Participant Info

First Name
Deniz
Last Name
Avci
Country
Turkey
State
Affiliation
Izmir University of Economics, Interior Architecture and Environmental Design
Website URL
https://en.docomomo-tr-interior.org/deniz-avci
Keywords
early Turkish republican residential architecture, housing in post-war eras in Turkey, documentation and conservation of Modern Movement Heritage and Modern Interiors, conservation by adaptive re-use, cinema-space-architecture, healthcare architecture
Availability
Media Contact
Additional Contact Information
PhD
PhD

Personal Info

Photo
About Me

Deniz Avci is an Associate Professor of Architectural History (ÜAK – Turkish Inter-University Council, 2025) at Izmir University of Economics. Cultural heritage preservation specialist, interior architect and environmental designer (MSc, METU; BSc, Baskent University) and architectural historian (PhD, METU) Associate Professor Dr. Deniz Avci (Izmir University of Economics, IAED) specializes on the architectural historiography and conservation of the twentieth-century Modern Movement architecture / interiors / furniture in Turkey by the assessment of different building typologies, especially housing and healthcare architecture, and utilizes films as archives in her research.

Her PhD dissertation (2018) titled ‘Housing the modern nation: The transformation of residential architecture in Ankara during the 1920s’ contributed to the missing gap in the literature of the 1920s’ housing in Ankara. Avci is a researcher in the projects titled ‘Architects who left their marks in Ankara’ and ‘DATUMM – Documenting and Archiving Modern Turkish Furniture’, and a committee member in ‘docomomo_turkey Interior Design’.

She is currently co-leading two projects, one titled ‘Architecture of Convalescence: Mapping the Sanatorium Heritage of Turkey’ supported by the Turkish Architects’ Association-1927 with Modern Architecture Research Award and the other titled ‘Between Medicine and Architecture in Mid-Century Turkey: Ankara’s Atatürk (Keçiören) Sanatorium’ supported by VEKAM with Ankara Research Awards.

Avci is an editorial assistant in the International Journal of Islamic Architecture (Intellect – IJIA).

Recent Publications

Selected Publications

Publications in peer-reviewed international journals indexed by WoS (SCI, SSCI, Arts and Humanities, etc.)

Avci, Deniz, and Cansu Degirmencioglu. 2024. “From ‘Prototype’ to ‘Model’: Architectural and Spatial Development of Block A (1924–1945) of Istanbul’s Heybeliada Sanatorium.” Frontiers of Architectural Research 13 (1): 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2023.09.006.

Avci, Deniz. 2024. “Salient/Silent Actors of Ankara’s Housing and the Vocational Network in the Turmoil of Transformation (1923–1928).” Open House International, 49 (2): 285-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/OHI-12-2022-0306.

Degirmencioglu, Cansu, and Deniz Avci. 2023. “Transient yet Settled: The Rooms for Tuberculosis Patients in Turkish Sanatoria.” Res Mobilis 12 (16): 58–83. https://doi.org/10.17811/rm.13.16.2023.58-83.

Avcı, Deniz. 2021. “Housing in Transition: The First Apartments of the New Capital City, Ankara.” Journal of Housing and the Built Environment 36 (3): 1141–63. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-020-09799-5.

Publications in other peer reviewed journals

Avcı, Deniz, and Gözde Özder Çakır. 2024. “Revitalizing Ruins: Adaptive Reuse of Yamanlar Sanatorium as a Contemporary Summer Camp by Experiential Education in Interior Architecture.” Journal of Architectural Sciences and Applications, 9(2), 1149-1175. https://doi.org/10.30785/mbud.1530223.

Avcı, Deniz. 2024. “Tuberculosis in Cinematic Narratives: Architectural Spaces and Socio-Spatial Constructs.” Sinecine: Journal of Film Studies 15(1): 7-56. https://doi.org/10.32001/sinecine.1424279

Avcı, Deniz. 2024. “Mediko-Sosyal Katmanlarıyla Kirazlıyayla (Uludağ) Sanatoryumu” [Medico-Social Layers of Kirazlıyayla Sanatorium]. Idealkent – Journal of Urban Studies 16(44): 1068-1107. https://doi.org/10.31198/idealkent.1455335

Avcı, Deniz, and Giuseppe Resta. 2021. “Building a Nation, Building a Modern Capital City: A Comparative Study of Ankara’s and Tirana’s First Master Plans.” Idealkent – Journal of Urban Studies 12 (34): 1693–1721. https://doi.org/10.31198/idealkent.980111.

