VitrA Çağdaş Mimarlık Dizisi - Arkitera

Ontur Hotel is a refurbishment project that involved the conversion of the 4th Onur Office
Block, a commercial building constructed in 1978, into an 80-room boutique hotel.
The building, located on Gazi Boulevard in Izmir, adjacent to Basmane Square has been
redesigned, with its concrete frame structure being reinforced. The 8-storey islandblock
type observed along the boulevard continues to a certain depth into the hotel,
where it gradually reduces and becomes a natural stone base that bears the glass and
metal upper structure divided by an inner alley. The entrance hall, reception and the
cafe located on the ground floor are integrated with the boulevard. Along the building,
the inner alley perpendicular to the boulevard houses various program units within the
niches located on both sides, an attempt to make this plan structure visible from the
boulevard. The building scale in the narrow adjacent and back streets was carefully
chosen in order to achieve harmony with the urban environment.
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Hotel Ontur Izmir is one of four branches of Hotels Ontur and is one of the leading
examples of an urban regeneration process in which business centers and old storage
spaces located in the Çankaya and Basmane areas have been transformed into hotels
to address a deficit in hotel capacity.
Hotel Ontur has a privileged position in the city as it is close to the Basmane Gate of
Izmir Culture Park and to the Basmane Train Station connected to the airport. Its location
on Gazi Boulevard also offers easy access to Mürsel Paşa Boulevard, which connects
the city center with Altınyol highway.
The structure of the hotel was created through the transformation of 4. Onur Shopping
and Business Center, one of 4 high-end shopping center projects, into a hotel by
designers between the years of 1978-79. The building of 4. Onur Shopping and Business
Center has a 4-story shopping and passage unit with offices for rent on the above
4 floors, making a total of 8 floors. It has been transformed into an inner city hotel with
a capacity of 80 rooms.
The hotel is located on a parcel in the middle of an intense commerce district of the
city, and has facilities such as an indoor pool, fitness center and a sauna on the welllit
4 th floor in the middle of the building. The hotel also offers a quiet and high quality
working environment.
The designers tried to maintain serenity, simplicity and plainness inside the hotel
instead of dominant construction. They succeeded in creating a peaceful, minimalist
environment by using plain furniture integrated into the spaces, with features of
a boulevard inside and using granite surfacing in the entrance and lobby, thereby
reducing the tension between interior and exterior.
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