Please join us in wishing a fond adieu to Irem Sezer, Assoc. AIA. Irem joined the team in October 2023 as the AIA Virginia-Virginia Sea Grant Coastal Adaptation & Resilience Design Post-Graduate Research & Development Fellow. We value our continued partnership with Virginia Sea Grant which made this opportunity possible.
We always knew this position would be one of the many steps in Irem’s journey, and we are pleased to celebrate the next of those steps: Irem is now Instructional Assistant Professor at Texas A&M’s College of Architecture and will begin teaching courses there this Fall.
Irem is extremely thoughtful, effective, and collaborative. We appreciate her initiative and contributions. And we look forward to her future accomplishments. In fact, her work with us is not yet done. Irem is scheduled to return to ArchEx to exhibit and celebrate the results of the international design competition she organized. And it’s not too late to register for that competition; the registration fee is discounted for AIA Virginia members. Information can be found here >>
Architectural competitions are more than just platforms for recognition, they are laboratories for architectural speculation. They invite us to step beyond constraints and test ideas that may be too radical, too speculative, or simply explore potential architectural ideas. In our recent participation in the Living Ruins competition, our team (Irem Sezer, Alp Esassolak, Bilgehan Duman) embraced this opportunity, and we’re honored to have received an Honorable Mention for our proposal.
In the Living Ruins competition, our team took this challenge with ReRoot Kayaköy, a proposal that reimagines the abandoned Greek village of Levissi (Kayaköy), Turkey, as an interactive open-air museum.
Kayaköy, once a vibrant Greek village and now a ghost town, is layered with memory and silence. Rather than treat it as a static monument, ReRoot Kayaköy activates the site as a living cultural landscape. Our design introduces lightweight activity pods and new exploratory pathways, all grounded in ecotourism principles. These interventions respect the site’s fragility while inviting deeper engagement through play, learning, and storytelling. Guided by the conceptual framework of memory and shifts, we sought to bridge past and present. The proposed pathways, Tales, Celebration, and Fig & Vineyard, guide visitors through different thematic layers:
Tales Path: Focused on cultural heritage, connecting key historic landmarks with immersive storytelling stations.
Celebration Path: Dedicated to ecological and recreational themes, providing spaces for reflection, education, and community events.
Fig and Vineyard Path: Tied to the local economy, emphasizing agricultural production, tasting experiences, and connections to the land.
Each path is activated by programmed pods, designed with sustainable materials and offering diverse experiences like workshops, sensory play, and historical narratives.
Gamification as a Design Strategy
At the heart of the visitor experience is a game that transforms guests into “time travelers”, who discover the site’s past and present through exploratory missions, so each visit becomes a unique, replayable journey. This gamification strategy blurs the lines between education, adventure, and memory-building, while reinforcing the site’s cultural, historical and ecological identity.
Irem Sezer, Assoc. AIA Coastal Adaptation & Resilience Design Post-Graduate Research & Development Fellow
As a direct result of our ongoing and substantial strategic partnership with Virginia Sea Grant (VASG), we are pleased to welcome Irem Sezer as the AIA Virginia VASG Resiliency Fellow.
Irem received a Bachelor of Architecture from Istanbul Technical University and is licensed as an architect in Turkey. Irem graduated in May 2023 with a Master of Architecture from Virginia Tech and is now pursuing licensure in the United States.
As the Resiliency Fellow, Irem will contribute to the resiliency and sustainability activities and programming organized by AIA Virginia, VA COTE, and the Outreach Advisory Council (e.g., Resiliency Week).
Irem will also support Virginia Sea Grant’s Adaptation Design Network (ADN). The ADN looks to integrate diverse disciplinary and sector-specific perspectives to generate transformational hybrid and nature-based solutions to issues such as flooding, sea level rise, and extreme weather.
Other potential projects include working with community-based resilience and design needs emerging from the Collaboratory with Wetlands Watch, or communities participating in the Resilience Adaptation & Feasibility Tool (RAFT) initiative with the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Old Dominion University.
The fellow will be a member of the VASG fellowship community with access to professional development training and cohort services that aim to enable the teamwork needed to find solutions to our climate challenges. The fellow will also work with professional mentors from within the AIAVA community.
This fellowship presents a massive opportunity for us to strengthen our continuing efforts to address issues concerning resiliency and sustainability across the commonwealth and become a significant influencer of statewide policy; an objective identified in our current Strategic Plan.
Please contact Paul Battaglia if you or your firm would be interested in collaborating with Irem on resiliency activities.
