The Return from Residences to the Land Has Begun

Interior architect Umut Mehmet Gürler, who works on space planning, construction, project and production management, has reached thousands of people because he uses social media directly.

Since the pandemic he has posted apartment tours, small changes that alter a room, office designs and smart-home walk-throughs. He has also asked colleagues to widen how they see the job.

A home, he says, has to be designed around the people who live in it: family life, how many people, interests, work, needs and expectations. Research shows that during the pandemic more people turned to detached houses, and that a home had to work both as an office and as a place to rest.

Large companies have started to move offices out of city centres, and organisations across Turkey are looking at detached buildings with gardens. Garden offices give people air, room to keep a distance, and space to spread out. Estate agents and foreign-trade firms have preferred those outdoor rooms for face-to-face meetings. Associations have held their meetings in the garden. Terraces, meeting rooms and gardens became some of the places interior architects were asked for most, during the pandemic and after it.

Gürler says the move away from tall residences, and back toward the ground, will speed up. New designs are needed so that people, and especially children, spend more time with the outdoors.