Papers presented in international conferences

Hasirci, Deniz, Zeynep Tuna-Ultav, Melis Ornekoglu-Selcuk, and Deniz Avci. 2024. “Modern Interior Architects in Turkey: A Focus on Women.” Modernist Women Interior Designers and Artists: To Deepen the Reading of the Different Expressions of Female Creativity. Docomomo Portugal and Docomomo ISC/ID International Conference. The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.

Avci, Deniz. 2024. “State Visions in Mid-Twentieth Century: The Interplay of Health, Architecture, and Propaganda in Turkish Documentary Films.” AMPS Urban Futures – Cultural Pasts. AMPS Proceedings Series 40.3. Universitat Politècnica de Cataluny & AMPS. 15-17 July. 659-670. Barcelona, Spain. https://amps-research.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Amps-Proceedings-Series_40.3-1.pdf

Avci- , Deniz. 2023. “Beyond Decay: Nostalgia and Loss in Turkey’s Abandoned Twentieth-Century Sanatoria.” AMPS Heritages, Past and Present – Built and Social. AMPS Proceedings Series 35.3. Czech Technical University & AMPS. 28-30 June 2023. 677-691. Prague, Czechia. https://amps-research.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Amps-Proceedings-Series-35.3_2024_B.pdf

Degirmencioglu, Cansu, and Deniz Avci. 2022. “Transient yet Settled: The Rooms for Tuberculosis Patients in Turkish Sanatoria.” Design & Transience: Design History Society Annual Conference. 8-10 September 2022. Izmir Institute of Technology, Izmir.

Degirmencioglu, Cansu, and Deniz Avci. 2022. “The Politics of Cutting and Gluing: Architectural Models as Propaganda in Early Republican Turkey.” Are You a Model? On an Architectural Medium of Spatial Exploration. 2-3 November 2022. International Conference at Technical University of Darmstadt. Darmstadt/Frankfurt.

Other Publications

Books

Hasırcı, Deniz, Zeynep Tuna Ultav, Deniz Avcı, and Melis Örnekoğlu Selçuk. 2025. Sözlü Tarih Yöntemiyle Türkiye’de Mobilya ve İçmimarlık Tarihini Okumak: Gözen Küçükerman [Reading the History of Furniture and Interior Architecture in Turkey through the Oral History Method: Gözen Küçükerman]. Izmir: Izmir University of Economics Press. ISBN: 978-625-6001-16-9

Edited Books

Hasırcı, Deniz, Didem Yavuz Velipaşaoğlu, Tuba Doğu, Deniz Avcı, Gözde Damla Turhan-Haskara, Ali Rıza Bayrak, eds. 2025. Design Dialogues. Izmir: Izmir University of Economics Press. e-ISBN: 978-625-6001-17-6.

Hasirci, Deniz, Tuba Doğu, Deniz Avci, Gözde Damla Turhan-Haskara, and Aybüke Taşer, eds. 2024. Localizing Design Studies: Perspectives on Turkey. Theory on Demand 53. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. ISBN: 9789083412597.

Hasırcı, Deniz, Didem Yavuz Velipaşaoğlu, Tuba Doğu, Deniz Avcı, Gözde Damla Turhan-Haskara, Ali Rıza Bayrak, eds. 2024. Design Dialogues, Design Studies Symposium Abstract Proceedings, 31 May 2024, Izmir University of Economics Press. e-lSBN: 978-625-6001-04-6.

Hasirci, Deniz, Tuba Doğu, Deniz Avci, Gözde Damla Turhan-Haskara, and Aybüke Taşer, eds. 2023. Realities and Frontiers, Design Studies Symposium Abstract Proceedings, 1-2 June 2023, Izmir University of Economics Press. e-lSBN: 978-605-72724-4-7.

Book Chapters

Avcı, Deniz. 2025. “A ‘Value’-based Narrative of the Conservation Theory and the ‘Dialogue Value’.” In Design Dialogues, edited by Deniz Hasırcı, Didem Yavuz Velipaşaoğlu, Tuba Doğu, Deniz Avcı, Gözde Damla Turhan-Haskara, Ali Rıza Bayrak,11-25. Izmir: Izmir University of Economics Press. e-ISBN: 978-625-6001-17-6.

