GEMSS’23 Selection Committee
Alexis Şanal
Architect, City Designer, Founding Partner
SANALarc with Open Urban Practice
Alexis Şanal (1974) grew-up in Los Angeles, received a Barch’95 from SCI-Arc, and an MCP’02 from MIT.
She is the co-founder Open Urban Practice with SANALarc a knowledge-centric studio based in Istanbul, which focuses on civic architecture, research and city-design. Her passion is exploring living culture and built environments that blend contemporary social life with timeless physical and natural contexts to create imaginative and meaningful experiences. Her recent efforts in this sense include re-thinking public libraries and public markets as core social infrastructure for communities to prosper, creating the HEY! Imaginable Guidelines –a game to include stakeholders in the co-design of public space, and ‘Makeries’ as a micro-enterprise strategy towards economic diversity in residential fabric. She is the recipient of a 2014 Graham Foundation research grant, and has exhibited her work at institutions including STUDIO X Istanbul (2019) and MAXXI in Rome (2016). She was also an AIAF Droga Resident (2018).
Ertuğ Uçar
Architect, Author, Founding Partner
Teğet Architectural Office
Ertuğ was born in Antalya. Has under graduate and master degrees from METU Architectural Faculty. He runs TEGET Architecture Office in İstanbul with his partner. With its young crew, TEGET is a research based dynamic design practice working on different scales ranging from masterplan to building complexes of many types and to single houses. TEGET won National Architecture Prize of Turkey in 2010, 2014 and 2018 with Yapı Kredi Banking Academy (İstanbul), Center for Inclusive Education (Konya) and Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts Building (İstanbul). He was selected to co-curate National Pavillion of Turkey in Venice Architecture Biennale in 2015. (with F.Çiçekoğlu and M.Kütükçüoğlu) Ertuğ has novels and story books published.
Matthew Warner
BA Dip PVL MRICS, Chairman, Owner
Warner Wonder Group & VIP Real Estate Desk
Actively involved in London, Istanbul and the wider Turkish Real Estate Market, specializing in the prime and super-luxury sector, and engaging with leading investors from all over the world, Matthew Warner BA Dip PVL MRICS, has helped developers deliver market defining projects. Chairman of Warner Wonder Group, which engages in projects that are unique, that respect the environment and help people embrace the wonder of the world, he is also brand owner of Vip Real Estate Desk and TLOEC business network. Formerly Business Development Coordinator of Astaş Holding, responsible for the development of projects such as Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Bodrum; The Residences Mandarin Oriental Bodrum; Mandarin Oriental Istanbul and Maçka Residences Interior Design by Armani Casa Managed by Kempinski. Earlier London Board Member and Head of Agency & Development of Lambert Smith Hampton, the largest network of commercial Real Estate Advisors in the UK and Chairman of the Development Agent’s Society. Matthew has a passion for encouraging Developers and Investors to embrace environmental sustainability and art in their projects, lecturing on the investment benefits of sustainability as early as 2007 at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in London and promoting Art in development through his Gallery currently being refurbished in Balat, one of the oldest neighbourhood of Istanbul.
Merve Bedir
Asst. Prof. Architect
Merve Bedir is an architect. Her work focuses on infrastructures of hospitality and mobility. A second line of work refers to the collective intelligences and imaginaries of landscape. She is a postdoc researcher in Critical Media Lab, Basel, and tutor at Design Academy Eindhoven. She holds a PhD from Delft University of Technology, and a BArch from Middle East Technical University in Ankara. She is a co-initiator of Aformal Academy in Pearl River Delta region, Black Book Assembly in Hong Kong, Kitchen Workshop in Gaziantep, and Center for Spatial Justice in Istanbul.
