Kumru Arapgirlioğlu graduated from the Department of City and Regional Planning at Middle East Technical University and received her master’s degree in Environmental Planning and Resource Management from Florida State University. She received her doctorate from Ankara University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Political Science and Public Administration. She worked as a management consultant at Florida State University School of Business Florida Economic Development Center in 1985–1986 and undertook project coordination and management as a freelance urban planner at Fehmi Doğan Architecture Engineering and Urbanization Office, where she was a partner between 1986 and 1999. She has been working at Bilkent University, Department of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture since 1999. As a member of the UNESCO National Committee, National Specialized Commission on Bioethics between 2004–2014, and as a founding and active member of the Science and Scientific Philosophy Circle between 2000–2016, she has organized scientific meetings on global climate change, social responsibility and health, bioethics and various branches of philosophy and provided translations and made publications. Her main areas of work are issues that she questions from different dimensions and scales, such as natural values and conservation policies, ecology, ecosystems, open spaces and public health, environmental ethics, policy and management, which occur at the intersection of human, nature and city. She retired in 2020 but continues to work part time at Bilkent and Ankara University. She continues her research and studies on urban agriculture, which has been on the agenda of city administrations in the last several decades; she also participates in conferences and publishes. Over the years she has given courses such as Vertical Design Studio, “Continuum and Design;” “Form and Design,” ADA 263-264: History of the Built Environment I-II, IAED322: People and Environment, LAUD371: Analysis of the Urban Environment I and LAUD481: Landscape Ecology Studio.
Why did you choose an academic career?
I was not planning to. After I graduated, I decided to take a gap year to decide what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to the US because I intended to pursue a master’s degree to progress in my field of interest. So, I selected a path in environmental planning and resource management. After an intense master’s program, I needed another gap year. We had had a family firm based in Ankara since the 1960s, an architecture, planning and construction firm. I decided that I would work with my dad there, that was when the firm’s focus also shifted more to planning and environmental design. I was then invited to Bilkent as a part-time instructor for the course, People and Environment. The course was about introducing space management and human behavior aspects of design taught in reference to environmental psychology concepts. At the time I had a friend, a peer, from ODTÜ, Deniz Altay Baykan; she was working at Bilkent and suggested me for this course because, I had a background in this from my undergrad. I had only planned to stay for one semester because of my other responsibilities. A year later, they called me for the Landscape Ecology course, and since it was my main area of study, I accepted. The next year I was invited to join the urban design and landscape architecture senior studio executed by Barış Eyikan. In 1999, I was offered a full-time instructor position the day after I passed my PhD proficiency exam, and I thought maybe it was time to make a decision to go towards an academic path. I started then, and time has verified it was an accurate choice. I did not have any adaptation problems as I already had three years of experience at different courses at Bilkent, and my practice area and background were very suitable for this career with its similar structure. It is interdisciplinary, and the design studio resembles my office environment.
What do you like the most about being at Bilkent?
Being at Bilkent provided me with a very important academic establishment and setting. I met very distinctive colleagues from different disciplines and made good friends. Our department’s working environment was collaborative, collective in act, and I liked that most about being at Bilkent. On the other hand, Bilkent is a huge community involved not only in academic activities but also art, music and sports. To be a Bilkenter kept us informed as we were in continuous contact with young individuals. The library is great, and I always liked to spend time there and borrow books, it is like a sanctuary. The enclosed campus environment kept us away from the city and its chaos and traffic, having its own slower pace. It is kind of a protected environment.
What projects are you working on currently?
In 2015, we founded an interdisciplinary NGO named İnsan, Mekan, Enerji ve Çevre Derneği (İMEÇE). I became the head of the organization in 2017. We develop projects and apply for funds in accordance with our vision, mission and aims. Also, previously at Bilkent, we started working on an urban agriculture theme in 2012. Our first case study was Atatürk Orman Çiftliği, and then as a case we worked on İmrahor Valley. As a part of those projects, I am now writing an article on the dilemma of urban and rural interactions with the intersection of agriculture and food. The paper looks at the transformation of it all and encompasses a wide range of time from Neolithic to the present. I am about to finish it. It will be edited by Prof. Dr. Billur Tekkök Karaöz, who organized a special symposium held on May 2024 themed “Agriculture in Anatolia from Ancient Times to the Present Symposium,” and will be published by VEKAM, Ankara.
