Silver Interior Space and Exhibition Design · 2026
Cremma Kosuyolu Cafe
- A' Design Award 2026 Silver Winner in Interior Space and Exhibition Design
- Awarded April 15, 2026
- CLIENT: Departman Architecture
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 26,527
- Verification code 132C18D601 · Verify this award
About Cremma Kosuyolu Cafe
Cremma Kosuyolu is a cafe interior located in Istanbul, Turkey. The design occupies an existing brick masonry building and spans four levels. Visitors enter through the historic arched facade and reach the coffee bar, then ascend to a glass-roofed atrium with ornamental ironwork and tropical planting. A lower bar is defined by classical columns and a neon installation, while the upper floor features floor-to-ceiling glazing and sculptural lighting. Corten steel, exposed concrete, stained glass and bespoke joinery link heritage and contemporary design.
Cremma Kosuyolu Cafe by Departman Architecture exemplifies a sophisticated approach to hospitality design that thoughtfully negotiates between industrial severity and refined comfort, between heritage architectural vocabularies and contemporary spatial sensibilities. The intervention appears to occupy a structure of historical significance, suggested by the ornate wrought iron canopy with its delicate arabesque scrollwork and the classical arched openings that punctuate the perimeter walls, yet the designers have introduced a bold contemporary layer through the matte black steel framework that defines the primary spatial experience. This dialogue between old and new demonstrates a mature understanding of architectural palimpsest, where layers of time coexist rather than compete. The technical achievement lies in the careful calibration of material relationships, where the weight of industrial steel finds balance against the lightness of glazed roof panels, and the coolness of polished concrete flooring achieves harmony with the warmth of cognac leather upholstery. The biophilic dimension, expressed through the central planting arrangement featuring tropical palms, introduces organic vitality that softens the geometric precision of the structural grid while creating a vertical focal element that draws the eye upward toward the ornate ceiling. The spherical pendant fixtures, mounted at consistent intervals on the steel columns, establish a rhythm of warm illumination that transforms the space from purely functional to genuinely atmospheric. The concentric circular relief patterns on the background wall panels suggest an interest in acoustic consideration while contributing decorative interest that rewards prolonged observation. This interior invites visitors to consider how contemporary design practice might honor inherited architectural traditions while asserting its own distinctive voice through material selection, spatial organization, and atmospheric calibration.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- Cremma Kosuyolu is distinguished by its ability to sustain multiple, atmospherically distinct spatial registers within a single, cohesive interior. Across three levels, the design transitions from a glass-roofed atrium with ornamental ironwork and tropical planting, to an industrial lower bar anchored by classical columns and a fluid neon installation, to an upper floor defined by floor-to-ceiling glazing and sculptural lighting objects. This spatial diversity, unified by a restrained material palette, sets the project apart as an interior of rare complexity and depth.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The building comprises 4 levels, each with distinct design elements. The ground floor features exposed brick masonry, providing a sense of durability and historical context. The upper level showcases a minimalist design with Corten steel and darker tones, creating visual interest against the lighter stone base. Both levels incorporate large glass windows, allowing transparency and connecting indoor spaces with the outdoors. High ceilings create an open and airy feel, emphasizing vertical space. Black metal beams add an industrial touch, both structurally and aesthetically.
- Tags
- cremmakosuyolu, departmanco, departmanarchitecture,
- Production Technology
- The project employs a carefully considered material strategy in which industrial and artisanal production techniques are deployed in deliberate contrast. The facade utilises weathering Corten steel, allowing the exterior to develop a natural oxidised patina consonant with the building's masonry. Internally, structural elements retain exposed concrete and ironwork, while bespoke joinery, ribbed metallic bar cladding, and custom upholstered seating were fabricated to specification. The stained-glass composition and wall-mounted bas-relief figures were executed as custom craft pieces, reinforcing the interior's dual commitment to industrial precision and hand-worked detail.
- Design Challenge
- The principal creative challenge resided in realising ambitious contemporary interventions within the constraints of an existing load-bearing brick masonry structure. Integrating large-scale steel construction elements including the glass-roofed atrium and Corten steel facade addition into a historic building of this typology demanded bespoke structural solutions at every stage. Reconciling the building's material and structural limitations with the design vision required close collaboration between architectural, structural, and fabrication disciplines, and necessitated iterative problem-solving to ensure both structural integrity and design fidelity were maintained throughout.
- Project Duration
- The design process began in early 2023, with construction completed in December of the same year in Istanbul, Turkey.
- Operation Flow
- Cremma Kosuyolu guides visitors through a carefully sequenced spatial journey across four levels, each offering a distinct sensory experience. Guests enter through the historic arched facade at street level, moving into the coffee bar before ascending to the glass-roofed atrium, the social heart of the space. Further levels reveal progressively more intimate atmospheres, culminating in the glazed upper floor overlooking the surrounding tree canopy. Each transition is intentional, ensuring that the space rewards exploration while remaining intuitive and welcoming in its flow.
- Research
- The design process was grounded in contextual field research conducted within the Kosuyolu neighbourhood and its immediate surroundings. The research objective was to establish a design language authentically rooted in its urban and historical context. Methodology comprised direct site observation and a systematic study of traditional Istanbul residential architecture, with particular focus on material character, spatial proportion, and ornamental detail. Findings revealed a strong vernacular identity defined by masonry, ironwork, and layered facades, elements that were subsequently translated into the interior and exterior design decisions, ensuring the project contributes meaningfully to its neighbourhood's architectural continuity.
- Inspiration
- The design draws its inspiration from the intrinsic architectural character of the existing buildin's neighbourhoods. The central design motive was to establish a considered dialogue between the building's historical context and a rigorous contemporary spatial language, without subordinating one to the other. The result is a deliberate negotiation in which heritage and modernity are afforded equal presence across each of the project's distinct spatial layers.
