Kengo Kuma-designed Odunpazarı Modern Museum opens in Turkey

2019-09-09T19:59:00-04:00

The Odunpazarı Modern Museum, designed with a synthesis of traditional Ottoman and Japanese architecture, opened on Sept. 7. [...] The museum, founded by construction firm Polimeks chairman and collector Erol Tabanca, was designed by the famous Japanese architectural firm Kengo Kuma and Associates.

First mentioned on Archinect in March, the new private art museum by Turkish construction magnate and collector Erol Tabanca has now officially opened inside a delicate stacked-timber ensemble designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates.

Photo: NAARO

"The architectural design of the building also draws attention as it consists of a group of square-shaped blocks that are surrounded by laminated-timber beams stacked on top of each other," reports Hürriyet Daily News. "The Japanese designer took the historical characteristics of the UNESCO-listed Odunpazarı."

Photo: NAARO

In an interview with the project architects Kengo Kuma and Yuki Ikeguchi which the museum published on its website, Kuma said: "For the OMM building, I wanted to create a sense of intimacy by using small-scale units—to achieve a sense of warmth. Throughout the building, the geometry is not perpendicular. I think the fact that such a geometrical building can also be as organic will surprise people."

Kengo Kuma-designed art museum to open in Turkey this year

2019-03-15T14:11:00-04:00

The Odunpazari Modern Museum (OMM), a major new institution designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates, will open in the vibrant but ancient university city of Eskişehir in Turkey in June, The Art Newspaper has learned. With stylistic echoes of Kuma’s V&A Dundee, the museum’s stacked timber design reflects surrounding wooden houses from the Ottoman era, and is named after its historic “wood market” district—Odunpazari.

Image courtesy of Odunpazarı Modern Museum (OMM).

"The museum will house and show Turkish and international Modern and contemporary works from the 1,000 piece collection of Erol Tabanca, the architect and partner in Polimeks Holding, a leading Turkish construction firm," writes The Art Newspaper.

Archinect - News

Kengo Kuma-designed Odunpazarı Modern Museum opens in Turkey

Kengo Kuma-designed art museum to open in Turkey this year