WE ARE EXCITED AND PROUD TO PREPARE THE 100TH ISSUE OF OUR EQ MAGAZINE, WHICH HELPS US SHARE OUR NEWS ABOUT THE COMPANY WITH YOU, GET TO KNOW YOU BETTER, AND PROVIDE YOU WITH GUIDES ON MANY LIFE ISSUES. WE HAVE LOOKED BACK AT WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED SO FAR.
Our field of activity may appear to be constructions and buildings however, our main goal is to offer an environment that makes the life of each member of our family beautiful. We consider the details that add value, facilitate, and enrich the lives of our residents as an indispensable part of our work in the projects we have accomplished. In fact, this is how we chose to include EQ magazine in our family, as we aim to share with you about the work we do, to get to know our family members better by hosting our neighbors on our pages, and to make your life better by sharing artistic and gastronomic developments with you.
In 2014, our chairman Mehmet Okay told the story of our magazine’s name in our first issue as follows:
”In fact, there are more of you in this magazine than we are, because the main theme of this magazine is everything about life and living, where each member of our family will find something for their own taste. For this reason, the name of the magazine is EQ, emotional intelligence. We know you and your feelings, and you will see these reflected in our magazine. We will continue to build residences and provide services with the most suitable quality/price ratio, with the philosophy of ‘not for shelter, but for living’. This magazine will be a medium to help us understand and communicate better.”
Today we are experiencing the happiness of the 100th issue of our magazine. For 100 issues, we have spoken about our many projects, talked to many of our friends, and announced many art and cultural events. Let’s take a walk down memory lane!
One of the most important values for us are the cities, where we have left our footprints. We have discussed various cities and also different districts of İstanbul, in addition we have also shared the routes that would shed light on your trips, like the most enjoyable cycling routes of İstanbul, the Christmas markets set up in different places in the Festive season, the most beautiful holiday towns of the Aegean from Çeşme to Ayvalık, and the most favorite spots for winter tourism on the Black Sea coast.
We have also announced many of our achievements to you in our pages. We proudly and excitedly published that we are in the top 100 of the ‘world’s top 250 international contractors’ list, as well as always informing our family about new projects and the awards we have received.
The Ant Yapı team, at every opportunity want to inform you, the readers, about our projects, which we eagerly await completion. In our 74th issue we mentioned the mega-luxury Belgravia Gate project that we started in Belgravia, one of the most luxurious districts of London. It is a project in which we aim to restore a 19th century mansion keeping the outer facade the same, while changing the other areas offering a new living space. Likewise, our excitement increases each time we announce projects we have started in Russia, America, and the Turkic Republics to our readers.
Another project that we enthusiastically announced was Anthaven Aspat, located in a paradise harbor of Bodrum. Aspat, which has unique nature intertwined with ancient civilizations, is one of the rare and preserved bays of Bodrum. As Ant Yapı, we accomplished a brand new project in Aspat, which is in harmony with the sea, history and nature, and is a candidate to be the harbor of peace. In our 83rd issue, we revealed the news of the first phase of the sale of this land, which we believe is a privileged project for Ant Yapı. When the project was brought to life and sales began, we thought about our guests and readers, and we said ‘let’s get to know our neighbor’ and have continued to introduce one of our neighbors in each issue, so that the residents of Anthaven could have a closer connection to each other.
It has always been important for us that the Ant Yapı family get to know and socialize with each other. In the first issue of EQ on our ‘Next Door’ pages, we hosted the couple Mustafa and İlknur Çınar and their son, Tolga, in a 7,000 residence, with the idea that “get the right neighbors rather than the right house”. The family said, “Here, it’s like we are always on holiday, especially in summer, this place becomes like a holiday village,” and the reason for this was the social activities and social interactions on the site. İlknur said, “When I saw the sample flat, I liked it very much. Ant Yapı’s honest approach and the fact that they didn’t think of just “let me sell a house, the rest is not important” was valuable in our decision.”
In our magazine, we have included delicious recipes from various regions and countries of the world. We have interviewed chefs, one of them Aylin Yazıcıoğlu, is the chef and owner of the famous Nicole Restaurant in İstanbul. In our 80th issue, in order to inspire people who can dare to start again, we published the story about Aylin Yazıcıoğlu’s career, as he dared to leave a very bright academic position to become a chef. It has always been and will continue to be an honor for us to welcome hardworking people to our pages, those who have succeeded in reaching the goals they have set in their own disciplines.
EQ magazine and Ant Yapı have always supported art and artists. When Turkey’s first contemporary art museum, İstanbul Modern, moved to Beyoğlu for three years, Union Française, one of the region’s favorite historical buildings, became a temporary place for the museum and we shared its history. We followed the 15th İstanbul biennial in our 78th and 79th issues firstly, we prepared a long art guide, and then we published what we liked about the biennial.
After the death of the esteemed artist Ferhan Şensoy in recent months, we said our last farewell to him by remembering a poem written by him. We also met with Deniz Arcak, one of the unforgettable voices of the 90s, at the music school she opened after quitting the stage. Some other important artists we have welcomed to our pages include the columnist Mutlu Tönbekici, art Historian Gül İrepoğlu, actor Muhammet Uzuner, fashion designer Özer Süer, actress Şahika Tekand, writer Mario Levi, and the sculptor Cem Sağbil.
As of our 83rd issue, a new chapter was there for us as well, as we started to publish our magazine online. Thus, we aimed to create a reading platform that you can reach more easily, that will be on your screen while sitting in the park or garden. By preparing our blog content in both Turkish and English, we have reached the friends of Ant Yapı abroad and informed our foreign guests in Turkey about the developments in the Ant Yapı family.
When we look back, we see that on our pages we also experienced the joy of the festivals together, we started the new year together, and have celebrated all kinds of joy together. Therefore, we wanted to share the pride of publishing the 100th issue with you. We would like to thank once again, all our friends who have been excited and proud to join us on this adventure. Hope to see you in our new issues with more good news.
