S House is a gorgeous contemporary residence designed by Emre Arolat Architects in conjunction with interior designer Tanju Özelgin in the private residential development of Çubuklu Valley, a forested area of the district of Beykoz in the northern Bosphorus area of Istanbul, Turkey. For the interior for the S House,  Özelgin harmoniously combined the natural setting with the owner’s cosmopolitan lifestyle. The simple, pure and functional architectural style in this residence interacts the interiors with nature through a strategy of using natural stone and wood textures making the interiors an extension of the natural environment.

The S House consists of approximately 4,305 square feet (400 square meters) of interior space and 5,166 square feet (480 square meters) of landscape and garden area. The owner’s expectation for the interior design was for a modern look integrating natural elements around light toned living spaces.  Modern conveniences and home technologies would need to be subtly weaved into the interiors to create a cosmopolitan urban setting.

Due to the plot situated on a sloped area, the entrance to the house is located in the top floor and in line with the client’s demand; every floor was designed with a different concept. At the entrance floor, three bedrooms were requested, one of them for the owner. The middle floor consists of a kitchen that serves the entire house, whereas the ground floor is conceived as a daily living area furnished with electronic equipment, a steam room and a sauna as required in the client brief.

In general, the middle floor is designed in a more robust approach than the other spaces due to the use of continuous natural surfaces. The walls are covered with natural stone tiles separating the kitchen from the living room, hiding the kitchen without impeding the fluidity between the two volumes. As with the top floor, a sliding door is also used in the entrance of the living room, isolating the room from the elevator and stairwell spaces. The ground floor of the house is designed as a garden floor that opens to the poolside outdoor living areas. There are three different functions of this floor; television and cinema units at one side, bookshelf and dining table in the middle. Steam room, sauna, whirlpool bath and shower also located on this floor. These spaces are separated from the other volumes with tulle curtains and sliding glass doors.

Bedrooms, located on the entrance floor as per the owner’s brief, are separated and isolated from the entrance by using sliding doors. Located at the entrance floor, guest rooms were organized to meet all visitors’ needs and additionally one of the rooms was also conceived as a study area. One of the most remarkable details on the top floor is the dressing cubicle, which positioned in the middle of the room, is enclosed with a light tulle curtain. In this way, the dressing cube is lit with the natural sunlight coming from the exterior while the need for artificial lighting is reduced to a minimum and integrated with the natural environment. This concept is continued in the shower and washbasin spaces by using substantially opaque and permeable materials, gaining the maximum benefit of sunlight.

Photos: Tanju Özelgin