Looking from In-Between A Section of Meşrutiyet Street “Hotel Bristol Virtual Reality Experience”
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Reimagining the Past with VR
How would it feel to stroll through the Pera Museum building 128 years ago when it was the Hotel Bristol?
This project digitally revives one of late 19th-century Istanbul’s most iconic hotels, opening it up for exploration through virtual reality.
Designed by French architect Achille Manousso, Hotel Bristol was renowned for its neo-classical façade, grand marble staircase, spacious entrance hall, hobby rooms, and dining salon with individual seating. All offering first-class service to passengers arriving on the Orient Express.
While only the hotel’s technical drawings remain today, no interior photographs have survived.
Result
The result is an immersive VR experience that allows visitors to step inside a historically inspired yet digitally reconstructed Hotel Bristol. Beyond simply replicating a lost interior, the project introduces interactive elements that weave narratives, invite discovery, and connect users with the layered history of the site.
Presented as part of the ‘Looking Through the Windows’ exhibition, this work demonstrates how digital technologies can reimagine spaces that no longer exist in physical form, offering a unique journey into the cultural memory of İstanbul.
Step inside the Looking Through the Windows exhibition at the Pera Museum
Step inside the Looking Through the Windows exhibition at the Pera Museum
The Research Process
To bring the building back to life, our team conducted extensive historical research, drawing on architectural styles, furnishings, and objects used in contemporary hotels of the era.
These eclectic interiors, blending Art Nouveau, French Rococo, Baroque motifs, and Orientalist objects, created hybrid spaces where East and West met.
Every material and object recreated in the virtual space carries a story, carefully selected to reflect the cultural and aesthetic atmosphere of the late 19th century. Even the wall paintings were chosen from the Suna and İnan Kıraç Foundation’s Orientalist Painting Collection to evoke artworks that might have adorned the original hotel.
