Asiye Merve Yukselen

Asiye Merve Yukselen is a young architectural designer based in Chicago. Graduated with summa cum laude, she holds a bachelor's degree in Architecture from Illinois Institute of Technology with a specialization in Architectural History and Theory. Yukselen grew up among a mix of cookie-cutter and historically significant buildings in Turkey. She learned a lot from her mother and the cities she had lived in, specifically Istanbul and Chicago.

Upon graduating from high school with excellent scores, she was encouraged to go to medical school, for which she studied for one full year. When she realized that the built environment excites her more than anything else, she changed her major to Architecture which she has never regretted (yet). Yukselen studied classic Roman Architecture in Turkey and Modernism at IIT to get the best of both disciplines.

Currently at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Yukselen is working on large scale projects, exploring building relationships. Outside of work, she is a caregiver of over forty plants, exploring relationships between nature and architecture. She aspires to start her architectural practice one day.