Yi Luo
Rice University
Houston (29.7° N, 95.3° W)
featuring Kerim Miskavi, Founder, MAS Architecture Studio, Istanbul (41.0° N, 28.9° E)
Architecture is a multi-faceted occupation. An architect could be a designer, a thinker, a presenter, an entrepreneur, a negotiator, a project manager, or all of them at once. In this interview, the founder of MAS (Miskavi Architecture Studio), 
Kerim Miskavi, shares his story as an architect and entrepreneur navigating his profession in the international landscape.
Miskavi studied architecture at Rice University, Houston. After the preceptorship, an internship program for fifth year
architecture students, he realized that he preferred smaller firms where he could be challenged to learn different skills, take more responsibility, and have a better understanding of all the on-going projects. After graduation, he worked at the award-winning international architecture firms such as SO-IL and Mitchell | Giurgola Architects in New York. In 2017, he founded MAS in Istanbul, Turkey.
Miskavi’s career serves as a guidance for international architecture students like me who struggle with navigating in distinct professional environments in different countries. Transitioning from being a US-based architect to working in Turkey raises many challenges, Miskavi states. “They’re almost two different professions.” Clients have very distinct expectations on the scope, budget, and the pace of the practice in two countries. His U.S. education and experience also raised some challenges in getting used to the local business practice in Turkey. However, there are always opportunities that accompany the challenges. “I feel like I’m not fully Turkish but also not fully a foreigner.” Miskavi says, “I like to enjoy the exploration of the in-between space.” With exposure to the international architectural discourse, Miskavi’s unique self-positioning allows him to introduce a fresh perspective and a distinctive approach to the problems associated with vernacular architecture.
The flexibility and variety of projects are the main features of Miskavi’s practice. MAS has engaged in projects at various scales and media ranging from custom-made furniture design to large-scale urban transformations. Many of their projects have been featured in multiple media outlets such as BBC and Gulf News and in leading design websites such as Arch Daily, Architecture Digest, and Dezeen. Currently, Miskavi and his team are working on a residential and commercial interior design project, an urban design competition in Istanbul’s famous square, Taksim Square, and a mid-scale residential project in southern Turkey among others. Working on projects at different scales at the same time creates a unique design flow and encourages a more flexible approach to architectural design.
Looking back to his school years, Miskavi appreciates the way of thinking and the discoveries of his “design heroes.” The design methodology evolves overtime, but the understanding of the design process has been very helpful for him. According to Miskavi, school is a phase to gather information about the concepts, precedents, architectural theories, industry trends, and problems and equip yourself with tools and skills that will prepare you to face the challenges in your future practice. When sitting in front of a computer screen or a sketch pad, the first thing you will do is “think about those heroes or projects that you admire, and then try to find your own way starting off from them.”
When I talked about my struggles with deciding to listen to the professors or follow my own ideas, Miskavi responded that similar situations may also arise in practice between the client and the architect. However, the problems can be easily avoided with synergy and alignment of the objectives between the architect and the client at the start of the project. Understanding the roots of the discrepancies and finding a common ground are essential. In addition, architects are often drawn to specific disciplinary themes such as light or geometry that might not receive any response from the clients. Still, you should “always try to keep those ideas in play and inject ideas or explorations that you’re interested in within each project.”
Sharing his story as an architect and an entrepreneur, Miskavi offered refreshing insights into the advantages of having an international architectural practice, and the importance of keeping an open mind, learning from the precedents, and clear communication with clients. It’s also good to step outside your comfort zone. Keep challenging yourself and try doing things you haven’t done before. Try to get as much responsibility as you can so that you can learn quickly
Highlights from the interview
What led you to start your own architecture firm?
Like any architect, it was always my dream to have my own practice one day. After I graduated from Rice in 2014, I worked at an architecture studio based in New York for a while. I had a great experience there. But eventually, I wanted to go back to Turkey, which is my home country. At the end of 2016, beginning of 2017, I returned to Istanbul. I was able to get a few small commissions so that I could start my own practice. It’s been almost three years since I started my own practice and it’s been working out so far. I’m taking it step by step to see where it takes me.
