The House
Şirin Erdilek.
Founder. The voice on the phone, the eye choosing the flowers, the name at the end of every email. The house is built so that could change one day — for now, it hasn't had to.
Background
Şirin Erdilek read French at Istanbul University. The decade that followed split between two careers — translating books from French and English into Turkish, and running textile exports to international houses across Europe and Russia. Both taught the same discipline: precise language, careful delivery, the small constant decisions that move a thing from hand to hand without losing its quality.
In 2010 she moved to Bodrum, choosing to make the coast her year-round life. Atelier Myndos came afterwards — first as informal help for the few houses that had come to rely on her, then as a deliberate practice. She still answers her own phone.
The name
Myndos was an ancient Carian harbour city on the western edge of the Bodrum peninsula. It was quiet, contained, and protected by its natural harbour. Its walls were cut from local andesite in the fourth century BCE; the site has been continuously inhabited since the Leleges, more than four thousand years.
Atelier names what the work is. The word commits to one set of hands, one filter, and a short list of clients chosen with care. A workshop, not an agency.
Principles
- Names, not networks.
- Written before said.
- Long before short.
- Same supplier twice, or not at all.
Languages
Şirin works in Turkish, French, and English.