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Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Inan Gökçek (IG) for A' Design Awards and Competition. You can access the full profile of Inan Gökçek by clicking here. Access more information about the award winning design Hattusa here. |
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Interview with Inan Gökçek at Friday 19th of April 2019 FS: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design? IG: The ancient Anatolian civilisation called The Hittites FS: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve? IG: The priority was to create a good quality space that the client needed. But I wanted to do it with telling a story about The Hittites. FS: What are your future plans for this award winning design? IG: I would like to use it as a tool to reach to the people who would have different stories in their mind and want to reflect it to their spaces. FS: How long did it take you to design this particular concept? IG: 4-6 weeks to conceptualise and detail it. Sourcing materials and hand made objects added another 3 weeks to this. FS: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration? IG: I lead the client to look at the deeper roots of Turkey and Anatolia and reflect it to the interior. FS: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself? IG: It is a site specific product but I am happy to work on variation of this in different sites. FS: What made you design this particular type of work? IG: It was right for the nature of the business which is a Turkish Restaurant FS: Where there any other designs and/or designers that helped the influence the design of your work? IG: Anatolian crafts people were my main inspiration. FS: Who is the target customer for his design? IG: The project Hattusa aimed the locals first. Thanks to its commercial success, the 4th branch has just been opened in Kent, United Kingdom. FS: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts? IG: Unlike the most commonly known Turkish elements today, Hattusa brings the deeper cultural and historical aspects of Turkey but it also present them within a contemporary context. FS: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean? IG: Hattusa was the name of the capital of The Hittites. FS: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project? IG: Sketches, scaled drawings, 3D model and lots of reading and researching. FS: What is the most unique aspect of your design? IG: The salvaged hand carved ceiling piece that I found in a second hand shop in Turkey. FS: Who did you collaborate with for this design? Did you work with people with technical / specialized skills? IG: The client, Sefa Karatay, was a big supporter of the design but also Guy Valentine, who carved the war scenes on walls, is a great talent who made this possible. FS: What is the role of technology in this particular design? IG: If we are talking about modern day technology, CNC-Laser cutting added an amazing, contemporary element to the interior: I designed panels, shelves, frames and dividers based on a Hittite pattern which created a great contrast to the wooden, hand made objects. Other than CNC, all the objects were handmade, including the cross shape seat and of course the clay walls. In the end, both "technological" and handmade parts were in an unusual harmony and created a sophisticated, enjoyable environment. FS: Is your design influenced by data or analytical research in any way? What kind of research did you conduct for making this design? IG: Yes, it involved lots of reading about The Hittites which included search of visual material both in digital and analogue ways. I even visited ancient site of Hattusa! FS: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept? IG: As in each design project that you try something which wasn't made before, there were challenges with attaching the old and new parts together and finally installing at the site. However, the most challenging part was the carved walls; how can you create an effect which was made 4000 years ago? Carving on rocks (cuneiform) was almost the only way to communicate in Hittite times and as they left amazing script and symbols on the rocks in Hattusa, which we wanted to reflect on the walls. We first tried to carve on basic plaster which didn`t give us the right firmness to do that. I also thought about a CNC cutting/carving method but concluded that it would look too fabricated and therefore the end result would be very artificial. Then we discovered raw clay plasters which differ from many other plasters because they do not contain any lime, gypsum or synthetics. Unlike lime-based plasters for example, pure earthen plasters do not go through a chemical reaction as they naturally air dry. Consequently, they not only retain their intriguing tonal patina, but their extraordinary textures, sculptures and sharp definitions. We first worked on a sample board with Clayworks Ltd and the very satisfactory result led us to apply it to all walls which were about 40m2. We used projectors to reflect very high resolution images of the historical war scenes and eventually carved the figures. FS: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition? IG: Always wanted to take part in A Design Award and Hattusa was the best reason I had so far. FS: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work? IG: A lot learned at the site from those challenges I explained earlier, but curating new and old together was the most enjoyable experience which I would like to explore more, in different sites and context. FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions? IG: It was great when the customers started using the space and asking questions about the carvings and signs. They were amazed by The Hittites and hopefully they looked at further!
A' Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers. |
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Good design deserves great recognition. |
A' Design Award & Competition. |