Karre is a furniture and product design studio based in London and Istanbul. Karre dates back to 1950’s when Sadi Ozis, Turkish designer, painter and sculptor started to design and produce the first metal furniture in Turkey in his metal atelier.

Although 60 years passed since then, these timeless designs are above all interior trends with all their elegance and still fascinate appreciative eyes.

Having internalised these principles, Karre studio continues creating custom and handcrafted  products, furniture designs and applications.

Sadi Öziş was born in İstanbul in 1923. After finishing high school education in İstanbul Erkek Lisesi he continued his education in İstanbul Arts Academy, department of decoration and graduated from Kenan Temizan’s fashion atelier. In 1948, he received the state scholarship and went to Paris to study stage and costume design.

He studied painting in André L’hote atelier, Academie Grande Chaumiere and Atelier de L’art Apstrait; stage and costume design in Ecole du Louvre, Academie Julian and Paul Colin atelier. It is around this time he started studying sculpture. He returned to Turkey in 1952 and was assigned to İstanbul Art Academy as a faculty member.

In 1962 he founded the Department of Stage and Costume Design with Erdoğan Aksel and continued to be a faculty member, later on professor and department head till he retired in 1990. During his retirement he lectured in the Department of Architecture. In 1986, Sadi Öziş and İlhan Koman founded Kare Metal, the metal atelier where Turkey’s first metal furniture was produced.

In 1958, Şadi Çalık joined them and Kare Metal carried on production till 1967. Sadi Öziş continued working on his sculptures in Kare Metal and his sculpture-furniture creations attracted a lot of attention in the media both in Turkey and Europe. Sadi Öziş founded Galeri-T, one of Turkey’s leading decoration companies, with Gevher Bozkurt in 1962 and worked in this area together with Kare Metal till 1967. He participated in various local and international exhibitions with his works. He prepared 1:1 reliefs of Anıtkabir with Hadi Bara, Zühtü Müridoğlu, Şadi Çalık and İlhan Koman. He was awarded second-prize in 1970 in the 24th State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition and first-prize in 1971 in the 32nd State Painting and Sculpture Exhibition.

Ozis has lost his life on January 16 2013 at the age of 89.

After his graduation as an architect from Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul, Ozis worked with internationally well-known designers and architects on different sizes of commercial and 5-star hotel projects.

Being an offshore sailing racer, his passion for boats finally lead him to yacht industry in 1998, working as an interior designer, detailer and fit out manager on yachts between 20- 90 mt.

Ozis lived in China between 2005 and 2008, then stayed in Italy and France for different types of international projects.

In 2018 he moved his office to the UK and Neptun Ozis has been living and working in London recently on different sized international yachts, residential and commercial projects as well as custom designed one-off furniture and product designs.

In 1953, a metal atelier was opened in sculpture department of İstanbul  Arts Academy (today; Mimar Sinan University). Sadi Öziş and İlhan Koman were very interested in the studies carried out within this atelier and in 1955, two artists established their own metal atelier in order to work on metal sculptures. Since there was not much interest in metal sculptures during those times, they began to look for additional income and started producing Turkey’s first metal furniture. This metal sculpture-furniture production where two artists reflected their creativity in design, became a milestone in Turkish art scenery. After a short while these furniture – even today may seem to be avangarde – attracted a lot of attention and orders started to increase. In 1956, with the financial support of Ozis’ father Tevfik and the artists’ friend Mazhar Süleymangil, Kare Metal was founded.

In 1957, a good friend and another sculpturist Şadi Çalık joined Kare Metal. Due to the lack of proper furniture raw material the artists experimented with various materials – which are originally not meant to be used for metal sculpture-furniture – such as hexagonal wires, sieves, water pipes etc. During that time their friend – founder of Borusan – Asım Kocabıyık, who started manufacturing pipes supported them in terms of raw material.

Despite difficulties and various obstacles, the artists continued to produce authentic furniture which attracted the attention of international companies such as Knoll International. They invited Ozis to Paris and after a couple of meetings there he was invited to USA for a final meeting. Unfortunately due to certain difficulties – both financial and bureaucratic – that meeting never happened.

In 1958, first, Ilhan Koman – after joining the Brussels Exhibition -, then at the end of the year Sadi Calik left Kare Metal. Ozis continued to work on his own and in 1962 he established a decoration company; Galeri-T together with Gevher Bozkurt. They decorated most of the well-established family owned company offices – such as Koç, Süren family businesses – with the furniture built in Kare Metal.

In 1966, just before he left for Paris, Ozis closed both companies.

Presently, original works created by Kare Metal and Galeri-T still exist in some private collections and Ozis’ own collection.