What’s your best work?
There are several; it is very difficult to pick one out. I will start with two: Prior to my academic career, a comprehensive planning project was prepared for the General Directorate of İlbank, and I was the project manager. That was for Karadeniz Ereğli, Zonguldak, and it took two years to complete. It was a big challenge for me, and I was very young. Another one, regards Agenda 21, UNCED, 1992. As an Office, we prepared an Agenda 21 report for Gölbaşı, Ankara. It was printed by the municipality, and it was one of our first digitally compiled works. Another one was at the beginning of 2020, when Bilkent applied for the “Zero Waste” program and got their certificate. The university administration approached us and asked how we could collaborate to disseminate this project. In my Landscape Ecology class, I usually select a case study to work on. In 2018 the area was Bilkent and the topic was “Sustainable Campuses,” of which we received very positive support from the Dean, managers and professors from Bilkent who also contributed in our juries, and we also realized an international workshop. These created a strong base for the Zero Waste project. I approached our graduates who were a part of those studios and workshops, and we created a group together with Didem Dizdaroğlu from the department. We divided them into three groups: Green, Smart and Creative (called group YaY in Turkish). During summer of 2020, we got together via Zoom and designed all the Zero Waste logos and posters that you see all through campus. We came up with the term “RE-Bilkent” and eight actions starting with -re-. It was a dense voluntary work, and I am proud of all who contributed. Another special academic activity that I initiated, before the pandemic, brought together all Fine Arts, Design and Architecture faculty members around the “Interaction Design Futures Initiative Event,” which aimed to create a joint discussion on art, design, architecture and engineering. In 2019, we did a huge seminar called “Unfolding: A Learning Initiative for Interactive Art and Design.” We brought together all the departments of FADA, and we collaborated with many colleagues from other departments as well; I am grateful to everyone who contributed to this initiative. I would like to specifically mention one name, Reyyan Ayfer, who has been with us since the beginning and has given us full support. We brought young people together via digital media and interactive workshops. It was a three-day process with two workshops, re-designed studios. It created a different vibe in the community and we got to know each other better.
What excites you about your work? And what is the coolest thing about your work?
In academic life every semester starts with a blank page; you can start from zero and make things different each time. In our discipline, the studio environment, being a simulation of real life, which is a place of learning by doing, initiates a special excitement. Motivating young minds and building on continuous feedback towards achieving a better design is something that is worth it for the end product. Every semester we are always excited about what theme to select and which city will fit this theme; sometimes the agenda frames it. The coolest thing at the start of every semester is that all the students get very impatient to discover the case study sites for studios. They try to find out from other sources but it is on the first day of the studio that they learn which city we have selected. And travelling to a different destination, working on a theme, has always been a cool and motivating start to each semester.
What has been the most exciting moment of your career so far? Could you share a turning point or defining moment in your career?
One very proud moment in my career is earning one of the Bilkent University 2017 Distinguished Teaching Awards. I have several other valuable awards, but I find this one to be “the coolest” and most exciting because this special news is delivered by the Rector with a call from his personal phone. In my case it was Abdullah Atalar Hoca. I was at the studio when I got the call. I stepped out and received the news of the award. After the call I stood in the corridor by myself for a while trying to attune to this special honor.
What’s one piece of information from your field that you think everyone should know?
The most important part of our discipline is that we are touching the lives of people through design. We are making life better and sustainable by balancing the change we’ve created. We include live entities such as trees, ivies, bushes and flowers, all are smart and beautiful elements of our design process. They provide shade during summer, while the falling leaves allow for sun during wintertime. Through this creation the ethics of the act of design becomes more important when one is working with the landscape, directly interfering with the ecosystem, with its balance; therefore, as one of the main principles of the discipline, doing less harm to all life forms puts a special responsibility on each landscape architect. For example, at medical schools and other disciplines, they have oaths. Disciplines like ours should also have an oath since we touch not only on human life but also on all habitats by transforming, by changing via the act of design.
