İstanbul: Layers of history, culture, architecture

AIA Continental Europe Conference and Chapter Meeting

8-12 April 2010

Program, 30 Mar 2010, subject to change. Full registration with optional Monday yields 23.5 CEUs, 20.5 of HSW and 5.5 of SD. Even with the exchange rate and late registration, one would still be hard pressed to beat that CES value!

Participant Biographies

Fulya Ozsel Akipek

Born in Adana in 1974. Architect, designer and faculty member. Received BArch degree in 1996 at ITU, MArch degree in 1998 and PhD in 2004 at YTU, Computational Design Unit [CADU] and has been working as a faculty member at YTU, Department of Architecture since 1997. She works in the coordination of the first year design studios and as a studio tutor since 2006. She gives lectures on “Prototypes in Architectural Design Research and “Graduate Studios on Digital Design and Production” at [CADU]. She received several national and international awards at architectural design competitions i.e. the special O.W. Ulreich Prize at architects category in “Water and Architecture: para-SITE”, organised by UIA/UNESCO in 2001; Second Prize at “UIA 2005 Congress Valley” organised by UIA and TMMOB. She has several articles on design education, design research, digital design and production and prototypes. She has participated in national and international symposiums and conferences.

Omur Barkul

Architect and faculty member. She studied architecture at Yildiz Technical University Faculty of Architecture receiving a BArch degree in 1981 and an MArch degree in 1984. She received her PhD degree in 1993 with the dissertation “Physical, social and structural problems on the Early Period Apartment Houses in Istanbul”. Directed design studios at graduate level programs at Yildiz Technical University Faculty of Architecture. She gives lectures on “Contextual Architecture” and “Social Sustainability and Social Environment in Rehabilitation Areas”. She currently works on architectural renewal and regeneration projects and conducts research on new methods in architectural design education.

Cengiz Bektas

Cengiz Bektas was born in Denizli in 1934. He earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Munich Technical University, Faculty of Architecture in 1959. He returned to Turkey in 1962 and was appointed the chief of the Bureau of Architecture at the Middle East Technical University. In 1963, Bektas established his own architectural office, and from 1963 to 1969 he received awards in 25 architectural competitions held in Turkey and in Germany. Between 1967 and 1969, he also gave lectures at the architectural college in Ankara. He moved to Istanbul in 1979 and devoted his research to neighborhood planning, democratic participation and environmental studies. Currently, he is giving lectures at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University in Istanbul. Some of his buildings are considered to be among the finest monuments of the Turkish Republic. In 1988 and 1992 he received national architecture prizes from Chamber of Architects in Turkey. He received the international Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2001. He received also awards in literature such Ovidius Poetry Award Romania in 2005 and Ceyhun Atuf Kansu Award in 2007. He has 20 books of poetry published until today.

Burcu Celik

Born in Istanbul in 1985. She holds a BArch degree from YTU School of Architecture (2008) and continues her MArch studies at ITU School of Architecture with the collaboration of Politecnico di Torino. She has been working in governmental projects such as “Building Energy Certification Calculation Methodology and Simulation Tool for Turkey” and research projects on building energy performance. She attended to miscellaneous summer schools, workshops and architectural trips.

Aynur Ciftci

Born: Istanbul, Turkey, 1970. Education: Saint-Benoit French High School, 1989; BArch degree in 1993 (YTU); MArch degree in 1996 and PhD in 2004 (Architectural Restoration, Institute of Sciences, YTU, with honors “Istanbul Police Stations in the Late Ottoman Period and Buyukdere Topcu Police Station”, “Ottoman Military Architecture in the 19th Century and Military Buildings of Istanbul”). She is a faculty member since 1997. She gives lectures on “Architectural Conservation-Restoration”, “Analysis of Historic Buildings”, “Wall, Ceiling and Floor Forms and Techniques of Traditional Buildings”, “Causes of Decay and Conservation Methods of Wall Surfaces”, “Traditional Buildings and Analysis of Interior Spaces”, “Architectural Conservation Projects”. She is a consultant for historic areas at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s Department of Urban Design.

