Burgazada Teachers’ Lounge and Evening Art School

Audio Narration:

Construction Year:

1937

Location:

Burgazada, İstanbul

Ordered By:

Ayşe Güvenç

Architect:

Unknown

Changes After Construction:
  • When first built, it had a residential function; for a long time, it was used as a house within the civil architecture of the island.
  • In 1957, it passed into the use of the National Federation of Teachers’ Associations of Türkiye, and after this date it was used for the educational community.
  • In 1986, ownership passed to the Treasury of Finance, and it gained public ownership status.
  • In 1991, the old building was removed, and a reinforced-concrete reconstruction clad with wood was carried out on the same site; this intervention completely changed the structural system of the building.
  • After 1991, it began to be used as a teachers’ house and social facility, and it was evaluated together with education-oriented activity uses.
Prominent Features:
  • The building is also popularly known as the “Güvenç House.”
  • The present building is designed with a reinforced-concrete structural system and a wood-clad façade approach; this preference is associated with maintaining the traditional wooden appearance of the Princes’ Islands.
  • The goal of the reconstruction to preserve an “exterior identity faithful to the original” ensured the continuity of the building’s historic residential character in its façade language, while at the same time providing continuity of present-day use through a contemporary structural system.
  • Functionally, the teachers’ house brings together accommodation and shared-use units under one roof; together with its use as an evening arts school, the building has a multi-purpose layout serving the educational community.