Meet the jury seminar: Ayça Özmen

The current issues of modern architectural heritage in Turkey

Although Turkey is not one of the birthplaces of modern architecture, it has been home to many of its significant architectural works. After the foundation of the Turkish Republic, with the influence of European architects invited in the 1930s, the modern architectural approach was rapidly adopted first in the capital Ankara, and then spread to all the cities in the country.

Today, modern architecture is an integral part of the urban palimpsest. In this context, this seminar will provide an overview to the modern heritage in Turkey, followed by a discussion of recent challenges in its conservation, efforts to raise awareness on its conservation and noteworthy conservation projects.

About Ayça Özmen

Ayça Özmen earned her PhD degree in Architectural Restoration at Yıldız Technical University, Turkey. Since 2020, she has been working as an assistant professor at Çankaya University and was a visiting postdoctoral researcher at Hasselt University (BE) for a year, in 2022. Her major research interests include architectural conservation, cittaslow movement, adaptive reuse and twentieth-century architectural heritage.