Şebnem Yalιnay Çinici

Born in 1967. Graduated from Middle East Technical University (METU) Department of Architecture as B.Arch in 1989, where she took her M.Arch degree in 1991 and Ph.D. in 1999. She completed her Post-Doctorate Study at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, supervised by Kenneth Frampton in 2001. She pursued her academic career at METU, Department of Architecture, from 1992 to 2006. In 2003 she founded and initiated Digital Design Studio in the Undergraduate Program of METU, Department of Architecture. Her major field of research is architectural design and contemporary computational technologies. She has numerous national and international publications. She has been working as an Assistant Professor, in the Department of Architecture at Yildiz Technical University since 2006; and delivering courses in the Graduate Program of Architectural Design at İstanbul Bilgi University.

Peter Cook

Sir Peter Cook was born in South-end-on-Sea in 1936. Professor Cook studied at the Bournemouth College of Art from 1953 to 1958 and holds the Diploma of the Architectural Association in London (1960). While working in the office of James Cubitt & Partners, Cook was one of the founding members of the influential Archigram group in the 1960’s. He was Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, from 1970 to 1972. His most notable building is the Kunsthaus in Graz (with C. Fournier) and he is the author of many published projects and several books. He is Professor of Architecture at the Royal Academy of Arts and Emeritus Professor at UCL and the HbK (Stadelschule) in Frankfurt. He is a regular Visiting Professor at the universities of Columbia, Lund, Montreal and Kyoto, SCI Arc, Cooper Union, the Vienna TU and others. Archigram group was awarded the Royal Gold Medal of the RIBA in 2002. In 2004, he was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize with Colin Fournier for the Kunsthaus Graz. In 2007, he was made a Knight Bachelor in the Queen's birthday honours. He is currently building the law faculty for the Vienna Economics University together with Gavin Robotham.

Charles Croigny

Born in New York City in 1950. Received his architectural degree in 1974 from St. Luc School of Architecture in Tournai, BelgiuMArchitect and founding partner practising at Croigny Architects in Belgium since 1990. He is the 2010 President of the AIA Continental Europe. His projects include a wide range of types including commercial, educational, residential, agricultural, industrial buildings of different sizes. His company’s work covers Eastern and Western Europe with business development, business management and project functions. Among the projects he was responsible are Additions and Renovation of the American Women’s Club of Brussels on the Chaussée de Waterloo in Belgium, New NSCC Building, New Army Lodge, Child Development Center, High School Building (Ecole des Sacrés Coeurs), Extension and Renovation of US Health-Dental Clinic in Brussels, Additions and Renovations to Miscellaneous Embassies in Europe, Apartment Building in Enghien and many others.

Yigit Evren

Yigit Evren was born in Ankara in 1972. In 1994 he graduated from Yιldιz Technical University with a first-class degree in planning. Three years later he had his MSc in Urban Planning from the same institution. With the financial support of the Committee of Vice Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom he undertook his Ph.D. at Cardiff University Department of City and Regional Planning. Since 2002 he has been teaching urban economics and regional planning at Yιldιz Technical University Department of City and Regional Planning. He is also the co-editor of Megaron, the official publication of Yιldιz Technical University, Faculty of Architecture. Throughout the past five years he participated in several planning projects, including Istanbul Strategic Plan for Disaster Mitigation and the Regional Development Plan for Erzurum. Between 2005 and 2006 he was a consultant for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality on developing strategies for cultural industries. His research interests are location theory, clusters, relational geography and cultural industries.

Murat Germen

Murat Germen is an artist-architect using photography as an expression and research tool. Has an MArch degree from MIT, where he went as a Fulbright scholar and received AIA Henry Adams Gold Medal for academic excellence. Works as a professor of photography and new media at Sabanci University. Has been accepted and invited to several seminars, symposia and conferences like SIGGRAPH, ISEA2009, Mutamorphosis, Towards a Science of Consciousness, CAe 2008-9, CAC2, EVA-London’08, eCAADe, ASCAAD to lecture on pertinent topics. Has opened nearly forty international (Turkey, USA, Italy, Germany, UK, Mexico, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Greece, Japan, Russia, Iran, India, France, Canada, Bahrain) exhibitions. The artist and his artistic work is represented by C.A.M. Gallery in Istanbul. Has received international awards (like second place award in 2007 and honorable mentions in IPA years 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, Px3 2007 and IVRPA 2007) for work on photography, design and architecture.