- Image Credits
- Image #1-5: Photographer / Sinan Cırak, 2024.
Colors of Cremma Kosuyolu Cafe
Design Interview about Cremma Kosuyolu Cafe
Cremma Koşuyolu follows the principle that runs through all our work: taking something familiar from tradition and reworking it into something new, so a space feels rooted and surprising at once. The starting point here was the setting itself, Koşuyolu is a neighbourhood of old houses with traditional bay windows (cumba), and the existing building sat awkwardly against that fabric, out of step with its surroundings. So our idea was to reconnect the space to its context: to borrow the language of those old, bay-windowed houses and rework it into a contemporary café that belongs to the street again. Rather than layering on decoration, we built the café around that single idea and carried it through everything; the architecture, the custom furniture, the light so guests feel the concept without needing to name it.
Our main focus was to reconcile the building with its surroundings, to take a structure that stood apart from Koşuyolu's old, bay-windowed houses and give it back a sense of belonging, while still reading as clearly contemporary. We wanted a café with a strong, unmistakable identity that also feels genuinely livable, a place people want to be in, not just photograph with every element serving one concept and holding up to daily use. For us, success meant the concept surviving intact from the first sketch to the last built detail, and the finished café feeling like it had always been part of the street.
We see Cremma's design language as something that can grow beyond a single space. Rather than copying the interior, we'd carry its underlying idea, reworking a place's own architectural context into a contemporary café, into new locations, so each one responds to its own setting while still belonging to the same family. The aim is to let the concept evolve as it travels, not simply repeat it.
The design took around eight weeks. A project of this size would normally take longer, but we knew exactly what we wanted, and the client left the process entirely in our hands. That trust made it one of those rare projects we completed with no revisions at all, a space that expresses our vision fully, exactly as we imagined it.
It was a commissioned project, a café for our client but an unusually open one. The client left the concept entirely to us and trusted us with full control, so it became less a matter of satisfying a brief than of pursuing our own vision without compromise. That freedom is a large part of why the project turned out the way it did.
It's a built café interior realised for our client, not a product for licensing. The custom pieces in it, the furniture and the built elements were designed and produced in our own atelier, dept, which is how we keep the whole space true to a single concept.
We're drawn to hospitality because the footprint is small and every decision is visible, so a weak idea has nowhere to hide. It let us test our approach at full intensity: one concept, carried through architecture and custom furniture alike.
Our influences are less individual designers than periods and places , classical architecture and its later reworkings (Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque), and the ancient cities we spend time in. For Cremma the most direct reference was closer to home: the old bay-windowed (cumba) houses of Koşuyolu itself. Their language of projecting volumes and traditional detailing gave us the vocabulary we reworked into the café.
The everyday specialty-coffee guest, people who come for good coffee and stay because the space rewards being in it.
Two things. First, the approach; our "new classicism," where familiar, classical elements are reworked into something contemporary rather than quoted directly. Second, the fact that the furniture and key elements are custom-made in our own atelier, so the space is built from pieces designed for it, not assembled from a catalogue. Together they give Cremma an identity that's hard to reproduce
he name wasn't ours to invent, Cremma is the brand's own existing name, so it came to us with the project rather than out of the design. Our role was to give that name a spatial identity to match.
We developed the design and visuals in 3ds Max, rendering with V-Ray and Corona, and used the Adobe Creative Cloud mainly Photoshop to grade the final images. We also use an AI-assisted post-processing workflow to refine the lighting and polish of our renders, always without altering the design itself. Alongside the digital tools, the atelier itself was central: prototyping and making the custom pieces by hand.
Cremma looks like it has always been on its street, yet nothing in it is old. The bay window, the cumba every passer-by in Koşuyolu recognises from the neighbourhood's houses has been stripped of its ornament and rebuilt in a contemporary language, so people read it as familiar before they realise it's entirely new. That quiet double-take, a memory of the street rephrased in our own words and finished with furniture made by our own hands, is what makes the space singular: it belongs to its context and stands apart from it at the same time.
At its core the design is the two of us, with our in-house atelier producing the custom pieces. Beyond that, the project brought in specialists where it needed them. We worked with engineers on the metal construction and the structural calculations. And for the more artistic elements; the wall textures and the sculptures we collaborated with artists: we designed the sculptures ourselves at the concept stage, then drew on those artists' support to realise them.
Technology sits on two sides. In design, our visualisation tools let us test the concept precisely before anything is built. In realisation, our own production capability; the atelier is the technology that matters most: it lets us make exactly what the concept needs rather than compromising to what the market offers.
Our research is less statistical than architectural and observational: we study the site and how the business will actually run, and we draw on a long habit of looking at classical architecture and at ancient cities to build a reference base. For Cremma specifically, that meant reading the neighbourhood: studying Koşuyolu's old bay-windowed houses and its historic fabric, and understanding how the existing building failed to fit them, so the design could respond to its context rather than ignore it.
Interestingly, the biggest challenge wasn't a technical one. Because the client gave us complete freedom, the real challenge was living up to that freedom taking full responsibility for every decision, with no brief to hide behind, and making sure the result justified the trust we'd been given. Alongside that were the familiar demands of any café of this kind: reconciling the building with its historic surroundings, and getting the handcrafted, custom elements built to exactly the standard the concept required.
We felt Cremma expressed our approach clearly enough to stand next to international work, and the A' Design Award offered both an outside benchmark and a wider audience for the studio.
Carrying one concept intact through architecture, custom production and execution sharpened our full-scope process and the international recognition reinforced that our way of working, design and making under one roof, is worth protecting.
A natural closing note: Cremma is a compact demonstration of the whole studio; one reworked-classical idea, designed, made and built under one roof.