Suha Ozkan Profile Page | World Architecture Community

B.Arch. M.Arch. AADipl. Hons. PhD. Hon. FAIAArchitect, Urban Planner, Historian, Theorist, International ExecutiveSuha Özkan was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1945. He studied architecture at the Middle East Technical University (METU) in Ankara, and theory of design at the Architectural Association in London.Dr. Özkan has undertaken extensive research on the theory and history of architecture, design, vernacular form, and emergency housing, and has published over 300 articles and numerous monographs. These have been translated into French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Bhasa. At METU, he taught architectural design and design theory for fifteen years, and became Associate Dean of the Faculty of Architecture in 1978. Then he was appointed as Vice-President of the university in 1979-1982. He taught and lectured extensively in North America, Europe, Central-, South-, and Southeast Asia, and throughout the Middle East. He has served as a jury member for many architectural competitions, and as an external examiner for diploma and doctoral assessments at the schools of architecture of the universities of Paris, Lausanne, Zurich, York, Birmingham and Trondheim. He was the initiator and the leader of XXI Architectural Culture Centre in Ankara and publication of the centre’s journal entitled XXI. During May 2000, he served as a member of the jury for the architectural competition for the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Memorial in Washington, D.C. He chaired the selection process of Rolex Master Protégé Programme in Geneva and was a member of European Union Prize for Architecture, Barcelona 2005. He was also a member of juries of many competitions in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, recently he was a member of the international jury for “The Edge” Urban Development Competition in Dubai (2007).With the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in Geneva, Dr. Özkan served as the Deputy Secretary General from 1983 to 1990. He was the Secretary General between 1990 and 2006. On behalf of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, Dr. Özkan has organized two important international architectural competitions, for the Revitalization of Samarkand, Uzbekistan (1991), and the New Museum of Islamic Arts in Doha, Qatar (1997) Doha Corniche Urban Design Competition (2002). He also served as the professional advisor for the architectural competition for the new campus of the American University of Cairo, Egypt, (1999). Also was a member of the judging panel for Fenestrelle Fortress, International Competition, Piedmont, Italy, Presently he is a member of the Jury for International architectural competition for House of Arts, Beirut, LebenonBetween 2005 and 2007 he has been independently responsible for the Competitions for Urban Regeneration of Kartal (555 hectares won by Zaha Hadid) and Küçükçekmece (won by Ken Yeang) both were under the auspices of Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Office. Presently, he is managing project procurement processes for Troy and Bodrum museums in Turkey. He also organized four large scale land development schemes in Almaty and Astana, Kazakhstan. He has been the Competition Manager for Zorlu Center, Istanbul, (8 hectares of urban mixed use) as the largest urban development scheme on the most prestigious land in Istanbul. This was an international competition by invitation. He was among the founding group of Cityscape Architecture Awards, Dubai and served as the jury member since 2003 until the present in every cycle of the awards. Recently he was a member of the juries of Edge, Dubai (2007) Just Jerusalem International Competition, MIT Cambridge (March 2008) and Super Jury for the Building of the year in World Architecture Festival Barcelona (October 2008). Presently he is a member of the jury for Cityscape Abu Dhabi Awards, 2009. In 2002, Dr. Özkan was elected as a Council Member (Region II) of the International Union of Architects (UIA) and was the President UIA’s XXII Congress to be held in Istanbul during 2005. He also chaired the Scientific Committee for the same event between 2002 and 2005. He was a member of UIA Competitions Committee (2002-2007).He holds honors from United States, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, Russia, Syria, India and ex-Yugoslavia. In 2004, American Institute of Architects awarded him with the Medal of Honorary Fellow and Russian Union of Architects gave him their Gold Medal.Presently he is the Founding Chairman of World Architecture Community (WAC) a Geneva and Istanbul based international consultancy company. WAC has established an internet based interactive World-wide architecture and planning community which has been breaking world records among architectural sites since August 2008. In 2008 he curated an exhibition on contemporary Turkish architecture entitled 7 Architects from 7 Hills which was displayed in Turin at Palazzo Bertalazone di San Fermo.