Ekonomim - Summer homes

As summer arrives, people planning a holiday and people opening a summer house are both getting ready. Summer houses that were caught unprepared by the pandemic last year now have a second season to get right. Interior architect Umut Gürler says the second summer of the outbreak will change how summer houses are designed, inside and out, and he set out the season's habits.

Measures that have been part of daily life for more than a year have moved indoors. People keep their distance, spend less time in closed rooms, and avoid close contact. Summer houses also bring families together, so the layouts that are wanted now give more room to move and a little more space between people in closed rooms.

With working from home, a summer house is no longer only a place to rest. Gardens, roof terraces, small back yards and balconies are becoming real rooms, even in compact houses. Folding glass doors join the interior to the garden. Outdoor work spots are one of the needs that grew fastest, and the furniture outside now includes a proper table and chair.

Gürler says the projects signed in this period carry the marks of the pandemic. Since the office was founded in 2009, the work has started from the owner's comfort and needs. A meeting is held to listen, then the place is walked together. This year the first request in those meetings was that rooms should work harder: places to work, places to rest, and wide rooms for family and friends. Indoors, hygiene worries brought modern-retro lines and smart-home systems forward. Lights, blinds, fittings and appliances were renewed with models that can be controlled from a distance, by phone or by voice.

The office also runs the building work from start to finish, because many of the stages stay in-house. A team of about thirty people covers design, construction (walls, plaster, paint, ceramic, electrical, plumbing, steel, aluminium and glass) and furniture. That holds the cost down and the quality up. Current work includes NC Residence, a summer house in Antalya on a 400-square-metre plot, IK Residence at Teona Ümitköy, SY Residence at Hittown Batıkent on 800 square metres, the office designed for the TÜVTÜRK Ankara regional office, and Doğruer Hotel in Bodrum.