Excavating uneven floors created the dramatic double-height ceiling defining the entire home.
A young family with three children wants a home that functions as a luxury resort, an art gallery, and a playground simultaneously. The property presents floor levels that seem determined to complicate everything. Serpil Senyuz responded to the Beykoz Mansions brief in Istanbul by bringing in excavation equipment to level the entire ground floor, gaining ceiling height that became the project's most distinctive element. The resulting double-height living area now serves as the heart of a 600 square meter home where artwork breathes, family members connect across floors, and natural light floods spaces that feel expansive without sacrificing intimacy. What began as a structural challenge became the architectural signature that makes Beykoz Mansions remarkable.
The methodology behind Beykoz Mansions offers concrete lessons for design studios and creative agencies serving sophisticated residential clients. Senyuz began with systematic research into how the family actually lives, asking questions like where children drop backpacks and how parents supervise while cooking. Art integration started during early design conversations rather than after construction, ensuring that wall surfaces, lighting angles, and spatial volumes all support the family's collection. The project earned Silver recognition in the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award in 2025, validating an approach where luxury and functionality coexist rather than compete. Vertical zoning separates children's play areas on the attic level from the parents' private second floor suite, complete with a secret door connecting to a bar overlooking the gallery below. Every design decision filters through the lens of daily life while maintaining sophisticated modern Art Deco aesthetics.
The Beykoz Mansions project demonstrates that residential design reaches its highest expression when studios commit fully to understanding client lifestyles before making major spatial decisions. Constraints become features. Art becomes architecture. Family chaos and sophisticated elegance share the same address. What might your next residential project reveal if you asked different questions at the beginning?