What’s the most common misconception about your work?
In the Landscape Architecture discipline the common misconception is still that Landscape Architecture deals with the design of gardens. This makes it less favorable for young people to select, but it is totally a misconception. It is a matter of designing life with live entities, which is a lot more complicated than it looks. It engages multiple layers of information sets and knowledge areas, it involves environmental and social data, it must consider and understand vertical and horizontal relations of the ecosystem and how it works, it works with land and spatial aspects of landscape and creates spaces for living better. But it must include all human impact and transformation due to urbanization, production, consumption and so forth. The combination of two disciplines into one department, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design, was a very visionary approach developed by İhsan Doğramacı Hoca in the mid 80s. It provides all its graduates with knowledge not only in landscape, architecture and ecosystems but also in urban issues, sociology, human behavior, psychology and design.
When and where do you do your best thinking?
For me, the most productive time for thinking is after 2 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon; 3 to 8 p.m. is the best. Until that time, I settle daily errands so I can then concentrate and think more clearly. I can work anywhere, but to be at home is what I prefer.
What distracts you?
Telephone and messages. When someone calls while I am working or in the middle of something, I prefer not to answer because I lose concentration.
What are you most curious about?
How the new digital addiction (and mostly the use of AI) will shape human future, human attitude, human skills and mainly our structure of thinking is one of my basic curiosities for the future of humanity. There are both positive and negative sides to this innovative technology, however there are so many unknowns, especially “how AI will transform itself” more than how it will transform us. Secondly, the debate on climate change and how it will affect our future and how we should prepare for it are other important questions in my mind.
What do you like to do when you are not working?
I like travelling a lot, so when I get a chance, I travel. I like being in nature when I take a break, and I like to watch movies at night when I am not working.
Which books have influenced you the most, and why?
I rarely find time to read books. One of the books I read lately is “Night Train to Lisbon” by Pascal Mercier. It was about travelling and chasing for answers. It is an intellectual and philosophical questioning of how humans grow up with a character and how that character evolves into something else, become more conscious of certain matters, less indifferent on some. It also refers to attachments, search for oneself and others…this book inspired me to read more books and get back into the habit of reading.
If you weren’t an academic, what career would you choose?
I am one of the lucky people to have experienced having my own job. It gave me a lot of freedom to frame how I did things, and then I had the chance to pursue an academic career. I liked and enjoyed many phases of both careers.
What is the secret of leading a happy life?
To be happy is a matter of character. Being an easygoing person would make it easier to handle problems and may lead to happiness. Instead of concentrating on the problem and agony, focusing on finding a solution and a way out helps me, and sometimes accepting that bad things happen, such is life, “c’est la vie” and hope will help pull me out if it sheds light on happiness ahead. The community, family, friends with whom you surrounded yourself are also important in how you deal with problems. With just their existence, some people give you happiness and strength during difficult times. I mostly look on the bright side and prefer to be positive, it gives me comfort. It may be different for someone else.
If you could go back to your undergraduate/graduate student years, what advice would you give to your younger-self?
During their undergraduate years, students tend to drift away, either by working too hard or being lost in entertainment and having fun. There are academic consequences that they will understand eventually. My advice would be to the hard workers, to my younger self, “Do not lose yourself in the chaos of working too much!” Use the other advantages of the community. Try to balance hobbies vs. studies. Never give up exercising, it keeps you elevated and healthy.
If you had unlimited funds, what would you like to do research on?
In the future, other than wars and pandemics, there will be two existential problems for cities: water and food. Cities will face more and more problems regarding water scarcity and food security. In both areas, there are so many losses along the supply chain before it reaches the end-user. Almost one third of food is thrown away before it reaches those in need. If I had unlimited funds, I would research how to structure a network that would provide wider and easier connections between societies towards leading a just and more circular economic exchange, one which aims to prevent waste and minimize loss. If we were to manage food losses today, there would be enough food to feed nine billion people.