Sema Topaloğlu

Known for a keen sense of craft, form, material and spatial configuration, Sema Topaloğlu has long been one of Istanbul’s most authentic designers. With projects that go beyond Turkey’s borders, the designer calls Istanbul home. Working between public space-, interior-, furniture- and object-design, each project informs the next. TLmag visited Topaloğlu’s loft-like Fatih-based studio – with sweeping views of the inner Golden Horn. All of which makes sense, when one considers the designer’s main inspiration – her immediate surroundings. “I love natural materials,” Topaloğlu describes. “You can handle and respect it.” Evidence of this affinity is found in organically-shaped models of past projects she keeps throughout her atelier but also in furniture she produces with carpenters and assistants on-site. Though Topaloğlu works with external technicians to translate her sketches into digital renderings, she returns to modeling and prototyping throughout her process. “Objects, interiors are all the same,” she explains. When it comes to designing new luxury apartment in London or Istanbul, Topaloğlu tasks herself with the creation of all integrated elements – from the smallest decorative attributes to furniture and spatial lay-out. “Each project is different based on the framework the client presents,” the designer describes. “Then it’s important that they trust my style.” Though Topaloğlu’s most recent projects have taken her into glass and other materials, her pride and joy remains a hotel cum apartment complex she restored, designed and continues to manage. Four-Floors sits in an immaculately renovated 19th-century Galata mansion. Each level features a different style – true to Topaloğlu’s integration of contemporary ideals and traditional Istanbul-based handcraft methods. “I love my city and culture,” she confesses. “Istanbul is city that never forced its own style but that rather, evolves over time.”