Sumahan on the Water
Istanbul
M & N Butler Miramlar

Family of designers converts a former spirit factory into a boutique hotel

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	Click here for slide show. Photo © Koray Erkaya

The design of Sumahan on the Water, a 21-room boutique hotel, was a family affair in every sense of the word. Located in an erstwhile spirits distillery, the buildings that comprise Sumahan—a word that literally translates as “spirit inn”—have been in architect Nedret Butler’s family for three generations. Together with her husband, Mark, she first had the idea to transform the complex into a hotel while still an architecture student in the early 1970s. It took three decades, and the help of the couple’s daughter Yasha, an interior designer, to realize this vision.

The oldest structure in the six-building complex dates to Sultan Mahmud II, who ruled the Ottoman Empire in the early 1800s and built a series of distilleries nationwide. Sumahan is located in Istanbul on the Asian side of the Bosphorus Strait, at the foot of a steep hillside, giving the guest rooms, which face out toward the water, privacy from a coastal road above. A restaurant now occupies the northern-most structure while guest suites occupy the other elevations, including a new building constructed on the site of a warehouse demolished by Nedret Butler’s grandfather, Tevfik Cenani Ercan, in the 1940s.

Every room embodies its own special character and architectural style. In the historic buildings, the Butlers retained much of the factory’s character by preserving original details and using industrial materials such as steel and brick, matched with wood and marble. But the Butlers also introduced elegant new elements inspired by the building’s waterfront location, such as a color palette dominated by blues, greens, and grays. Sumahan on the Water integrates high quality contemporary design with respect for the its historical context.

Formal name of project:
Sumahan on the Water

Location:
Istanbul

Gross square footage:
31,250 sq. ft.

Total Construction Cost:
$5 million

Owner:
M & N Butler Architects

Architect:
M & N Butler
Miramlar Kuleli Caddesi No. 51
34684 Cengelkoy, Istanbul, Turkey
90-216-422-8000 tel.
90-216-422-8008 fax

Nedret, Mark, and Yasha Butler

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