinking separate architects from each other. An architect is a person who practices his/her profession by thinking analytically and creating differences with a sense of responsibility. Our perspective on life and profession is the sum of the features that separate us from each other. We know from the education we have received that the importance of the responsibilities of our profession is indisputable. Aslı Architecture continues its existence as a growing company. In this growth process, we organize many technical and social activities, and we are constantly sharing in the office. Projects are designed for users, not customers. It should not be forgotten that everything we do adds value to life. Every line drawn by an architect will be perceived by someone after a while…

2.What does design mean to you? What do you think are the most important criteria or criteria of a well-qualified design?

The basis of this question is “Is art for art or art for people?” based on the question. Currently, our projects are based on the order given by the investor, so it is very important that the designs we develop are applicable. Catching up-to-dateness and modernity in all the projects we prepare is one of our first priorities. But the basis of the work is the necessity of being user-oriented. Please note that every product we design has a direct impact on the life of a living being. This is the point we attach the most importance to while designing. It has been our greatest effort to add a positive value to human life, to the life of a living being.