v18

ARCHITECTURE
Who is Selcuk Avcı?
Born in 1961, Selçuk Avcı is the
founder of Avcı Architects, which
has offices in London and Istanbul,
and founding partner of Urbanista
Real Estate Consultancy Co. The
first company privately owned by
him was established in the year of
1989 in London, with the name of
Avcı Jurca Architects which later on
was turned into a multidisciplinary
design-leading studio with offices
in London, Istanbul, Budapest
and Belgrade. Having gained vast
personal experience in the design and
management of wide-ranging programs
related to housing industry, business
sector, offices, retail, arts, sports,
airport design, health services and
higher education institutions, Avcı put
his signature to many projects driven
by an architectural understanding that
gives particular importance to ecologic
design and energy saving.
Avcı has thought architecture lessons at
Architectural Association of London,
at TU of Delft and at Fakulteta za
Arhitekturo of Ljubljana. He directed
a studio at Architecture Department
of Bilgi University in Istanbul and
thought studio lessons at Istanbul
Technical University. Currently, from
time to time, he gives workshop lessons
and conferences on ecological design.
With the projects it managed and with
his compositions executed, he has won
numerous national and international
prizes. His works have been published
in several journals. The most notable
one among these publications is that
his company, Avcı (Jurca) Architects,
was listed in “England’s Most
Promising 50 Companies Guide”.
In the year 1989, Avcı won his first
grand prize as design director in the
European Union Energy Saving
Architecture competition. In 1998,
he won the RIBA Regional Award
with the projects he completed
during his position as design director
at Energy Conscious Design
Architects in London. The Turkish
Contractors Union Building in Ankara
conceptualized by Avcı was awarded
as the “Best International Project” by
Building Magazine in London. The
same project was elected as the “Best
Architectural Project” at Sign of the
City Awards in 2014. The Turkish
Contractors Union Building also won
the “Construction Award” at 11th
Architecture Awards organized by
the Turkish Association of Architects
in Private Practice. Later on, with its
sustainability properties, the project
qualified to receive LEED Platinum
Certification.
96 August/2016