Are there any differences between working in the U.S. and in Turkey?
Yes. They’re very different. They’re almost two different professions. The expectations of clients in terms of the scope, budget, and the pace of practice are quite different in Turkey. Being trained in a U.S. university, it took a while to get used to how things are done [in Turkey]. It took me a year and a half to adjust to the environment in Turkey. The U.S. system is very systematic. Clients are usually well informed about the design and building process. [Stricter] time and budgetary restrictions are involved. In terms of professional practice, the limits are quite strict and well-defined. Legally, the client, architect, contractor, and consultants, all the parties are involved in the design and building process. Whereas in Turkey, all these things are much more fluid, and they are more intertwined; the architect can also be the contractor. Architects have an in-house consultant so they take on additional roles or the client expects them to. The client mostly expects an architect to, especially for smaller jobs, both design and build. The architect’s professional job description tends to be more blurred in Turkey.
What kind of projects do you usually work on in Turkey?
I haven’t really specialized in any specific area, which is something I enjoy. I like working on different skills and different types of projects. Currently, I’m working on two small interior [design] projects. One is residential and one is retail. I’m also working on a [design] competition for an urban square in Istanbul, Taksim Square, which is one of the, or if not the most well-known square in Istanbul. The municipality opened a design competition, inviting architects to participate in and I am very excited about it. I’m also working on a mid-scale residential project in southern Turkey. It’s about 300,000 square feet of residential units. The idea is to maintain, as much as possible, the natural landscape while designing a mid-rise residential development that is sustainable and also offers generous spatial and natural amenities. We also do a lot of installations. I did an installation last year in Dubai for the Dubai Design Week. We’re currently in talks to do some more in 2020. We’re also starting to do a small backyard extension building in San Francisco; that’s not a ground-up project but an addition to the backyard of an existing single-family home.
What are the differences between working on domestic and international projects?
That’s something I enjoy the most about my practice. I feel like I’m not fully Turkish but also not fully a foreigner; I’m kind of in between. Being trained in the U.S. and having had exposure to the architectural discourse there, I enjoy working on international projects because I am exposed to fresh ideas and tend to look at things that I haven’t looked at before. The architecture scene in Turkey is a little bit more insular and not as widely discussed or published as the international architecture scene. I think it’s good to have that kind of balance. I definitely like to work on projects in my own country and in my city and add to the [architectural] culture here, but it’s also very nice to keep the connection to the broader international architectural scene by doing projects around the world.
How do the things you learned in the studio contribute to your practice? If you were able to go back to your school years, what would have you paid more attention to?
What you take out the most from the school is the way of thinking when you approach a design. When you’re in school, you learn how to look at a design problem, how to start, and what you should consider to establish a design methodology. That methodology evolves over time but understanding design as a process has been very helpful to me. In school, you learn a lot about what ideas and precedents to consider, which architects to look at, and what problems the discipline has faced over time that you will also face in practice. What I learned at Rice is still very much at the core of my design. Whenever I get a new design problem that I’ve never faced before, I look for the main theme to focus on and immediately go to my references; I look at what the past architects have done and some of the canonical projects that we’ve studied in school. As a student, the more you build that inventory and the more you discover your interests or your heroes, the more it will help you down the road. Because when you’re on your own and you’re in front of a computer screen or in front of a sketch pad to start designing, the first thing you will do is think about those heroes or projects that you admire, and then try to find your own way.
Are there any conflicts between what your client asks and what you want to push forward? How do you address those conflicts?
As an architect, you will have a client who has needs, wants, and a specific vision for what the project should aim for. It’s important to try to get that sense from them from the start so that the issues you would like to tackle as an architect are along the same lines as your client’s [concerns]. Trying to get that synergy and balance from the start is always helpful but there are times when your approach to a problem may not be completely in line with your client’s. In those cases, what I try to do is to take a step back and evaluate if that is the right idea for the project or that is the right direction to push the project to. If you take an open-minded approach and try to understand where the discrepancies may be coming from or how you can find a common ground on what you think is important as an architect, and what the client is expecting from you, you will be able to find a good solution that’s both relevant to you and helpful to the client.
