Housed in the Sakıp Sabancı Museum overlooking the Bosphorus, MüzedeChanga is the sister branch of the city’s premier fusion restaurant Changa. The venue caters for the museum visitors during the day and turns into a fine-dining restaurant by night. Overseen by the award-winning chef Peter Gordon, the kitchen delivers Mediterranean cuisine reinterpreted with a global accent.

As the client brief included the space to evoke their childhood homes in the 1960s and 70s by featuring wood as the protagonist of the punch list, Autoban made lavish use of solid oak all throughout the bi-level interior.

Separated from its 270-sqm terrace with floor-to-ceiling glass walls, one of the biggest challenges of the restaurant’s interior was the lack of walls. The designers resolved this by turning the one wall that was not made of glass into a mirror, visually deepening the space while creating a canvas of its reflected surroundings.

The voluptuous, ship-shaped, solid- oak bar—which was, indeed, modeled after a ship—and an eight-meter marble table with a laser-cut iron base are the focal points of the interior and terrace. Another signature element of the restaurant is the partition that separates the entrance from the museum. The radiating forms of the screen are derived from a traditional Turkish pattern that Autoban further abstracted. The screen provides a veil that is simultaneously soft and angular, permeable and strong—which makes it a perfect synopsis of what lies beyond.

The restaurant is furnished with signature Autoban furniture, introducing the studio’s iconic Deer Chair for the first time. The interiors also feature midcentury classics such as the Snowball Lamp by Poul Henningsen.

Total area 440 sqm Client Changa Interior design Autoban Project team Seyhan Özdemir, Sefer Çağlar / Bilal Aydın, Hani Troudi, Zeynep Akten, Hilmi Yılmaz, Müge Çakır Photography Ali Bekman, Engin Aydeniz