Profile

I am an architectural designer, scholar, and co-founder of the Ambiguous Standards Institute (ASI), a design-research initiative that explores the social and political implications of design standards. The trajectory of my early career is formed around two parallel engagements, working full-time as a scholar in the academy and simultaneously conducting internationally renowned and exhibited design-research projects.

I have a PhD, an MSc in Architectural Design, and a BSc in Architecture, from Istanbul Technical University. I have more than a decade of international experience in design teaching, research, and practice. My work focuses on the intersections of design, economy, politics, culture, and everyday life. I am also interested in urban interventions, open-source design practices, the history and critique of design standards, and the theory and criticism of modern architecture.

As the co-founder of ASI and its primary author/designer-maker, I have been responsible for exhibition design, artwork conception and production, graphic design, research, and curation. I have exhibited and collaborated internationally; produced radio broadcastings; received exhibition and research funding; and been featured in newspapers, national television broadcasts, and internationally acclaimed design magazines. Some of my recent works include a public art commission ‘When Pigs Fly’ in Istanbul in 2023; ASI’s solo exhibition at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2021; and my editorial and associate-curatorial roles in the “The Shift | Vardiya” project for the Pavilion of Turkey at the 16th Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2018. The Art Institute of Chicago has acquired several pieces of my work for ASI for their permanent collection. I have also co-edited and co-authored the 4-volume project book Vardiya | The Shift, Published by Yapı Kredi Publications, Istanbul, 2018.

Professional Affiliations

  • Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), 2023.
  • Member of The Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (UCTEA) – Licensed Architect, Istanbul, TR, 2011 – Present. 
  • Project Coordinator, volunteer work in “Architecture for All” Non-Profit Organisation, providing architectural services for disadvantageous groups of society, TR, 2012-2013.  
  • Member of Organisation Committee, Editor of Web Publishing, MSGSU International Yunus Aran Architectural Conferences, Istanbul, TR, 2008-2020.

Awards

  • Loughborough University, SABCE Extra Mile Award, 2023.
  • 1st Prize - Ministry of National Education Turkey, National Invited Architectural Design Competition for Education Campuses (Mardin), design team led by Kerem Piker KPM Design, 2013.

External Activities

  • Invited Speaker, Loughborough University, SDCA, UK, May 2023.
  • Invited Speaker, Istanbul Technical University, TR, April 2023.
  • Invited Speaker, Istanbul Bilgi University, TR, September 2022.
  • Invited Speaker, Penn State Stuckeman School Architecture, September 2022.
  • Interviewed for EkoTurk TV Channel, TR, Balik Kavaga Cikinca, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc9kn7ZUc4Q&list=PLzDTlpT_wsyjZWTYGx5Cy8tLVe4MeUZNf&index=2
  • Featured and interviewed in Cumhuriyet, Haberturk, Milliyet, Hurriyet Newspapers, TR for the project ‘When Pigs Fly’, Istanbul TR, April 2023. 
  • Featured in DAMN Magazine, words by Gabrielle Kennedy 'All Eggs Are Not Equal' - in conversation with Cansu Cürgen and Avşar Gürpınar of ASI, on Damn Magazine 77 'A Conversation on Happiness'. https://www.damnmagazine.net/editions/77/
  • Interview with curator Maite Borjabad López-Pastor on AIC website: 'Making “An Institute within an Institute”: A Conversation with Cansu Cürgen and Avşar Gürpınar' and the Art Institute of Chicago. https://www.artic.edu/articles/911/making-an-institute-within-an-institute-a-conversation-with-cansu-curgen-and-avsar-gurpinar
  • Featured on the ‘Hayat Sanat’ Programme, Turkish State National Television Channel for Arts and Culture, ‘Ambiguous Standards Institute is in Chicago’, 8 April 2021. 
  • Quoted and featured in ‘Curating for Whom?’, by Zoë Ryan; featuring the works of ASI on the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (2020) 79 (4): 381–392. https://doi.org/10.1525/jsah.2020.79.4.381
  • Invited Speaker for AURA Forum #6 Designers’ Summit, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lJjoP9LIg8
  • Interview with Oktay Orhun, for Argonotlar - Güncel Sanat (TR) Contemporary Arts, 2021. https://argonotlar.com/muglak-standartlar-enstitusu-ve-sikago-yolculugu/
  • Interviewed in DOMUS ‘Ambiguous Standards and Everyday Geopolitics’, Salvatore Peluso, 2019. https://www.domusweb.it/en/design/gallery/2019/07/01/ambiguous-standards-and-everyday-geopolitics.html
  • Radio Broadcasting Series for Acik Radyo, Istanbul TR, Muglak Standartlar Sozlugu 2018-2019.
  • Interviewed for the Turkish State National Television Channel TRT World “Showcase Programme on Venice Biennale of Architecture” Aired in May 2018.
  • Featured in ICON Magazine ‘Spaces of Exception’, by Priya Khanchandani, December 2018. 
  • Interviewed on Disegno Podcast series ‘Back to School’, September 27th, 2018. 
  • Featured on Archdaily ‘Vardiya / the Shift: The Turkish Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale’, 2018.
  • Featured on E-flux ‘Vardiya / the Shift’, May 2018. 

Key Collaborators

My research and enterprise activities are conducted with a range of academic and stakeholder partners, including:

  • IKSV – Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation, TR
  • AIC – The Art Institute of Chicago, US
  • JDW, Hansen House Center for Design, Media and Technology, Jerusalem, IL
  • Istanbul Modern Museum, TR
  • Istanbul Bilgi University, TR
  • Architecture for All Association, TR
  • Studio-X Istanbul -Columbia University GSAPP Studio X Network, TR
  • Kahve Dunyasi – Yankose Contemporary Art project, Istanbul, TR
  • British Council, TR