2026




NEWS



Broadcast on Açık Radyo

6 July 2026
I was a guest on Açık Radyo's "Cultural Heritage and Preservation: For Whom? For What?" program. We discussed the disappearing dalyans of the Bosphorus, examining their historical, spatial, and cultural dimensions. Referring to the Beykoz Dalyan as an example, we explored the collective making practices of dalyans, their significance in terms of urban history and memory, why they are disappearing, and the possibilities of passing them on to future generations.

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BIAA Masters Dissertation Prize 2025

6 March 2026
My masters dissertation has been awarded with the 2025 Masters Dissertation Prize by the British Institute at Ankara.
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Urbanogram: Journal of the Built Environment

21 February 2026
My article about urban transformation and environmental pollution on Bağdat Street was published in Urbanogram: Journal of the Built Environment. This essay criticises top-down planning approaches that prioritise economic value over ecological and social well-being (pp. 82–89).
See the article

IPA Urban Agenda Research January report

30 January 2026

Istanbul Planning Agency’s Urban Agenda Research January report, “Blue Publicness in Istanbul: Encounters with the Sea in Everyday Life,” has now been published. This comprehensive study explores how Istanbul residents engage with the sea in their everyday lives. My contribution focuses on social life aboard ferries in the 19th and 20th centuries, examining how ferries functioned as a key stage for Istanbul’s process of modernisation (pp. 56-62).

See the report

Tactical Urbanism Now!

1 December 2025

Our project From Soil to Soil: Stitching the Food Cycle through Landscapes and Cultures, with Fernando Sanchez for the Tactical Urbanism Now! competition by TerraViva, won the Community’s Choice Award!

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Anatomy of Inspiration

15 November 2025
I was a keynote speaker at the 18th Istanbul Biennale (2025) for the Anatomy of Inspiration talk series!

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The Bartlett Autumn Show Book 2025

4 October 2025

My master’s dissertation was among the few fully featured in The Bartlett Autumn Show Book 2025 (page 18)!
See the book

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ABOUT
Zeynep Igmen is an architect and researcher. Her research investigates the environmental and anthropological dimensions of architectural histories of waterscapes and coastal geographies, with a particular interest in the relationships between ecology, labour, tacit epistemologies, and built and unbuilt environments. Drawing on her training in architecture, architectural history, and literature, she combines archival research with spatial methodologies, including mapping and documentary-making. 

ETH Zürich 2026-
Doctoral fellow at the Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture (gta)

The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL 2024-2025
MA Architecture and Historic Urban Environments 

          thesis titled “A Practice of Fishing along the Bosphorus: Mapping Dalyans as Sites of Collective Making and Memory”

Uskudar University 2024-2025
MA Sufi Culture and Literature

           final project titled “Tawakkul, Vigour, and Building in the Narrative of Prophet Noah”

Istanbul Bilgi University 2019-2023
BArch Architecture (High Honours)

London College of Music 2007-2022
Classical Piano, Grade 8
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2026




Sub-terranean, Sur-terranean


Location: Süleymaniye, Istanbul
Type: Academic, group+individual
Level: Bachelors
Date: 2022 Fall
Study: Urban intervention, dwelling, anthrposcene landscapes

Institution: Istanbul Bilgi University

Sub-terranean, sur-terranean settles in the Süleymaniye region of Istanbul and interprets such notions as anthropocene, heterotopia, hegemony, critical urban landscaping and experimental city. In “sub-terranean, sur-terranean” site plan did produce as group work, gathering 3 individual projects in landscape and urban scale. 

anthroposcene (def.)

Unofficial unit of geologic time used to describe the period in earth’s history when human activity started to have a impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Thinking of archeological value of Süleymaniye, understanding what is underneath the site, there were mostly cisterns and cellars. Undertaking the vertical acknoledge of the city, the idea of the anthroposcene, these subterrenean spaces were functioning for storage. Considering what humankind was storing back than and what humankind store today, underground territories were re-claimed as observation sites for existing figure and widened to be data centers. Data centres were not only to represent the idea of stocking but to create a green energy infrastructure. While storing and developing data, data centers do produce much of waste heat. The project suggest to use this waste energy as the heating resource for the housing on the existing layer of the city. The projected dormitory also do uses the energy of the data center. The dormitory has a lightweight and temporary grid structure; including infrastructural components, common areas and housing units. Contrast in the structures of the data centre/observatory and dormitory narrates the permanance of underground and temporariness of overground.