The Office

Eşik Mimarlık was founded in Istanbul in 2003 by Lale Orhun and Cenk Sönmez. After their architectural education, the two partners wanted to turn the experience they gained in large offices into a small studio focused on local materials and public space.

Why “threshold”?

A threshold is the zone of transition between inside and outside, private and public, past and future. We often feel the quality of a building at its entrance, courtyard, stair and window – that is, at its thresholds. The name of the office and its design approach rest on this idea.

The office today

With its main studio in Istanbul and a second studio in Ankara, the office consists of 41 architects, interior designers, urban planners and visualization specialists. Work falls into three main headings: housing, cultural and public buildings, and commercial and mixed-use; plus urban design projects.

Milestones

• 2003: The office is founded
• 2007: First national competition win: a middle school campus in Gaziantep
• 2012: Opening of the Ankara studio
• 2017: Adoption of a sustainability and low-carbon building policy
• 2021: Completion of the Kütahya Ceramics Museum and Cedar Street Housing
• 2025: National Architecture Award for the Eskişehir City Library

Way of working

On each project a core team of a partner, a project architect and a BIM coordinator takes responsibility from the start to handover. The model is the office's common language: every project at concept stage is modeled in at least three scales.

The office also invests in professional development: team members are offered two weeks a year of off-site research and travel leave, plus a monthly internal seminar and a weekly model session.