Winners of the Arkitera Awards Announced

Kastamonu Entegre hosted the Arkitera Awards ceremony, organized by Arkitera Architecture Center for the fifteenth time this year. The ceremony, held at the Auditorium in the Kastamonu Entegre headquarters building designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Hamdi Şensoy, saw the presentation of Arkitera Employer Awards and Young Architect Awards.

Kastamonu Entegre, the leading brand in the wood-based panel sector, has continued to support the Arkitera Awards since 2022, which hold an important place in architectural production culture. The Arkitera Awards, organized by Arkitera Architecture Center to honor quality works in Turkey's architectural environment and the names behind these projects, took place this year with support from Kastamonu Entegre in a ceremony held at the Auditorium in the headquarters building bearing the signature of Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Hamdi Şensoy.

The ceremony, at which Employer Awards were presented in public and private sector categories and awards for young architects were announced, was attended by guests from architecture, design and academic circles.

Speaking at the opening of the ceremony, Kastamonu Entegre Global Marketing Director Talha Aydın emphasized that architecture, through its aesthetic, functional and human-touching qualities, gives identity to cities, provides safe living spaces and creates gathering points where communities share common values. He also highlighted the importance of architectural works in creating bridges from the past to the future.

Arkitera Employer Awards

With a jury panel consisting of Sevilay Uğur Çekim, Melis Varkal Deligöz, Can Tamirci and Mert Uslu, the Arkitera Employer Award, organized to highlight the employer's role in quality architectural production and encourage investors to create quality buildings and spaces, this year again had winners in two categories: public and private sector. Additionally, two Jury Encouragement Awards were presented this year.

The winners of the Arkitera Employer Award Jury Encouragement Awards were Kocaeli Metropolitan Municipality for the Kocaeli Congress Center project and Nilüfer Municipality for the Nilüfer Sugar Beet Depot project. In the private sector category, the Employer Award winner was The Marmara Group for the Zeyrek Çinili Hamam project, while in the public sector category, the Employer Award was received by Tekirdağ Metropolitan Municipality for the Tekirdağ Metropolitan Municipality Complex.

Arkitera Young Architect Awards

The jury panel for this year's Arkitera Young Architect Awards, first presented in 2004 to showcase young architects' work and names and enable them to play a greater role in architectural production, included Gönül Ardal, Begüm Yılmaz Bilgin, Ervin Garip, Lebriz Atan Karaatlı and Kerim Miskavi. Within the scope of the Jury Encouragement Awards, this year's recipients were Ali Burak Yanardağ and Yusuf Burak Dolu. The winners of the Young Architect Awards were Mert Uslu, founder of Mert Uslu Architecture, and Hande Ciğerli, co-founder of Novos Studio.

Kastamonu Entegre, which hosted the ceremony, presented special gifts to the year's young architects. The Arkitera Awards ceremony concluded with the presentation of thank-you plaques to jury members and a group photograph.