Firm： Salon Alper Derinbogaz

Type： Commercial › Office Cultural › Cultural Center Hall/Theater Hospitality + Sport › Movie Theater Residential › Apartment

STATUS： Built

YEAR： 2020

SIZE： 10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft

Adaptive Re-use of Fitas Passage

Alper Derinboğaz’s adaptive re-use project brings life back to one of Istiklal Street’s original

arcade buildings, the Fitaş Passage. A mid 60’s building with no particularly distinguished

architectural features, its significance comes from the collective memory of the vibrant

cultural and entertainment facilities it has accommodated over time. As the first phase of

the project, the new façade has recently been completed.

Istiklal Street, a significant axis in the heart of Istanbul, is a vibrant pedestrian street that

has witnessed radical changes in the urban fabric over the years. Due to the transformation

caused by tourism and an increasingly commercial profile, it has become a route that is

passed through rather than a public space that people choose to spend time in.

The street is celebrated for its distinctive passageways and arcades that connect to the

smaller streets behind. These arcades, in varying scales, mostly accommodate small shops

at ground level with flats or offices above. One of the modern examples of these arcades is

the Fitaş Passage, dating back to the 1960s. Merging many new and unique functions, it

gained an important place in collective urban memory while adapting itself to the ever-

changing identity of the street. Fitaş Passage accommodated one of the biggest cinemas in

Beyoğlu, one of the first national prêt-à porté brands, a bar and even a concert hall where

important bands of the ‘70s took stage. However, due to transformations to the physical

urban texture and the shifting of the shopping culture to the nearby Şisli district, many of the

original functions ceased to exist and the ‘passage’ quality was lost within the building.

Since the 1990s, the building has existed as a movie and entertainment centre.

The adaptive re-use of Fitaş project aims to overcome this situation and restore the

passageway character with small interventions to the original structure. It establishes a connection between the lively Istiklal Street and the isolated texture of Kurabiye Street

behind. Moreover, it delivers additional spaces where upper and lower layers are used for

entertainment and leisure activities.

The most important aspect that differentiates the building from the conventional passages is

the layering structure which works as a miniature shopping and entertainment centre

distributed over seven floors. Thus, the interrelationship of the different functions on other

floors is as crucial as the passageway function. In a way, the building is both a horizontal

passageway and a vertical street.

The first phase of the renovation project was the design and implementation of a new

façade that will attract pedestrians to use the commercial units inside the refurbished

ground floor passageway.

The new facade of Fitaş Passage is inspired by the 1970’s signboards that helped form the

identity of Istiklal Street. In this respect, the façade elements are designed to emphasize the

verticality of the structure that can be perceived not only from the front but also from the

pedestrians’ viewpoint walking along at street level.

While the façade openings are positioned according to the functions inside, the windows

point to different views to emphasize the connection with Istiklal street at every level.

Derinboğaz aims to increase the street relationship of the facade by shaping the façade not

just as a plane, but as an articulated interface with intermediate spaces such as the ‘street

balcony’ or the ‘entrance gallery’. The balcony above the entrance for instance allows the

morning sunlight to penetrate into the passageway.

The second phase of the project will provide additional leisure and entertainment facilities.

These include a gay club, an e-sports centre, recording studios, cinema halls with a total of

600 seats, a 2000-seat concert hall, a bookstore, dining area, bowling alley and a small

arcade park stacked and distributed to seven floors and two basement levels. Alper

Derinboğaz, the project architect, states: ''By merging different functions that we are not

used to seeing together, we hope to see Fitaş Passage come to life as a vertical street

rather than a simple multi-storey building.''