Merve's current design project involvements include a smart agriculture facility in Ningde, and Postane repair and regeneration project in Istanbul. Merve curated Vocabulary of Hospitality, Istanbul and Rotterdam (2014 and 2022); uncommon river, Plovdiv (2015); and co-curated Automated Landscapes (2017-19). Her work has taken part in Istanbul Design Biennale (several editions), Urbanism and Architecture Biennale Shenzhen (several editions), Sao Paulo Architecture Biennale (2017), and Venice Architecture Biennale (2021); and most recently exhibited in Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (2023).
Merve co-chairs Rethinking Partnerships panel of United International Architects Conference in 2023. Her work was funded by Prins Claus Funds, European Cultural Foundation, United Nations Development Program, among others. Her projects were reviewed in The Guardian, Metropolismag, Avery Review, and Frieze Magazine.
Yılmaz Değer
Architect, Founding Partner
AURA, YILMAZ DEGER Architecture & Design
Yılmaz Deger, born in Istanbul in 1956, he completed Kabatas High School in 1973. In 1981, he graduated from the Istanbul State Fine Arts Academy with a master’s degree in architecture. Between 1981-1988, while continuing his education abroad, he worked for several architectural offices in Zurich and Paris.
In 1988, as a founding partner he formed the LOTUS Architectural firm in Istanbul. He continued his architectural design work in this office until 2014.
To day, he countinues his architectural work outside of Turkey through the DEGER Design Architektur GmbH firm he established in Switzerland as a founding partner in 1997.
He began teaching at Yildız Technical University in 2009 as a lecturer on Architectural Design and has continued his educational work at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and Yeditepe University regularly since 2013.
Starting from 2009, he has been continuously conducting 'Urban Dreams' summer workshops organised by the Chamber of Architects Istanbul Metropolitan Branch every year.
He has participated in many national and international architectural project competitions and received awards in a variety of different categories since.
Since 2015, he has been working for the YILMAZ DEGER Architecture & Design firm he established in Istanbul. In 2017, he became one of the founding members of the Istanbul Architecture and Urbanism Research Academy – AURA Istanbul, a non-profit institution. Today, he continues to contribute to the academy as the vice chairperson of the board of directors as well as lecturer.
Zehra Akdemir Veryeri
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Architect, Academician, Author, Founder
7/70 Kültür Sanat
Graduated from Middle East Technical University, Department of Architecture in 1990.
She received her masters and and phD degrees from Dokuz Eylul University, Department of Architecture.
Her field of study and expertise is on environmental behavior sciences, participatory design and visual communication.
She worked as architectural design studio instructor and lecturer in Dokuz Eylul University, Department of Architecture between 1996-2015.
She founded 7/70 Kultur Sanat Academy in 2010 which is an education initiative that deals with presentation and communication of cultural heritage assets with various public groups and media. (www.yediyetmis.net)
With her content development and programming team, she is designing and a developing digital learning materials, authoring informative and audio-visual stories for children and the young, illustrating info-graphic content for public education.
She is the author of six children’s books, scenario writer of various visual documentaries and content developer of numerous cultural heritage education programs. She achieved the first prize of Turkish Ministry of National Education Exhibit and Competition on Turkey’s Innovative Approaches in 2016 and national anthology of 2020 UIA Architecture and Children Golden Cubes Awards.
Zehra Akdemir Veryeri is currently living in Izmir.
Sait Ali Köknar
(Selection Committee Moderator)
Mimar, Akademisyen
Berlin International University of Applied Sciences
Sait Ali Köknar studied Architecture at Istanbul Technical University and earned an M.Sc. in the Building Technology program before receiving his doctorate in Architectural Design. As a graduate student, he worked with well-known architecture and interior design firms in Istanbul. He taught design studio courses at Istanbul Technical University and at Kadir Has University Istanbul. Parallel to his teaching practice and research on design studio pedagogies, he extensively collaborated with cultural institutions and artists. He participated in projects exhibited at the Istanbul, Rotterdam, and Venice Architecture Biennials. In addition, he curated exhibitions and events such as VÇMD: Happiness Factories, Nurus Contemporary Turkish Architecture, and GEMSS Emerging Turkish Architects.