As an architect, it’s always good to have in your mind, things that you’re interested in purely as a designer. Whether the client notices that or not, as a designer, you always try to keep those ideas in play and try to inject ideas or explorations that you’re interested in within each project. For example, in the wind tower project that we did the installation, we were exploring ideas of sustainability and how we may use low-tech analog systems from the past in a way that they can be used today and in the future. The trend or the theme is something that was quite relevant to Dubai at the time and still is today. But we were also very much interested in the tower just as an architectural form and its proportions and its relationship to the human scale. When we built this really narrow, 6.5-meter-tall tower, which can fit three or four people at a time, the spatial effect that it produced and the feeling of being inside were quite exciting and it was really informative for me to get the sense of how proportions of that space would work. The sustainability angle is something that’s relevant to society as a whole or the context of the project.
What are some of the most important things that you wish you knew when you newly entered the industry?
The best thing you can do in school is to try to understand what’s most interesting to you as an architect. It’s a very broad field, and as architects, we have a lot of flexibility; we can do very different things and that’s part of our education. When you graduate, try to have a sense of what types of projects, themes, explorations, or skills are interesting to you. Once you have a sense of the direction you want to take, look for the practices that do the kind of work in that direction, and try to gain as much experience as possible. I had some experience in a mid-size firm when I was doing my preceptorship at Rice; it was a firm of about 35 to 40 people, and it was a great experience. Then I realized that I would like to work for a smaller firm, where I can get a sense of what’s happening in every project and get more responsibility because the bigger the firm is, the more mentorship you have; the more people there are to take care of the responsibilities of designing the project. That gives you a smoother but a longer learning curve whereas in a smaller firm, you’re exposed to a lot of [different] things because there are not that many available people. If you’re willing and able, you tend to get more and more responsibility more quickly. Everyone has a different way of going about things. It’s important to realize those as quickly as you can. Once you find a place that you like, it’s important to stay there and get the full scope of how projects work, how the practice works, and how the design process works with a client and consultants.
It’s also good to step outside your comfort zone. Keep challenging yourself and try doing things you haven’t done before. Try to get as much responsibility as you can so that you can learn quickly.
How did you form your team and start your company?
When I first started, I was the team. I was doing everything. But eventually, once I started having more than one project, I came to the point where I realized I wasn’t able to do everything by myself; that’s when I started looking to expand the team. In a [prospective] team member, I usually look for [specific] character [traits] more than the technical competency or skills. Of course, there should be a [certain] level of skill and competency that I’m confident with, but besides that, the character and the feeling of how that person would fit in the team tend to be the deciding factor when I look for people. I have a very small practice; now I have about six people working with me. So, I try to have people who can work on any and all phases of the project and more than one project at a time if needed. Thus, I need people who are hard-working, committed, and able to adapt quickly.
How did you find your first client?
My first clients were family acquaintances or people I have known as friends or friends of friends. Those have been the steadiest set of clients that I’ve had since I’ve started. Now, we’re looking to do business development for a more structured professional work. We are meeting potential clients, traveling, trying to get in touch with prospective employers, and trying to spread the news about what we’re doing and we’re looking for. I’m still a very young architect, and my firm is a very young firm. It takes time to build a track record. Until then, the networks or social circles are going to be very important.
We also seek out opportunities to do installations, and we participate in competitions. I think competitions are also a very good way to build a practice, get the team to work together and develop a relationship, develop the interests of the practice, and get word out about the work we do. You have to be proactive and realize that things don’t come to you naturally; you have to get the word out there and look for [new opportunities].
Interview excerpts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability and approved by the interviewee. This article only aims to share personal opinions and learnings and does not constitute the interviewee’s current or former employer(s)’ position on any of the topics discussed.