Zekai Gorgulu

Received bachelor, master and PhD degrees in urban planning at Faculty of Architecture of Yildiz Technical University, Zekai Gorgulu acted as chairman of Department of City and Regional Planning and currently is the dean of the Faculty of Architecture. He was a jury member for the architectural and urban planning competitions such as Kadikoy Square Planning Competition, Bursa Kaplikaya Urban Planning Competition, Bursa Santral Garaj Planning Competition, The Union of Historical Towns Competition. He also acts as the consulting member of the Union of Historical Towns. His responsibilities as scientific committee member include the organizations of World Planners Day, Ecological Architecture and Planning National Symposium and 6th Congress of Turkish Planning. He attended to many international and national meetings as invited speaker, panelist or moderator, between them are Globalization in Istanbul and Haydarpasa, Izmir City Congress, ISOCARP International Society of City and Regional Planners and Meetings of Union of Historical Towns held in miscellaneous Turkish cities.

Dogan Hasol

Born in 1937. Architect. Graduated from Galatasaray Lycee in 1956. Holds BArch, MArch and PhD degrees from ITU School of Architecture. Established Building Information Centre (YEM) in İstanbul in 1968, a leading building information and organization center. He currently is the head of YEM since 40 years. He was elected twice as president of The International Union of Building Centres (UICB) and lates as honorary member. As YEM group, he published YAPI magazine, building materials catalogs, initiated publications of hundreds of architectural books, organized building fairs, conferences, symposiums. He also established his own architectural practice in 1986 with his wife Hayzuran Hasol and later his daughter Ayse Hasol joined the team. In his office, he won miscellaneous architectural design awards including the national award from the Chamber of Architects of Turkey in 1990. He authored many books including A Dictionary of Architecture, printed 10 times until today and was translated into English and French. Other books he authored include Corruption Reigns, All Things by Architects, Architectural Observations. He was given Honorary Doctorate degrees by Istanbul Technical and Yildiz Technical universities.

Irem M. Kiris

Irem Maro Kiris, after graduation from Robert College, received BArch and MArch degrees from Technical University of Istanbul (ITU) and got her PhD in architectural history and theory from Yildiz Technical University (YTU) with her dissertation “The Evolution of Perception on Spatial and Urban Planning in the Early-Republican Turkey”. She worked as an architect taking part in local and overseas projects in design and construction fields between 1987-1997, and as a writer-editor in architectural (journal) publishing between 1998-2000 in Istanbul. Following her experience in practice, she started teaching in 2000. She currently holds the title of assistant professor and teaches history of architecture and design studies at Bahcesehir University, School of Architecture and Design since 2004. Her research interests are modern and late-modern urban and architectural history, Turkish modernity and design education. She also writes regularly for Milliyet Art Magazine on current issues of architectural culture.

Salih Ofluoglu

He has a PhD degre in Computer Aided Architectural Design from University of Edinburgh, UK, an MSc degree in Architecture from Pennsylvania State University, USA and a BSc degree in Architecture from Istanbul Technical University, Turkey. He previously taught and did research projects in University of Edinburgh, UK and University of Oklahoma, USA. He teaches Computer Aided Design and Modeling courses in Computer Aided Art and Design graduate program in Department of Informatics at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. His research interests include design computing, building information modeling, computer-mediated design collaboration and multimedia applications in art and design.

Ahmet Ozbilge

Ahmet Faik Ozbilge was born in Istanbul in 1965. He graduated from Galatasaray Lycee and the Department of Sociology at Bogazici University. He has been a professional tourist guide since 1987 working both in Turkey and abroad. His books are Fener Balat Ayvansaray (Third Edition, 2009), From Istanbul to Cappadocia (2009).

Suha Ozkan

Born in Ankara in 1945. Architect, Urban Planner, Historian, Theorist, Founding Chairman, World Architecture Community in Turkey. Dr. Ozkan has undertaken extensive research on the theory and history of architecture, design, vernacular form, and emergency housing, and has published over 300 articles and numerous monographs. These have been translated into French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Bhasa. At METU, he taught architectural design and design theory for fifteen years, and became Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture in 1978. Then he was appointed as Vice-President of the university in 1979-1982. He taught and lectured extensively in North America, Europe, Central-, South-, and Southeast Asia, and throughout the Middle East. Presently he is the Founding Chairman of World Architecture Community, a Geneva and Istanbul based international consultancy company. WAC has established an internet based interactive World-wide architecture and planning community which has been breaking world records among architectural sites since August 2008.

