VitrA Çağdaş Mimarlık Dizisi - Arkitera

The building, a refurbishment of a severely damaged residential building designed by
Dutch architects during the Russian invasion in Kars, has been restored for use as a
hotel. The original exterior shell of the building has been preserved and the interior
has been adapted for the new function, with the doors and windows renewed in accordance
with the original design. Snow, white, calm, cosy and warmth were the core
concepts in the restoration of the architecturally sturdy building after 120-130 years.
The combined use of stone and wood in the exterior façade continues in the interior,
balancing the heaviness of stone with the warmth of wood. The architects aimed for
modest, calm and well-balanced interior spaces. The new design reflects traditional architecture
by making use of the Northern European influences in the civil architecture
of Kars.
✎
Between 1878 and 1918, the Russians in charge of the city of Kars carried out an outstanding
urban development project, constructing Baltic-style buildings on a grid plan
designed by the Dutch engineers in 1890, radically modernizing the city and transforming
it into a typical garrison town.
Kar’s Hotel is located at the corner of Gazi Ahmet Muhtar Paşa Street and Halitpaşa
Street, where the organic pattern of the historical Kale İçi (Citadel) district located inside
and at the slopes of Kars Castle reaches level ground and meets this grid-based expansion
plan. The building was converted to a luxury boutique hotel through the adaptive
re-use of the two-story historical residential building constructed with basalt ashlar
stones and its two-story annex in the garden. Kar’s Hotel has a total of 8 rooms with
standard and suit rooms and a family suite at the roof level as well as a restaurant on
the ground floor and a VIP meeting room for 15 people.
With the opening of Kars airport for civilian aviation in 1988, the declaration of Sarıkamış
region as a Tourism Center in 1991 and the opening of Sarıkamış Ski Center, Kars has
become one of Turkey’s important venues of winter tourism. Parallel to these developments,
the Council for the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Resources announced
a Conservation Plan in 1995, aiming to protect the castle and the surrounding historical
sites. In the process of rapid integration with tourism, precautions have been taken to
protect the city of Kars from the permanent destructive effects of this tourism activity.
With the acceleration of the adaptive re-use of Kar’s Hotel, the long-ignored civilian
architecture of Kars has regained its value as a touristic resource.
196