English version below
Sredinom studenog imali smo čast i užitak posjetiti drage prijatelje iz TAGAteliera u Antaliji, Turska.
Zaboravite Sulejmana Veličanstvenog ili slične turske sapunice, ono što smo mi tamo doživjeli više liči na space operu. Antalija je moderan, tehnološki razvijen i progresivan grad, a takav je i TAGAtelier.
TAGAtelier su osnovali Asli i Tolga Ozbilen po povratku u Tursku nakon gotovo 10 godina rada u Hong Kongu, na velikim i malim projektima kakve trenutno samo brzorastuća istočna Azija financira. Dakle, iza njih stoji veliko iskustvo i znanje koje se trude prenijeti i u Tursku. Srećom po njih, Antalija, i Turska općenito, se gradi i razvija. Naravno, kao i svugdje drugdje, krajobrazni arhitekti i tamo moraju konstantno školovati klijente o važnosti svoje struke, tupiti o bitnosti prostornog planiranja i slično, no to bi bila tema nekog drugog teksta. Jako dugog teksta.
Uglavnom, u Hong Kongu se jako ozbiljno radi i taj je stav prenesen i u TAGAtelier, pa su ih i klijenti vrlo brzo prepoznali kao kvalitetnu i ozbiljnu firmu.
Trenutno osim Asli i Tolge, u TAGAtelieru rade još i tri krajobrazne arhitektice te jedan dizajner. No, oni su samo osnova, kostur za budući TAGAtelier, jer osim što su izrazito kvalitetni i iskusni krajobrazni arhitekti, Tolga i Asli su vrlo vrlo ambiciozni a projekti postaju sve veći i ozbiljniji, te vjerujemo da će se brzo početi širiti.
Kaja je njima pokazala nekolicinu naših projekata, koji su nam se činili tako maleni uspoređujući prema njihovima koje su nam prethodno vrlo zanimljivo prezentirali i dopustili da zavirimo u one u tijeku. Neke smo i posjetili na terenu.
No, umjesto da vam ja sada ovdje pišem o tim projektima, mnogo je bolje da ih sami proučite na NJIHOVOJ STRANICI, a mi ćemo se vratiti na neke od njih u nekom idućem blog postu.
Ono što nas sve puno više zanima je kako se tamo jede i što se tamo pije, te kako se ljudi zabavljaju, zar ne?
Turska je kroz povijest bila na mjestu križanja mnogih kultura i trgovačkih puteva, tako da, da, jede se dobro. Izvrsno čak!
Neka su jela izvorno turska, a neka su turska varijanta svih onih kuhinja koje su kroz povijest bile dio turskih kolonija.
Suprotno uvriježenom mišljenju, Turci nisu isključivo mesojedi pa im je jelo više bazirano na povrću, a mnogo se pazi i da to povrće bude iz domaćeg i po mogućnosti organskog uzgoja.
S obzirom na tu fuziju recepata i nevjerojatnu tursku gostoljubivost i prijaznost, u 6 dana koliko smo tamo proveli nismo dva puta jeli isto jelo. Svaki novi restoran, svaki novi stol je i novo iznenađenje.
Uglavnom, Turci imaju trbuščiće, a tko bi ih i krivio?
Glavno piće im je čaj. Uglavnom crn i sladak. Kava je na drugom mjestu iako je odlična. Čaj se pije svugdje: doma, u kafićima ili čak u parkovima. Sjedneš na neku klupicu i pričekaš dok ti netko ne donese čaj iz obližnjeg kafića.
Što se zabave tiće, možete ostati doma i gledati TV ili možete izaći u stari dio grada i birati glazbu po lokalima: od rocka i bluesa u društvu bradatih bikera do techna u društvu party vjeverica. Frka-panika? Ne, svi su izrazito ljubazni i dobronamjerni. Mi smo prošli cijelu paletu klubova. Bilo mi je izrazito zabavno vidjeti Asli i Tolgu kako se polako opuštaju te se iz poslovnjaka pretvaraju u ljude željne zabave. Doduše, Tolga je zadržao svoj poslovični cool, te nas čvrstim korakom vodio kroz grad. Do jutra sam upoznao neke nevjerojatne ljude s kojima bi i u Zagrebu bilo lijepo izaći. A ako vas baš zanima, sve Turkinje znaju trbušni ples, sudeći po tome kako nam je to Asli lijepo prezentirala!
Jedina zamjerka bi bila na shooterima. Nama sa Balkana su malo preslatki, pa kada ste u Antaliji, držite se pive ili viskija.
Kako provesti dan nakon takve noći? Na plaži! Naši su nas domaćini odveli na jednu šljunčanu uvalu, kakvih doduše ima puno i po Hrvatskoj, ali mi smo se uspijeli i okupati makar je sredina studenog. I nema bure.
