Dada is inviting you to get away from the city. To take a turn on the old Istanbul-Iznik road, and then suddenly turn the wheel hard and abandon that road, arrive at a forest, stop and reflect inside that forest, and to breathe and slow down. Dada Uzak Orman (the Distant Forest), a collective falling outside of the common descriptions where nature and the natural meet those that hold a story, is opening its doors.

Dada Kuzguncuk, an antique store sitting inside a chalet in Kuzguncuk, gave birth to The Distant Forest which lies on a broad terrain, one-hour away from Istanbul by car. The complex includes a museum, where antique pieces collected by the couple Aslı-Hakan Şekerci for over 25 years are exhibited and sold, as well as four guesthouses, a restaurant that can be rented for special events and cultivated areas where farming is practiced. Dada the Distant Forest also accommodates a small farmstead that is run on the principles of self-sufficiency and minimal production just enough to sustain itself. Home to blueberry and lavender fields, the complex produces its own milk and provides a safe area for more than 10 dogs rescued from shelters to live freely.

The museum area, where Dada’s rich antique collection is exhibited, offers a generous selection from old stone mills to antique cars, from agricultural equipment to pieces from old movie theaters. There’s also a shed with a full-fledged kitchen specifically designed for this collection, and it can be rented for special occasions. Its 7-meter-long bar furniture inspired by the US models of the 1920s is also used for service and attendance.

In addition to the antique collection, the four guest houses decorated with carefully-selected, comfortable pieces are planned to be opened in 2023 to offer an accommodation experience not of luxury but the kind that has a refined gusto. These independently-designed structures have been constructed specifically to allow guests to enjoy the feeling they are all by themselves in the forest and to revel in the joy of missing out.

Dada the Distant Forest is a dream come true, a dream that has been turned into reality to be shared with others and carried beyond. It is a call to slow down, an invitation to hold onto the past, to limit consumption and remember how to produce in a fresh and decent manner. Our inspiration came from our beloved Ursula K. Le Guin’s book The Word for World is Forest which tells the tale of a local people living in a utopian forest who have no separate words for “world” and “forest”, and these two are in fact synonymous. Our aim is to do good to those who diverge onto the sideroad to escape into this small world. Or into this small forest. Whichever word you prefer.