Yael Reisner

Born in Tel Aviv in 1953, Dr. Reisner obtained a degree in Biology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem before embarking on her architectural career. Her built work has been mainly domestic and her research activities have moved progressively into combinatory techniques involving textiles, acoustics and light modulation. She has exhibited widely in art galleries and at the Summer exhibitions of the Royal Academy in London. She has taught at UCL (the Bartlett), at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI Arc) and at the Universities of Lund and Greenwich. Her book Architecture and Beauty — a Troubled Relationship (Wiley, London) is out in April 2010. She holds the Diploma of the Architectural Association in London and made her doctorate at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia). She is based in London since 1990.

Murat Soygenis

Born in Ankara in 1961. Architect and faculty member. He has completed high school at Kabatas High School. Received Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1982 at ITU. He started his MArch studies at Middle East Technical University and went to University at Buffalo (UB) upon receipt of a fellowship and received his MArch at SUNY in 1985. Worked as architect in USA between 1985-1990 and travelled to experience important architectural spots in the world. Founded his own architectural studio in 1990. He is a faculty member at Yildiz Technical University School of Architecture since 1995. The projects produced since 1982 were published in various magazines, books and newspapers and exhibited in Europe, USA and Turkey, including at Baltimore AIA Gallery in 1990 and 2002, School of Architecture and Planning Gallery at UB in 2002, Polytechnic University of Turin and Milan Build Up Expo in 2007, House of Architects in Moscow in 2008. His books on architecture published since 1997 are referred in Turkey and overseas and some are into fifth print. He is member of many organizations including the UIA Chamber of Architects of Turkey since 1982, the American Institute of Architects since 1989.

Sema Soygenis

Sema Soygenis, PhD received BArch and MArch degrees from ITU, Istanbul and MArch degree from the Advanced Building Technology program from State University of New York at Buffalo, USA. She started working as a teaching assistant at ITU and as a program assistant (fellowship) at SUNYAB. After graduation she worked as an architectural designer in USA between 1986-1990 and in Istanbul between 1994-1997. Currently she is a professor at Bahcesehir University, School of Architecture and Design. Her projects with M. Soygenis were featured as two monographs titled Buildings and Projects 1982-1997 and Buildings + Projects 2 (2003). She is the author of the book Mimarlιk Dusunmek Duslemek (Thinking and Visioning Architecture) and coauthor of Istanbul: An Urban Commentary (2006). Her architectural work was displayed at Baltimore Architect’s Gallery of AIA (1990, 2002) and at School of Architecture and Planning Gallery (2002) of University at Buffalo and YEM in Istanbul besides other locations. She teaches architectural design and theory.

Bora Soykut

Born in Istanbul in 1969. Graduated from Yildiz Technical University Faculty of Architecture in 1994. Completed his MArch study in 2006 with the thesis “A Research About Floating Settlements on Water for a Future Foresight”. While a student at school, he started working with Prof. Nihat Guner. He was a research fellow at YTU Faculty of Architecture between 1996-1999. He established his own studio in 1999. Directed architectural projects as design team leader at The Ministry of Agriculture’s European Commission — Turkey Projects. He worked in the design team of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality’s City Planning Workshop held at Cannes International Real Estate Exhibition — MIPIM 2005 — in France. His responsibilities included managerial positions with architectural groups in Istanbul. He received architectural design awards including an award for Yildiz Technical University’s Culture Education and Research Center in 2008. Since 2007, he is an invited studio critic and lecturer at YTU.

H. Bulend Tuna

Born in Soke-Aydin in 1953, Tuna had his secondary education in Izmir Private Turkish College, where he graduated in 1969. In February 1976, he earned his Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Middle East Technical University, Department of Architecture. He is married to Ruksan Tuna, who is also a professional architect. In the professional field, he gained expertise on architectural design, reconstruction and restoration of historic buildings, interior design and architectural consultancy. He worked with the team who won the first place in the architectural competition for the design of Besiktas Public Square. Between the years 1998 and 2004, he worked as the member of the executive board of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey — Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, Istanbul Branch. Between 2004 and 2006, he became the member of the central executive board as Vice President of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey. Since 2006, he holds the position of the President of the Chamber of Architects of Turkey. He is author of Collecting the Past, Building the Future, a compilation of his essays.