PROFILE
Operating from two metropolises —Istanbul & London— EAA interprets different contexts, geographies, situations and designs globally.
About EAA
EAA – Emre Arolat Architecture was founded in May 2004 by Emre Arolat and Gonca Paşolar in Istanbul, as the continuation of Emre Arolat’s architectural practices which he started at his parents’ office, Arolat Architects, as an associate designer in 1987. Today EAA is not only one of the largest architectural offices of Turkey, also has a recognized presence in the global scene along its offices in New York and London in addition to Istanbul. Since its establishment, the studio has built an impressively wide range of works from urban masterplans, airports to residential, cultural buildings and workplaces.
The practice has received international attention very early with the Minicity Theme Park in 2005 which was recognized as Selected Work by the Mies van der Rohe Awards for European Architecture. A great number of international awards followed including Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2010 with the Ipekyol Textile Factory Building. Latest breakthrough project Sancaklar Mosque, a building that blends perfectly with the landscape, is again honored by the selection of Mies van der Rohe Award in 2015, along many others.
EAA is highly regarded for its ability to reconcile the identity and rootedness of the context and the place within its cultural, historical and geographic conditions, with the inescapable demands of the contemporary world to succeed in delivering a compelling design as result. Well experienced in big scale national and international projects, the studio prioritizes collaboration with worldwide engineering and consultancy firms and adopt the cutting-edge computer programming to carry them out. The design is pursued till the smallest detail, comprehensively elaborated, solved and drawn.
The noteworthy works of the studio have been compiled in the monograph ‘Context & Plurality’ edited by Philip Jodidio and Suha Ozkan and published by Rizzoli New York in 2013, and also displayed in several important institutions as Design Museum and Royal Academy of Arts in London, at RIBA and at as well as being presented in the International Architecture Biennale in Venice both at 2012 and 2016
The co-founder and lead designer of the practice, Emre Arolat has been internationally sought after lecturer at prestigious universities. Recently, he taught at the Advanced Studio at Yale School of Architecture as Norman R. Foster Visiting Professor in the 2017 Fall Semester. Arolat was the co-curator of the first Istanbul Design Biennale in 2012. He was granted with a professorship by International Academy of Architecture in 2015.
In 20 years, EAA has received over 100 awards internationally and nationally.
Selected Awards
To read about the whole list of awards, please refer to this link.
“From a small building to an urban scale design, we approach the work with the same kind of ‘finesse’, it is a process that considers details that work just from the beginning.”
Gonca Paşolar, Managing Partner
“Few architects combine order and sensuality to greater effect than Emre Arolat does. Working with geometries that distinguish themselves through their simplicity and a palette that rarely consists of more than concrete, wood, glass, and stone, he is able to achieve effects that make full use of the sites his buildings occupy, while respecting the restraints that constrain his ability to be fully expressive.”
Aaron Betsky
