Esra Sert is Assistant Professor of Architecture in the Faculty of Art and Design, MEF University, Istanbul.  She received her BA in Architecture at the Yıldız Technical University, and MA in Landscape Architecture at Istanbul Technical University, completing a thesis on "Rain Water in the Energy Efficient Urban Landscape Design."  In 2020 she earned the Ph.D. in Architecture at the Middle East Technical University in Ankara with a dissertation titled "Urban Metabolism of İstanbul: Waterfronts as Metabolized Socio-Natures Between 1839 and 2019."  During her doctoral work she was a fellow at the İstanbul Studies Center Doctoral Residency Program at KHAS.

 

Prof. Sert's research spans urban ecology, urban metabolism, urban environmental history, alternative architectural practices, ethics in design, and the labor processes of architecture.  Her work has appeared in a wide range of venues, including Praksis, the Journal of Urban History, Planning Perspectives, Moment Journal, Arredamento Mimarlık magazine, METU JFA, and Dossier.  She is part of the Architecture Lobby’s Academic Working Group. She enjoys collaborative, creative, and community-engaged multidisciplinary research.

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Her current research is directed toward expanding the study of waterways and shorelines.  She engages theories and methods of mapping as a way to analyze the spatial imprints of coastal metabolic flows, tracing features such as wastewater, soil, urban voids, coal, oil, iron, and cement.  She also examines urban planning, policy, and design documents and other artifacts of governmentality that shape spatial outcomes on waterfronts and shoreline communities.  While in residence at the Lab, Prof. Sert will focus on this work, drawing comparisons between the estuaries of Istanbul and New York City.