OMA Transforms Ottoman Imperial Arsenal into Istanbul Department Store

OMA has completed Beymen Tersane, a 12,000-square-meter luxury department store inside the former Tersane-i Âmire shipyard on the Golden Horn in Istanbul. The project, finished in 2026, inserts freestanding galleries with distinct geometries and materials into the historic brick arches, cast iron columns, and timber trusses of the 16th-century Ottoman naval arsenal. Key features include a polished stainless steel spiral staircase rising through an original stone arch, a double-height shoe hall with a copper sculptural installation hanging from the original trusses, and a hall of terracotta cylindrical columns housing tropical plants. The store is the first major cultural-commercial completion within the Tersane Istanbul redevelopment, which returns the long-inaccessible waterfront to the city. OMA Partner Iyad Alsaka describes the project as uniting the studio's interests in shopping and conservation, reactivating a site comparable in importance to the Venice Arsenal. The design refuses conventional retail hierarchy, instead offering a sequence of interior climates that juxtapose new and old without concealing the original fabric.