Our design was inspired by a traditional yet an innovative woman chef who brings her eclectic sense and great dishes to a historical place that is Karakoy, Istanbul where a young and hipster crowd is gathered. That is the general situation of this area; it is a unique place with its ambiance and its inspiringly delicious dishes where it unconventionally brings the opposites together. Café Pan is where east meets west, historical meets modern. In Cafe Pan project, we wanted to make people feel that they are at a modern woman chef’s kitchen but also make them not forget that they are at a historical place with inherited tradition.

Firstly, the idea of mythological gods came to our minds then we chose Pan (Faun in Turkish) to be the main character. On the other side, we also got inspired by Renaissance era and how they used paintings to cover the walls and ceilings (Murals, Fresco). We combined Greek mythology with Egyptian art of hieroglyph and followed the line craft style while creating the icons. Only straight and circle lines were used while mythological gods were drawn in a geometrical form. And the myths were retold by our graphics which start from a wall and continue endlessly on the ceiling as well. Tiles were used to represent a traditional kitchen along with the other materials like plywood, to create a modern, cozy and private kitchen-of-a-home atmosphere. All in all, we created a place where people can experience modern and historical, dreams and reality at the same time, it is basically as if you’re reading a mythological story book with visually modern traits while you’re eating.

Design: GeoID
Photographer: Nejat Cifci