Hasırcı, Deniz, Zeynep Tuna Ultav, Melis Örneoğlu Selçuk, Deniz Avcı. 2024. “Modern Interior Architects in Turkey: A Focus on Women.” In Modernist Women Interior Designers and Artists, edited by Ana Tostoes and Zara Ferreria, 118-129. Lisbon: Docomomo Portugal / Docomomo ISC/ID. ISBN: 978-989-33-6201-3.

Avci, Deniz, and Tuba Doğu. 2024. “Learnings from Izmir University of Economics Design Studies Program.” In Localizing Design Studies: Perspectives on Turkey, edited by Deniz Hasirci, Tuba Doğu, Deniz Avci, Gözde Damla Turhan-Haskara, and Aybüke Taşer, 137–44. Theory on Demand 53. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. ISBN: 9789083412597.

Çağatay, Gökçe, Tuba Doğu, and Deniz Avci. 2024. “Visual Violence in Turkish Cinema: Perspectives from Southeastern Anatolia (1960-1990).” In Localizing Design Studies: Perspectives on Turkey, edited by Deniz Hasirci, Tuba Doğu, Deniz Avci, Gözde Damla Turhan-Haskara, and Aybüke Taşer, 70–84. Theory on Demand 53. Amsterdam: Institute of Network Cultures. ISBN: 9789083412597

Avcı, Deniz, and Cansu Değirmencioğlu. 2024. “100. Yılda İstanbul Sanatoryumlarına Yeniden Bakmak: Yapı Tipleri ve Veremden Sonraki Yaşamları” [Revisiting Istanbul Sanatoriums on the Centennial of the Turkish Republic: Building Types and Their Afterlives Post Tuberculosis]. In Cumhuriyet’in 100. Yılında Mimarlık, edited by İpek Akpınar and Şebnem Hoşkara, 336-370. Ankara: İdealkent. ISBN: 978-625-98568-2-7.

Hasırcı, Deniz, Deniz Avcı, Zeynep Tuna Ultav, and Melis Örnekoğlu Selçuk. 2024. “Cumhuriyet’in 100. Yılında (İç Mekan ve) Mobilya” [Furniture (and Interior design) in the 100th Anniversary of the Republic]. In Cumhuriyet’in 100. Yılında Mimarlık, edited by İpek Akpınar and Şebnem Hoşkara, 330-375. Ankara: İdealkent. ISBN: 978-625-98568-3-4.

Degirmencioglu, Cansu, and Deniz Avci- . 2024. “The Politics of Cutting and Gluing: Architectural Models as Propaganda in Early Republican Turkey.” In Are You a Model? On an Architectural Medium of Spatial Exploration, edited by Anna-Maria Meister, Teresa Fankhanel, Lisa Beisswanger, Chris Dahne, and Anna Luise Schubert, 60-63. Berlin: Jovis Verlag. ISBN: 978-3-98612-072-6

Avcı  , Deniz, and T. Elvan Altan. 2023. “Population Movements and Settlement in the New Capital City: Spatial and Social Transformation of Ankara during the 1920s.” In Settlements and Displacement in Turkey: Struggle and Rejuvenation, edited by Özlem Erdoğdu Erkarslan and Ela Alanyalı Aral, 17–43. London: Routledge. ISBN: 9781032430959 (pbk). ISBN: 9781003365686 (ebk). DOI: 10.4324/ 9781003365686.

Avcı, Deniz. 2023. “Evsellikte ‘Servis’in Tasviri: 1950-1980 Yeşilçam Sinemasında Konut Içi ‘Hizmet’ Mekânlarında Misafir Ağırlama” [Representation of ‘Service’ in Domesticity: Hosting Guests in Domestic ‘Service’ Spaces in Yeşilçam Cinema, 1950-1980]. In Ev: Tarihsel, Toplumsal ve Sembolik Bir Mekân Olarak Anlamı ve Dönüşümü, edited by Pınar Melis Yelsalı Parmaksız, 65–92. İstanbul: Nika. ISBN: 978-625-7653-88-6.

Media Coverage
Country Focus
Turkey
Expertise by Geography
Anatolia, Eastern Europe, Middle East
Expertise by Chronology
19th century, Modern, 20th century
Expertise by Topic
Art & Architectural History, Medicine, Migration & Immigration, Politics, Urban History, Women