Changa Revisited!

The Changa Restaurant was an important restaurant in Beyoglu, Istanbul, designed by GAD in the early 2000s. The restoration by GAD of an 19th century Art Nouveau townhouse originally dating to 1903 by the architect I. Karagiannis at the the turn of the 21st century represented a critical approach to restoration of historic buildings in Istanbul balancing the need to preserve historic exteriors with new uses that demanded a more fluid use of interior space.
GAD’s strategy at Changa of retaining the historic envelope while opening up space and light in the interior through the use of steel and glass construction was implemented in many GAD projects later including Borusan Muzik Evi and Esma Sultan. Avcioglu and the team from GAD Foundation inspected the current state of the building that has been dormant since the Changa Restaurant closed.