July 29, 2026 | DESIGN & INTERIORS
REDESIGNING DINING
at the BODRUM EDITION
words Onur Baştürk
photos İbrahim Özbunar
With the redesign of three restaurants at The Bodrum EDITION, Istanbul-based studio URBANJOBS explores how a single hospitality identity can accommodate three distinct culinary cultures—without losing its architectural coherence.
The best hospitality interiors rarely compete with the experience. Instead, they quietly shape it. At The Bodrum EDITION, architecture becomes part of the dining experience not through dramatic gestures, but through atmosphere, materiality and a careful sense of place.
Rather than approaching the restaurants as independent destinations, the project conceives them as variations on a shared architectural language—one that remains faithful to the understated elegance of EDITION Hotels while allowing each venue to express its own atmosphere, material palette and identity.
The result is less a collection of restaurants than a sequence of atmospheres.
FRAMING THE LANDSCAPE
Kitchen, led by Michelin-starred chef Osman Sezener, takes its cues from the Aegean. The architecture follows the same direction. White stone, pale timber and a generous colonnade opening towards the sea allow the landscape to become part of the interior. An open raw bar extends onto the terrace, softening the boundary between preparation and dining, while marble surfaces reinforce the restrained material palette that defines the space. Calm, tactile and deeply connected to its setting, the restaurant reflects Sezener's cuisine without ever illustrating it.
DESIGNING FAMILIARITY
The mood shifts at The Trattoria. Created together with Michelin-starred chef Stefano Ciotti, the restaurant draws on the warmth of Italian hospitality through timber-lined surfaces, monochrome family photographs and a courtyard framed by olive trees. Rather than recreating Italy, the design evokes its everyday rituals and quiet familiarity, balancing the relaxed spirit of a neighbourhood trattoria with the refined sensibility of EDITION.
BUILDING WITHOUT BUILDING
DAHA, developed with Mehmet Akdağ of the renowned restaurant 7 Mehmet, presents an entirely different architectural challenge. With no roof or permanent structure, the project relies on oversized custom-designed floor lamps to establish rhythm, scale and verticality across the open-air dining space. More than lighting elements, they become architectural markers that define the restaurant after sunset while leaving the sky unobstructed.
What ultimately connects the three restaurants is not a shared aesthetic, but a shared discipline. Each remains in dialogue with the quiet identity of EDITION, while allowing its chef's culinary philosophy to shape the experience in a distinct way.
At a time when hospitality interiors often compete for attention through spectacle, this project takes a more measured approach. Here, architecture doesn't seek attention. It quietly frames the moments that matter.
