İşbank Museum of Painting-Sculpture

İşbank Painting Sculpture Museum is a 117 year old building that has recently opened its doors as a museum.



The first and main goal is to preserve a historical building with its spatial articulation, atmosphere, materials and patina, while proposing a new multifunctional and technological core with structural, mechanical and electrical loads, without touching the series of interconnected rooms arranged on the façade and damaging the existing structure of this thick shell.



This museum consists of two buildings - an old and a new one - that are attached to each other. The new cassion structure serves the old one by providing it with mechanical and electrical support, while also supporting it structurally. As a result, the old structure is now free of the burden of additional reinforcement and technical equipment. In the very heart of this shell and core structure, built in 1907 and 2023 respectively, the historical stairwell is suspended in the air during the construction and preserved with its patina in this newly built core structure.



When we began the renovation of the building to transform it into the İşbank Painting Sculpture Museum, we realized that we were preparing the building for yet another phase of its existence. During our initial visit of the building, we could almost see the remnants of its past lives interwoven throughout the space. While exploring an empty floor, we started to envision the space transformed into a museum, imagining the flow of visitors and movement that such a purpose would bring to the volume. After encountering the hidden marble staircase and exploring the spacious rooms that faced the street, we decided to develop an approach to preserve this century-old building. Baudouy Apartment itself was our inspiration.