Architect Feza Ökten Koca, started her journey with architectural design services under the roof of Elips Design Architecture, which was established in 1999, and added interior design and turnkey application works over the years. Her projects are especially in the fields of housing, commercial areas, food and beverage, retailing and education. She started to exhibit her award-winning furniture and lighting products under the roof of FEZA dsgn in the store she opened in Addresistanbul Home Decoration Center. We talked with Architect Feza Ökten Koca, who has been deemed worthy of many awards for her architectural and interior designs and products, about her architectural practice, which she is passionate about, the design products she has branded under the name of FEZA dsgn, and her views on the future of natural stone.
How did your inclination towards architecture and design come about?
Feyza Ökcen Koca: After Darüşşafaka High School, I graduated from ITU Faculty of Architecture in 1994 with the title of Master Architect. I founded the Elips Design and Architecture office in 1999, after continuing my business life, which I started in the office of my professors during my student years, at the Percy Thomas Partnership office in London for a while. Along with architectural and interior design and turnkey application services, I started to design products under the FEZA dsgn brand. Together with my team, we have designed and implemented thousands of square meters of spaces, mainly under the headings of office, residence, store and restaurant.
How would you describe your point of view on design?
FÖK: I can say that mostly form follows function. Design has to respond to a need. While giving this answer, it is important for me to surprise the user with form and material. When it comes to my architecture, creating buildings that both add value to the environment and create a good life for the users inside and outside determines my understanding of architecture.
How do the design processes of projects take place at Elips Design Architecture?
FÖK: Before starting the design process, we meet with our customers, listen to their needs and dreams through the space, and try to understand them. We show some sample images to show how we can embody their needs according to the conditions of the place, and whether we understand it correctly. Architecture is a profession that you can understand completely visually, no idea can be understood correctly verbally. The concept of design is determined on the basis of the emotion that is desired to be experienced by the users of the space to be created. I don’t use a special source for inspiration, but there are portals, books and magazines that I constantly follow. Architecture is a profession that requires you to be constantly up to date. Me and my team are constantly keeping ourselves in touch with the design world thanks to the smartphones in our hands. We try to follow the innovations both in the world of architecture and in related sectors. Architecture is like a lover to me. It expects you to give it almost every hour of the day; not only at school, office or construction site, but while having fun, doing sports, resting etc. expects your selectivity in perception to always be on architecture.
How does the process work for the investor and the architect while the concept is being created?
FÖK: While some investors try to be original while creating the concept, others try to make similar examples. Sometimes the job of the architect can be very difficult during the concept determination process. At the stage where you can express yourself well and gain the trust of the customer and convince them, the first steps of the project begin to be taken. The investor should know the user well, decide whom to serve, and empathize. The architect should guide the investor about the user scenario. The concept to be created should specifically answer the “why” question. Why would the customer choose this place to be created? How will it differ from its peers? The most important thing here is the story. Design should have a story. What will the life setup to be created in the space will make the user experience? What story will the customer leave with when leaving the space? The concept should include these. Unfortunately, this work process may seem too long and unnecessary to some investors, projects that are made quickly without making the right decisions are unfortunately not sustainable in the long run. Similar places are starting to offer nothing to the customer, the user is looking for something different.
You are actually an architect, but when we examine your works, we see that you mainly focus on product and interior design. Is there any special reason for this?
FÖK: As Ellips Design and Architecture, 30% of our work is architectural design, while 70% includes interior architecture and product design. I think the most important reason for this at the point I’ve reached today is that I have a detail-oriented personality. It makes me more happy to reach the result quickly and to present the product to the customer quickly. Producing my dreams in interior and product design quickly under my own control and starting the next project keeps me dynamic. Maybe it’s because I’m a woman.
While your architectural and interior design projects continue, you have opened a showroom for your furniture, lighting and product designs that you produce under the FEZA dsgn brand…
FÖK: I recently opened the FEZA dsgn store at Addresistanbul Home Decoration Center. We have gathered the award-winning product designs that I have exhibited at various fairs since 2012 under the FEZA dsgn brand. We have been designing special furniture for our customers in the architectural and interior design works we have been doing for years. We were making special designs for their needs and space. The FEZA dsgn brand was also born with the experience gained from these studies. This time, I was the one who determined the need and concept.
What types of products are there in FEZA dsgn and what kind of lifestyles do they appeal to?
FÖK: FEZA dsgn consists of furniture and lighting products shaped with modern and simplicity themes. While designing a product, I imagine the product to stand as a sculpture with its form and material, in addition to the function it has to perform; this is my starting point in my product designs. I define a concept and design a collection. I can get inspiration from many different subjects. For example, in the FLY Collection I wanted furniture and lighting products to be simple, transparent and free as a bird. I used wood and metal together with clear acrylic. The Boomerang chair, which I was inspired by the boomerang toy, has a very simple appearance with its boomerang-shaped solid wooden arms and legs integrated with transparent acrylic.
We see that you often use natural stone in your projects. As an architect, what is your perspective on this material?
FÖK: Natural stone is one of the materials that come to the fore in many projects we do. We use it mostly in residences, offices, hotels, cafes and restaurants. In the past, natural stone was used intensively in bathrooms and common areas in housing projects. But with the new processes on natural stone, it has become usable in many parts of the house. When we think of natural stone in architectural projects, the first things that come to mind are marble and granite, but the use of different types is increasingly preferred. Stones such as onyx marble, travertine and basalt stand out. Onyx marble, which has a light-permeable feature, is used in the office desk and wall coverings. In particular, we see that yellow tones are used.
How do you see the future of natural stone? What would you say about the new trends in this material?
FÖK: The use of natural stone has started to be preferred not only for flooring and walls, but also for furniture and decor designs. The polished natural stone is gradually being replaced by natural stones that undergo processes such as aging, sandblasting and hammering. Gray marble tones, which were preferred in previous years, will be replaced by more beige tones in the coming period. At the same time, the use of marble in beige tones will be dominant in other design products. Apart from the wall and floor coverings we always encounter, natural stone has already begun to be used in decorative products. Natural stone will continue to be preferred as facade cladding in architectural projects, as it provides heat insulation, wear resistance, durability and allows for use in large sizes.
Finally, can we learn about your future goals?
FÖK: My goals for the future are primarily to add new collections to the FEZA dsgn brand and to increase our overseas sales. To continue our architectural and interior designs quickly. In addition to the projects we do for individual customers, it is among my goals to produce social projects open to the use of public spaces.
