PARTICIPANTS ITU

ITU PARTICIPANTS

Ayşegül Akçay Kavakoğlu is an architect and associate professor in ITU Department of Landscape Architecture. Her research interests involve design process, computational design, fabric formwork, representation and moving image studies in general. Akçay Kavakoğlu graduated from Dokuz Eylül University, with a Bachelor of Architecture degree.

She has conducted her master studies at Middle East Technical University and Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’architecture de Paris-Belleville. She graduated from METU with her master thesis focused on the representation of city images in cinema. She got her Ph.D. in architecture degree from METU by researching the contribution of moving image to the computational design process. She executed several workshops and curated exhibitions. Akçay Kavakoğlu has worked on various architectural design projects and has awards in national architecture competitions.Ayşegül Akçay Kavakoğlu is an architect and associate professor in the Faculty of Architecture, Department of Landscape Architecture and Architectural Design Computing Program at ITU. Her recent research interests include the design and application of mediated environments, interactive systems, and artificial intelligence in architecture. She is a member of the ‘Technology, Ecology and Design Research Laboratory’ (TETA Lab) at ITU. She is an advisory board member at the ‘Architecture, Media, Politics, Society’ (AMPS) international, interdisciplinary research organization. She was the former Head of the Department of Architecture at Altınbaş University between 2017-2020.

She was the Architectural Design Advisory Board Member at IT Valley Turkey between 2020-2022. Akçay Kavakoğlu graduated from Dokuz Eylül University with a Bachelor of Architecture degree. She has conducted her master studies at Middle East Technical University and Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’architecture de Paris-Belleville. She graduated from METU with her master thesis focused on the representation of city images in cinema. She got her Ph.D. in architecture degree from METU by researching the contribution of moving images to the computational design process. Her work also explores the intersection of architecture, technology, and pedagogy with a focus on computational design, fabric formwork, representation, and moving image studies in general. She executed several workshops and curated exhibitions. Akçay Kavakoğlu has worked on various architectural design projects and has been awarded in national architecture competitions.

Begüm Eser is a designer and researcher specializing in urban studies. Her primary research interests include planning theories, education, studio pedagogy, and studio education in urban planning. She works as a research and teaching assistant at ITU Department of Urban and Regional Planning. She earned her master’s degree from ITU Urban Design Graduate Program with a thesis titled “Semiotics in Spatial Design and Its Potentials in the Design Studio. She is currently pursuing her doctoral studies at ITU.

Bihter Almaç is a designer/researcher of architecture in the other end of the weird. And her research mainly focuses on tactics for peculiar creativities to trespass to the wilder realms of architecture to seek
existentially clumsy formations. Her work consists of drawings; architectural things – games, gadgets, devices; architectural essay films. These are exhibited internationally in festivals, curated exhibitions and conferences. Recently, she was selected as one of the Young Architects under 40 in Turkey, by The Circle O. She is an associate professor in the ITU Department of Architecture. She received her PhD degree in Architectural Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL, with her thesis titled, Designing in a State of Distraction: The Wild Fields of Architecture. She has a MSci from ITU in Architectural Design, with her thesis titled: Folding of Places. She is a BArch graduate from ITU.

Eda Yücesoy is an associate professor at the ITU Department of Urban and Regional Planning. Her research focuses on spatial relations, social and economic geography, urban history, public space. She is the academic consultant at Istanbul Institute. Her latest projects include CommunityParticipatory Model Proposal for Healthy Cities (TUBITAK 2019-2022), Cultural Heritage Technologies for Sustainable Cities (Science Diplomacy Fund NWO 2020-2021), PIVOT Re-visioning Peripheral Geographies (UK Royal
Academy 2020 – 2021). 

İmge Akçakaya Waite is currently an associate professor at the ITU Department of Urban and Regional Planning, where she received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. She earned her PhD in urban
planning in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Luskin School of Public Affairs, with her dissertation titled “Planning, power, politics: Urban redevelopment in Istanbul.” In affiliation with UCLA and ITU, she has participated in EU, UN-Habitat and other internationally and nationally funded research projects on institutional and community capacity building, urban and rural governance, and inclusive planning. Among her recent fields of interest and teaching are decision-making and governance mechanisms, collaborative and participatory planning, and urban redevelopment.

Zeynep Gunay is an associate professor at the ITU Department of Urban and Regional Planning (URP). Her research explores heritage with a particular focus on critical narratives based on conflict heritage,
memory & heritageisation, and inclusive conservation as well as everyday life commons and justice. She has several international and national projects including Prizren Municipal Development Plan under the
supervision of UN-Habitat and UNESCO/WHC supported Istanbul Historic Peninsula Conservation Project, which was awarded a Medal in Europa Nostra Awards. She participated in Horizon 2020 MSCA-RISE Project on Art, Culture, Economy to Democratize Society (Trans-making) with her research on alternative narratives on heritage, arts and conflict in Morocco, Chile, Bosnia and Sicily. She acted as the academic consultant of Istanbul Planning Agency Vision 2050. Besides being a member of ICOMOS, she serviced as former Vice President and Board Member of the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP). She acted as ISOCARP’s Director of Young Planning Professionals’ Programme, where she commited to knowledge for better cities with the young generations. Until today, she has collaborated with various municipalities and institutes to lead capacity building workshops in China, Qatar, and Indonesia among others.