Koliko smo se intezivno družili taj tjedan, i da se nismo znali od prije, sada bi se čvrsto zbližili. Tjedan nam je bio pun doživljaja (npr. moje iskustvo u hammamu), smijeha (npr. o mojem iskustvu u hammamu), zabave, dobre hrane i novih saznanja. Nama je posjet TAGAtelieru bio poticaj da se odlučnije bacimo na rad u Kreativnim Krajobrazima. Njihov optimizam je zarazan. Iako nemožemo preslikati njihov poslovni model, usvojili smo neke njihove elemente te ih sve više primjenjujemo u svom radu.
Puno smo razgovarali i o suradnji, a kako će to izgledati i kamo će nas to dovesti, vidjet ćemo u narednim godinama. Njihovi su projekti više ‘urbani’; gradski trgovi i turistička središta, dok smo mi u zadnje vrijeme više imali ‘prirodne’ projekte: u NP Risnjak, kanjonu Kamačnik i Škofljica u Sloveniji, pa bi bilo zanimljivo vidjeti kako se ta znanja mogu kombinirati.
Uspješno, vjerujemo.
English version below
In mid-November, we had the honor and pleasure to visit dear friends from TAGAtelier in Antalya, Turkey.
Forget Suleiman the Magnificent or similar Turkish soap operas, what we had experienced there, is more like a space opera. Antalya is modern, technologically developed and progressive city, and so is TAGAtelier.
TAGAtelier was founded by Asli and Tolga Ozbilen after returning to Turkey after almost 10 years of work in Hong Kong, on large and small scale projects, that is currently only funded by a fast-growing East Asia. So, they have great experience and knowledge that they are trying to apply in Turkey. Fortunately for them, Antalya, and Turkey, in general, is building and developing. Of course, and there as everywhere else, landscape architects there must constantly educate customers about the importance of their profession, blunt about the importance of spatial planning and so on, but that would be the subject of another article. Very long article.
Anyhow, in Hong Kong, they are very serious about work and that attitude is transferred in TAGAtelier, so they are quickly recognized as a good and serious company by customers.
Besides Asli and Tolga, in TAGAtelier work three more landscape architects and a designer. But they are only the basis, the framework for future TAGAtelier, because, in addition that they are notably high quality and experienced landscape architects, Tolga and Asli are very, very ambitious and projects are becoming more and more serious, and we believe they will quickly begin to spread.
After ther presentation, Kaja has shown them a few of our projects, which seemed so small compared to theirs. Some, we visited on the site.
But instead of me writing now about these projects, it is much better for you to read about them on their site, and we will return to some of them in an upcoming blog post.
We are all much more interested in what to eat and what to drink there, and what people do for fun, right?
Turkey has historically been at the point of crossing of many cultures and trade routes, so, yes, you can eat well. Excellent even!
Some meals are originally Turkish, and some are a Turkish version of all those cuisines that have historically been part of the Turkish territory.
Contrary to popular belief, the Turks are not exclusively meat eaters and their food is more based on vegetables. A lot of attention is paid that the vegetables come from local farms and preferably organically grown.
Due to the fusion of recipes and amazing Turkish hospitality and kindness, in 6 days we were there we didn’t eat twice the same food. Each restaurant, each table is a new surprise.
The Turks have a tummy, and who could blame them?
Their main drink is tea. Mostly black and sweet. Coffee is in the second place, though excellent. Tea is drunk everywhere: at home, in coffee shops or even in parks. Sit on a bench and wait until someone reaches a tea from a nearby cafe.
As entertainment is concerned, you can stay home and watch TV, or you can go out in the old part of town and choose the music in bars: from rock and blues in the company of bearded bikers to techno parties in the company of a party squirrel. Any danger? No, they are all very kind and well-meaning. We passed a whole range of clubs. It was very fun to see Asli and Tolga to slowly relax from business people to people looking for fun. However, Tolga has maintained his customary cool and firmly led us through the city. By morning, I met some amazing people that would be nice to see again. And if you really want to know, all Turkish women know belly dancing, judging the way Asli beautifully presented!
The only criticism would be the shooters. We from the Balkans find them a bit too sweet, so when you’re in Antalya, stick to beer or whiskey.
How to spend the day after such a night? On the beach! Our hosts took us on a pebbly bay. Although there were a lot of similar in Croatia, we have been able to take a bath, even in a mid-November. And there’s no famous Croatian Bura wind.
The way we socialized intensively that week, we really made strong bonds. The week was full of experiences (eg. my experience in the hammam), laughter (eg. about my experience in the hammam), entertainment, good food and new knowledge. Our visit to TAGAtelier was an inspiration to resolutely get to work in the Kreativni Krajobrazi. Their optimism is contagious. Although we can’t replicate their business model, we have adopted some of their elements and are increasingly applying it in our work.
We talked about cooperation, and how will it look like and where it will lead, we’ll see in the coming years. Their projects are more ‘urban’; city squares and tourist centers, while we recently had a more ‘natural’ projects in the Risnjak National Park, Canyon Kamačnik and Škofljica in Slovenia, and it would be interesting to see how this knowledge can be combined.
Successfully, we believe.
