Arkaoda

From bowling alley to Neukölln basement

Descending from the dimly lit bar to the concrete of the basement was the gesture that defined Arkaoda. The venue opened on January 5, 2018, in a former bowling alley at Karl-Marx-Platz, in the heart of Neukölln, and was conceived as a hybrid: café and bar upstairs, dance floor and stage downstairs. The glass facade faced the square; inside, candles, Persian rugs, and a lounge to stay and talk. A few steps later, another night began: high walls, a custom-built stage, and a compact dance floor that could accommodate both concerts and club nights.

A bridge between Kadıköy and Berlin

The name was not an empty nod. Arkaoda arrived as a sister to the space opened in 1999 in Kadıköy, Istanbul, a place for independent music rather than a typical nightclub. In Berlin, it was driven by Goktan Budakoglu, Ozan Maral—who arrived from Istanbul—and programmer Tobias Schurig. The connection did not translate into folklore, but into a real traffic of scenes between the two cities. The opening party brought together Acido Records, Dynamo Dreesen, and Andrea Belfi. For almost nine years, the program rejected four-to-the-floor techno as a dogma: post-punk, krautrock, dub, ambient, disco, experimental electronics, and live acts coexisted on the same staircase.

Small club acoustics

Studio SPC calibrated the basement as a precision box: some 120 m² of absorbers and bass traps, gaboon wood slats, and an L-Acoustics Arcs Wide system decoupled with sylomer and springs. Before opening, a room-within-a-room had already been built to protect the neighbors; even so, noise complaints marked the life of the venue. In April 2024, the basement closed to reinforce the insulation—another wall was added behind that box—and did not reopen until late March 2025. Upstairs, the bar, pop-up formats, and terrace continued. When the dance floor reopened, events with African Acid Is The Future and Refuge Worldwide returned.

The farewell of August 2026

The pandemic, inflation, and the wear and tear on the founding team ended up weighing more than the recovered silence. In the summer of 2026, the managers announced the closure after almost nine years and sought a successor for the space. August became a farewell in six chapters, with two floors in operation: the basement and the upstairs floor. The last night was August 30, 2026. What remains is a physical space that was, at once, an intimate bar and an electronic basement, and an open question: whether someone will pick up that history between Berlin and Istanbul.