Sia Moore steps up its work in Turkey.
Sia Moore Architecture Interior Design, which has carried out numerous luxury home and hotel projects especially in the Middle East and Turkic countries for many years, is a design, architecture and decoration implementation firm that has its headquarters in Istanbul and works with multiple disciplines all all around the world. Sia Moore has served many top-level companies and people and carried out big turnkey projects. Sia Moore’s founder Banu Altay, an architect, has said the following: “We stay above the ordinary in our designs and use every single project to brush ourselves up and reach the next level. Our goal is to transfer our knowledge and experience that is the result of all the services we offered abroad to high-level offices for many years to our own country.”
Can you briefly talk about yourself and Sia Moore
I graduated from İTÜ School of Architecture in 1996. I have worked in different sectors after that, and I used my vocational experience to establish Sia Moore Architecture Interior Design in 2009. My goal was to turn Sia Moore into a global brand. Our projects abroad help our brand get worldwide recognition. And as we believed in the quality of design and production in our country, we put a special emphasis on the “Made in Turkey” and Sia Moore signatures. Our success as a brand has been rewarded in this short period of time. Some of the awards we have received are: 2016 Le Fonti Iair Awards – Sia Moore – Company of the year for Leadership Interior Design “2015 Luxury Lifestyle Awards – National Brand” and “2015 Menaa Awards – Banu Altay – Best Business Leaders Award.“
Can you talk about your projects overseas?
ALTAY : Our first project abroad was in Libya, with the leader of the country then and concerned the architectural and interior design and planning of 12 villas. After that came the architecture and decoration projects in Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Iraq for high-level companies and government offices. After taking on several projects in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha we felt it was necessary to set up a firm in the Middle East. Our firm was established in 2012 in Doha/Qatar and we have successfully delivered many projects in the region. Numerous palace, manor and majlis projects for the Emirate can be counted among our work, and we were the contractor in the Mondrian Doha Hotel chain that will open its doors in 2017. All the exports in these projects landed us at the 267th spot in the ‘‘500 Great Service Exporters of Turkey’’ (2015) research project conducted by the Turkish Exporters’ Assembly. Some of our design projects abroad also received several awards.
Our Arbil office project received “2014 – 2015 Arabian Property Awards – Hewa Office Building in Arbil – Best Office Interior Arabia” and “International Property Awards – Hewa Office in
Arbil – Best International Office Interior“ awards. Our Suleymaniyah Villa projects was granted the “2016 – 2017 Arabian Property Awards – Suleymaniyah Private Residence in Iraq – Best Interior Design Private Residence“ award.
What are your ongoing projects?
ALTAY : We have several manors in Northern Iraq, Suleymaniyah and Arbil. Our work for Mondrian Hotel Dubai project is still under way. We are also working on our new office’s decoration and implementation, and we will continue to offer our services in our new office on Bagdat Caddesi with an expanded staff in July 2017.
– Can you give us a few examples of your work in Turkey?
ALTAY : We want to carry on successful projects in our own country in the coming years. We would like to participate in different projects that concern private residences for our statesmen, social facilities, guesthouses dedicated to other world leaders and statesmen, and private manors and mansions that are historical artifacts. We believe that spaces represent the offices and we would like to display our expertise in such different projects in our country.
Do you think that it will be an architectural challenge to work in Turkey following all those projects in Middle Eastern countries?
ALTAY : Architecture and design is a concept that is shaped by the user, therefore the region is not a determinant. What is essential is the consensus between the user and the architect. We pay attention to making sure that a project will meet the need at a maximum level. Participating in projects in Turkey would not be a challenge at all, on the contrary we would be happy. But in the end, every single project of ours, whether local or abroad, is a source of pride for us. I fully support the participation of not only us but all other Turkish architects in successful projects and abroad and consider it a pleasant development.
