Özlem Tuna Design Zone
A contemporary Istanbul design gallery on Alibaba Türbe Sokak, showing Özlem Tuna's jewellery and ceramics alongside work by other Turkish designers.
Özlem Tuna Design Zone is where Grand Bazaar craft inheritance meets contemporary studio work. Tuna trained in ceramics at Marmara University, founded her studio in 2003, and opened the Design Zone gallery on Alibaba Türbe Sokak in 2007, a short walk from the Bazaar’s Nuruosmaniye gate.
The shop reads as a working showroom rather than a souvenir stop. Jewellery, ceramics, tableware and small home objects sit alongside pieces by other Turkish designers; coffee cups, tea sets and adornments draw on Ottoman geometry and motif without sliding into museum reproduction.
The pleasure here is tactile. A pomegranate-glazed cup or a hammered silver pendant carries Istanbul home in a way a magnet never will, and the bench of emerging designers Tuna shows alongside her own work keeps the selection moving season to season.
Open daily except Sunday, 09:00 to 18:00. Worth the small detour from the Bazaar’s main lanes.
