’In Tabanlioglu the percentage of women architects rises to almost 60%’
’As in the UK, almost 25% of architects in Turkey are women, but in Tabanlioglu the percentage of women architects rises to almost 60%; it could well be due to the fact that one of the partners is a woman, and I may be the publicly best-known female architect in Turkey.
’Being a woman in a men’s world grants you advantages as well as disadvantages, I have always been on the lucky side. Murat Tabanlıoglu and I, we are two architect partners of Tabanlioglu, besides leading the projects of five studios made up of more than 170 architects in our offices in Istanbul, Ankara, Dubai, Doha and now London, in terms of administration I am more involved in the process than my partner.
’Indeed, I don’t believe in gender differences in professional life, or any other platform, yet we need to improve the working conditions of women all over the world so that they have more senior positions in the sector. Other than that, a building, a landscape or simply a room designed or a city planned by women are not any different than those succeeded by men. Moreover, I don’t believe that the clients prefer men as architects, on the contrary, women are better facilitators and better negotiators.’
