BIO

Yelda Gin is an architect, educator and researcher. Currently, Yelda is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Natural Material Innovation in the Department of Architecture at the University of Cambridge. Her ongoing PhD research titled “Emerging Earthen Architecture: Digital Design and Fabrication for Building with Earth” which aims to promote the virtues of building with natural materials to mitigate the impact of the construction industry on the environment was awarded a full scholarship by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and Cambridge Trust.

Yelda Gin received her B.Arch degree from Istanbul Technical University in 2005 and M.Arch degree from Istanbul Bilgi University in 2007. She studied architecture at The Polytechnic University of Milan as an erasmus student in 2004. During her undergraduate and graduate education in architecture, Yelda had the opportunity to work for architectural offices in Turkey, Italy and Japan. From 2008 until 2015, she worked in London for critically-acclaimed international offices such as Zaha Hadid Architects, ARUP and Cecil Balmond Studio, designing and coordinating international architectural projects. Between 2015-2017 she instructed architectural design studios and lectured at MEF University and Kadir Has University as an adjunct faculty while collaborating with innovative architectural offices in Istanbul. Yelda gave lectures and joined architectural design reviews as an invited speaker and guest critic at universities in Turkey and the UK such as Istanbul Technical University, MEF University, Bilgi University, Kadir Has University, Chelsea College of Arts and Cambridge University.

In 2018, Yelda went on a 9-month self-directed research journey to South America, covering Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Bolivia. During her research journey, she explored remarkable buildings and conducted many interviews with architects and academics that she intends to publish in 2021.