All'Interno
Yıldırım Kocacıklıoğlu was born in İstanbul in 1937. After graduating from D.G.S Academy, Department of Interior Architecture (Mimar Sinan University Faculty of Fine Arts), he founded Interno (1962) together with his partner Turhan Uncuoğlu. Following the method of “comprehensive project design and production” of his countless place and design, Yıldırım Kocacıklıoğlu created a half century old multidisciplinary melting pot, which enabled all of the artisans to take part in the construction of the spaces as well as the last users learned from each other.
Under this firm, they created a series of modern furniture designs, the production and sale of which had never been tried in Turkey before as a result of its partners’ visionary understanding, their trips to Italy, analysis of such magazines as Domus, and their assimilation to the projects by such important designers and architects then as Marcel Breuer and Gio Ponti. Along with the reproductions of furniture designs by such early modernists as Breuer and Corbusier, the original designs created from these inspirations by the partners of the firm, and the modern accessory choices collected with a professional care, Interno turned into a kind of unprecedented modern design museum in Turkey in a short period of time. Introduction of these multi-disciplinary designs played a didactic role in terms of store marketing in İstanbul as well as offering a detailed modern life frame to its customers. Interno laid the foundations of both modern space understanding and a modern furniture industry not existing at that time by adopting a line much beyond the time.
Differing from the interiors he designed for his customers, the architects' own home is the embodiment of the purest form of his modernist design aesthetic.
Within a very restrictive color palette of pale gray; from the walls, to lacquered built-in furniture, wall to wall carpeting and the ceiling; all in unicolor, form a canvas where clean geometric forms reveal a strong presence. Every detail within the furniture from lighting to painting holding posts give subtle hints of the mastermind of Yıldırım Kocacıklıoğlu's extensive design approach. Skillful and sculpturally undertaken, the marble dining table, lacquered plinth for a statue, black coffee table, the headboard/divider/lamp in the bedroom, are only some of the elements that contribute and are tied to the unity of the project while all possess individually striking qualities. Clean in an almost minimalistic sense, this house provides its habitants ease and comfort within a serene environment. Surprising as it is, a place of such appearance could function so perfectly to the point that elevates way of living, is a manifest within itself. Perhaps his most iconic work, in a career spanning sixty years, he has undoubtedly made a mark at his time, paved the way for the future and will always be remembered for his unique contribution.
