Phare’s Harem chandelier

Turkey’s strong cultural heritage and long history of craft-based artisan production centred on ceramics, metal-work and carpet manufacture would appear to offer a solid platform for the development of a contemporary design industry. Tourist dollars are flooding in, supporting stylish establishments such the W Istanbul and The Sofa hotels and hip restaurants such as Mikla or Ulus 29. And, with 60 per cent of the population aged below 30, the country has a youthful energy.

But, even in the cosmopolitan capital, Turkish design outlets remain patchy; international offerings range from Ikea and Habitat to B&B Italia and Bulthaup, with little in between, while indigenous showrooms are even rarer, though Derin, Step and Autoban are worthy exceptions. Indigenous manufacturers tend to be small and little-known abroad. And only in the past few years has a new generation of young, mainly foreign-trained designers started to emerge and gain recognition.

As Inci Ozman of Istanbul-based lighting company Phare observes: “Ten years ago there was no contemporary lighting at all in Turkey and, when we first started importing designs from Europe, architects and interior designers just wanted to have them copied. [But] now attitudes have changed. Not only do they want to buy designs from Europe but they want contemporary Turkish designs too.”

Istanbul Design Weekend, which starts on Thursday, is a good place to assess the current state of Turkish design. This year’s event – the fourth – has been given a fresh direction following last October’s postponement (due to renovation of the Old Galata bridge where previous events were staged) via a partnership between local organiser Dream Design Factory and Milan-based DesignPartners. Instead of taking place in tents, exhibitions and parties will be held throughout the city at individual design studios, showrooms, malls and hotels, all linked by the theme “Mediterranean Design: Between Past and Present”.

Highlights include the opening of a DesignLibrary information resource centre with associate branches in Milan and Shanghai at the Old Hat Factory in the Golden Horn area; Material ConneXion, an archive of contemporary, innovative materials, which will be open for a month; another show displaying the winners of an online Mediterranean design competition organised by Palermo University; and a convention on the same subject, including talks by Turkish designers and academics, in the Istanbul Fashion Academy.

Galata jellyfish light

“I want to put Istanbul on the international design map,” says Maurizio Ribotti, chief executive of DesignPartners. “Like Milan, it’s a production and manufacturing centre and that’s why [the design weekend] will focus on young Turkish brands rather than international companies. A lot of new young designers in Istanbul are keen to include a Turkish touch while being orientated towards the international design scene.”

Arhan Kayar of Dream Design Factory describes this new wave of Turkish creativity as “fusion design” and it’s not hard to see what he means. Take the new Harem chandelier from Phare that substitutes conventional crystals with small copper plates, hand-made by Turkish craftsmen. The thin squares (also available in silver or gold) hang independently from wires, tinkling in the breeze and partly obscuring the internal illumination to create an effect reminiscent of traditional Middle Eastern latticed woodwork window-screens. “It comes naturally to use Turkish elements even though we want our designs to look very modern,” Ozman explains.

She also points to the company’s new Lokum collection of pendants, wall and table lamps featuring “modernised Ottoman motifs, all in very bright Turkish colours” and the Galata jellyfish light, with long chiffon strands made by a Turkish bridal shop. The products are available at Phare’s Istanbul showroom but as yet it has no European distributors.

Young designers such as Murat Tamgüç of Lunapark, who worked with Phare on the jellyfish light, describe his and his compatriots’ work as “experimental”. “I explore different forms,” he says, pointing to his portable, lightweight furniture, including the geometric Baklava bookshelf and bright yellow mesh Selcuk screen, seen in his new showroom, as well as the specially-designed “mobile-light” he will hang in local shops and on surrounding streets during the design weekend.

Can Yalman, who trained at New York’s Parsons School of Design, concurs. “My work is not just about shape and form. I try to give my designs a unique quality, introducing elements that haven’t been tried before,” he says. “I want to understand why an object should be the way it is.”

For evidence, check out Orientile, his second tile collection for Canakkale Seramik, also on show this coming weekend. The teardrop shape of Aya is outlined with thin copper wire to create a pillow effect – “very tactile with different visual effects created by the metal’s reflections in the ceramic,” Yalman says; Rumi, a dramatic design with gold and platinum detail on black or white ceramic, is inspired by Turkish calligraphy and Turkish craftsmen’s gold inlay work; and Feza’s elongated diamond shape relates to the Ottoman period’s geometric patterns with the contemporary tweak of raising one tip, creating a three-dimensional effect.

A room decorated with Can Yalman’s Orientile tiles

Yalman’s collaboration on Stepevi’s Deep Mienterra rugs, which won the Wools of New Zealand Rug Design 2009 award, will also be displayed at Stepevi’s showrooms.

Another up-and-comer exhibiting at Istanbul Design Weekend, following the debut of his first retail furniture collection in Milan last year, is architect Serhan Gürkan of GMG In/Ex, who has a master’s degree from Chicago Illinois Institute of Technology and several restaurant interiors projects on his CV. His Mukarnas range now includes glass-topped coffee tables with pointed wooden legs and a matching console with a drop-down shelf inspired by Islamic art; his new Fetish tables – Gazelle, Madame Bovary and Tommy the Spider – feature unconventional leg configurations; and his Golden Ratio shelving mixes an oak frame with pull-out Plexiglass boxes. “I love experimenting with forms and ideas,” Gürkan says. “But I’m also trying to create designs with a story because I believe that a design should say something as well as being beautiful and functional. At the moment I feel I’m just finding my way.”

One duo already successfully navigating the international market is Autoban, a partnership between architect Seyhan Ozdemir and interior designer Sefer Çaglar with a gallery in Istanbul. Their furniture and lighting is produced by Portuguese manufacturer De La Espada; several pieces, including the Walking Man bench, Sledge lounge chair and King and Tulip lights, were shown at London’s 100% Design last September; and an own-label collection is due out later this year. Ozdemir says the designs are “inspired by memories from childhood and from my travels”. She likes to use traditional materials, such as solid wood with brass, cast iron or marble, and to combine local craft techniques with new production methods like laser cutting.

There are older Turkish designers, such as Aziz Sariyer, who works for Cappellini, Moroso and Vitra, and his son Derin, proprietor of the eponymous furniture company, who don’t necessarily reference their country’s culture. The current Derin collection – including the Tun armchair, with its tall, booth-like sides; the curvaceous semi-circle or full-circle End sofa; and the clever, contemporary, modular Seed and Pal storage units – could come from anywhere.

But Tamgüç, Yalman, Gürkan and the other young Turks following in the Sariyers’ footsteps, seem more keen to acknowledge their roots. “We have a lot of old values in Turkey and a lot of heritage,” Gürkan says. “This is why I like to use Islamic symbols but give them a European twist.”

Istanbul Design Weekend runs from Thursday to Sunday, www.istanbuldesignweek2009.com