Granted to architects and designers under the age of 40 by The European Centre for Architecture, Design and Urban Studies, and
Chicago Athenaeum, “Europe 40 Under 40” award’s winners include Alper Derinboğaz and Emir Drahşan from Turkey. The award
evaluates the lines of architects by scrutinizing all the elements of design from urban planning to built environment, and honors the
figures that place emphasis on the discovery and improvement of contemporary and aesthetic values.
As the architect of Museum of Istanbul, Fitaş Passage, Ausburg E-Co Tower, Antalya Green Hub Masterplan and Augmented Structures,
Derinboğaz underlines that research constitutes the most important phase in his design approach, which he defines as “searching for
meanings beyond form”, while realizing projects that stand at the intersection of art and engineering. Derinboğaz graduated from
Istanbul Technical University in 2005. He received the Fulbright Scholarship for his master’s studies that he completed in the Department
of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of California, Los Angeles, and won the UCLA Graduate Award. Prior to founding “Salon”,
a French term for “a gathering space for emerging ideas and criticism”, as an architecture studio in 2010, he took part in museum, highrise
building and school projects as an architect in Los Angeles. The projects carried out by Derinboğaz explore the physical environment
through the potential relationships between time and space. Based on evaluating the place and context and intensifying this evaluation
through interventions at different scales, his design approach receives a different response in each project.
Emir Drahşan, the architect of projects including Narköy Ecovillage,
Odunpazarı Former Industrial Zone Transformation Project and
Kurtyeri Ecovillage, states that the excessive consumerism which has
been on the rise in recent years prompted human beings to destroy
the ecosystem, the core of their self-existence. He notes that he
tackles transportation, motion and life altogether in his projects, where he aims to question our way of life and our perception of the cities.
Following his high school education, Drahşan took painting lessons at Mahir Güven Workshop in 1997 and 1998. In 1998, he went to
Paris and enrolled in Louvre Museum’s Plastic Arts Workshop, then got accepted to ESA Paris School of Architecture and graduated from
this school with honors in 2004. In 2005, he founded the LEAinvent architecture studio with Alexandre Schrepfer. He has been carrying
on his studies since 2016 at Emir Drahsan Architecture/Planning office. Furthermore, he has been serving as a workshop coordinator at
ESA Paris School of Architecture since 2011.
Culminated with the selections of members including Bita Azami, Paul Gresham, Anne Grillet-Auberti, Ionnis Karalias and Herve Roux,
Europe 40 Under 40 awards will be presented to its laureates at the awards ceremony to be held in Athens on June 13. The exhibition
featuring projects that are subject to the award will be exhibited primarily in Athens and then move to different cities of Europe.
