Manzara Istanbul and Ayvalik

by Gabriele Kern-Altındiş, with fore­words by Chris­tiane Pfau and Britta Krämer. March 2016

In our tur­bulent times, travel has taken on a com­pletely new meaning in recent months: while some are forced to leave their country to survive, others are looking forward to their annual holiday. Escape and escapism are related and yet so very dif­ferent. Every week we present a sel­ection of won­derful houses for special holidays, while at the same time hundreds of thou­sands of people have no secure roof over their heads – let alone a place they can call home. We know that we are tre­ading a fine line, but at the same time we are flying the flag for what we love: excellent, exem­plary archi­tecture. An acquain­tance recently said, “News about cul­tural events is curr­ently the only thing that still gives me some kind of positive feeling.” The dif­fi­culties of our troubled times are in everyone’s thoughts – including those of the hosts and guests of URLAUBSARCHITEKTUR pro­perties. Special pro­perties attract special people: the pro­perties pre­sented on urlaubsarchitektur.de are a concise expression of archi­tec­tural culture. Pre­serving this is one way of coun­tering the bar­barism of the present.

Chris­tiane Pfau

Erdoğan Altındiş and Gabriele Kern-Altındiş are the visionary creators of Manzara Istanbul and Manzara Ayvalik: Mer­di­venli Ev / Kay­nakli Ev: This couple, both archi­tects, run an apart­hotel in the Galata dis­trict of Istanbul, made up of 25 spec­ta­cular apart­ments, which have been lovingly reno­vated and which offer visitors breath­taking pan­o­ramic views over the city. The pic­turesque fishing village of Ayvalik on the Turkish coast is the location of a beau­tifully res­tored house in the tra­di­tional heart of the village, which will delight guests who app­re­ciate aes­thetics, idyllic seas­capes and the scent of lemon trees. The Manzara Project (Manzara is the Turkish for view, insight, land­scape) is far more than two archi­tects’ efforts to breathe new life into an old building. Manzara is a decla­ration of love for a city that has always woven tog­ether Orient and Occident in its own unique way. Manzara is the embo­diment of a cul­tural exchange, and the holiday apart­ments are a uni­quely har­mo­nious interplay between mini­malist sim­plicity and the world of the Thousand and One Nights. Manzara is a warm invi­tation to all tra­vellers to immerse them­selves in the magic, mystery and inspi­ration of the place.

Britta Kraemer

At the moment it seems as though the whole world is falling apart. Last year ended with the Paris attacks, and this one began with the suicide bombing in Istanbul. On top of climate change and all its con­se­quences, the world now awaits the deve­lo­p­ments of the refugee crisis, trig­gered by war and growing social insta­bility, and the resultant eco­nomic and huma­ni­tarian challenge that is pro­phesied by all relevant experts. Ulti­m­ately we as indi­vi­duals all share respon­si­bility for these cir­cum­s­tances, whether directly or indi­rectly.

The poli­tical course of the Turkish government makes it dif­ficult for many to see the attraction of travel in Turkey at the moment. Tourism experts reco­gnise the phe­no­menon from pre­vious times, e.g. when George W. Bush was Pre­sident of the USA and Silvio Ber­lusconi was Prime Minister of Italy. During those times this sector expe­ri­enced serious losses, and many small, ambi­tious and cou­ra­geous com­panies even had to cease trading. A similar threat is now faced by Turkey and is set to bring par­ti­cular hardship to the country. Many people’s exis­tence is already under threat and the con­se­quences are unfo­re­seeable, as the eco­nomic dis­aster is exa­cer­bated on the home front by the unre­solved issue of the Kurdish eman­ci­pation movement which threatens to split the country. In the long term this con­flict will also affect Europe directly or indi­rectly.

Alt­hough we are curr­ently feeling the serious effects of this trend, at the same time we are expe­ri­encing an upsurge of interest from people who want to get to know Turkey and Istanbul. Many visitors tell us that they have deli­berately chosen Turkey as a desti­nation out of soli­darity with its people, in order to demons­trate that they are not inti­mi­dated and they have lost none of their enthu­siasm for the country.

Because Turkey, and Istanbul in par­ti­cular, is still the ideal place to expe­rience a dia­logue between East and West. And the city is unsur­passed in its beauty that delights all the senses.

We hadn’t anti­ci­pated such a sym­pa­thetic and intrepid reaction, and we find it a great moti­vation. And so, now more than ever, we intend to con­tinue, and to use all the means at our dis­posal to promote inter­cul­tural dia­logue. In this way, maybe in the long term we can make a small con­tri­bution towards under­standing and a peaceful coexis­tence.

We pro­bably won’t be able to take away all our guests’ fears, and there is no gua­rantee that it will be pos­sible, in Istanbul or Ayvalik, to avoid the human suf­fering that may be seen on the streets.

But who has not expe­ri­enced that uneasy feeling that strikes you when you board an air­craft and secretly ask yourself whether you’ll reach your desti­nation unharmed? But we place our trust in the tech­nology and those people whose respon­si­bility is our well-being, and instinc­tively set aside our mis­gi­vings. Only in this way can we follow our dreams and our goals. We should always hold on to this.

Of course, those of us who live in Istanbul are also occa­sio­nally suf­fo­cated by a certain sense of anxiety. But as Erich Kästner so aptly put it: “If you have no fear, you have no ima­gi­nation”.

And what about Ayvalik? Yes, it’s a place where some refugees begin their odyssey into what they per­ceive as a better world. They leave war and hardship behind, but whether they will reach their goal remains uncertain.

Large numbers of refugees are still arriving in Germany, too, but we con­tinue to live our lives, and that is how it should be. But our eyes are on these people. Many people help as much as they are able, others show com­passion and sym­pathy, but some, unfort­u­nately, are merely con­temp­tuous. Yet no one is unaf­fected by the situation.

All of us can only hope that the living con­di­tions for all people in the world improve equally. But we are all aware that, sadly, this will not happen over­night. And so we will be all the more often con­fronted directly by people whose lives are not as pri­vi­leged as our own. Yet if we simply look away, it will neither change the situation nor relieve our con­sci­ences. We shouldn’t shy away from this con­fron­tation, but should always bear in mind that all the beau­tiful moments we are for­t­unate enough to enjoy in our lives should increase our sym­pathy for other people.

If we want to live in a glo­ba­lised world, misun­derstan­dings and con­flicts are a given. It is only through per­sonal encounters with foreign cul­tures that we will be able to show tole­rance, respect and accep­tance. To avoid such encounters now means a great loss for those of us who want to live in a climate of freedom and self-deter­mi­nation. We shouldn’t close our eyes or our hearts to what is hap­pening in this, our world!

Gabriele Kern-Altındiş has made her per­manent home in Istanbul since 2009. Tog­ether with her husband, Erdoğan Altındiş, the founder of Manzara, she has con­stantly moved the company forward. At first she devoted her attention with passion and a great love of detail to the interior design of the pro­perties, the orga­ni­sation of the cor­porate structure and per­so­nally looking after guests. But during the last few years she seems to have found her true calling. Tog­ether with her husband she is con­stantly con­ceiving new pro­jects with a similar aim: to promote the dia­logue between two cul­tures, between East and West, and between the many inte­resting people the two of them con­stantly meet under so many dif­ferent cir­cum­s­tances.