The Museum Hotel Antakya

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The Museum Hotel Antakya / EAA – Emre

Arolat Architecture
 Architects

EAA - Emre Arolat Architecture

 Location

Antakya, Turkey

 Category

Museum

 Area

34000.0 m2

 Project Year

2019

 Photographs

Cemal Emden, Studio Majo

 Manufacturers

Reynaers Aluminium, KEIM, Jotun, Vitra, SISECAM, Hafele Group, Trimble, Autodesk
Text description provided by the architects. Situated nearby the Saint Peter’s Church on Mount Starius in
Antakya, that is claimed to have housed the first Christian congregation, the 199-room hotel is erected
on a site of archaeological findings dating back to antiquity. The Museum Hotel Antakya pays homage to
the amazing mosaics, baths, piazzas discovered during the first drills of the site and draws on the
tensioned relationship of Archaeology and Architecture by intertwining the ancient and the modern.

An understanding of the unique context was a vital part of this project; becoming familiar with
archaeological preservation, re-interpreting the architectural program of the -hotel typology- and
making use of the modular building expertise made it possible to design a building that would fit within
this place and to receive the approval of the Heritage Committee.
The structure and above all, the points of the structure were adapted according to the specific nods on
the site where archaeological layers were washed off by a former riverbed. There are 66 composite
columns, 120 cm in diameter, all interconnected into a steel grid to lift the rooms and common areas of
the hotel off the ground.
The building can be considered at four different layers; the first being an open-air museum
parqour at a level closest to the findings, the second the common public areas of the hotel; the
lobby and the restaurant hovering over a scenery of the archaeological findings.

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© Studio Majo

The third level is a cluster of prefab modules of hotel rooms and an open-air circulation which
keeps the eye of the beholder on the exquisite landscape of mosaics all the time. Lastly, the
canopy, which while protecting everything underneath, forms the ground for the Ballroom, Spa,
Meeting Rooms and a Specialty Restaurant planned as pavilions and accompanied by tree filled
courtyards as open communal areas with strong ties to the local context.

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© Studio Majo

Taking inspiration from Antakya’s local history the project sought to meet two main objectives;
one was to represent the amazing layers of civilizations in a way unprecedented; composed with
the function of a hotel and the second was to make use of modern technologies along with more
traditional materials in the interiors.

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© Studio Majo

The building has a highly efficient passive ventilation system which eliminated the need for
mechanical air conditioning in the circulation. Thanks to the omittance of the outer facade, air
circulates freely between the footpaths and the rooms. The glass protective wall at the ground
level was designed to harness the local prevailing winds and dust, keeping the archaeological
findings safe.

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