Merve Bedir is an architect based in Rotterdam. Her research is about infrastructures of hospitality and mobility. She is a founding member of The Kitchen Workshop, a collective that works with ideas for living together in Gaziantep in Turkey, Center for Spatial Justice, an NGO that documents and acts on issues of environmental and social justice, and Aformal Academy, a school in flux (in Shenzhen/Hong Kong and beyond) for learning with the city. Merve has a PhD from Delft University of Technology, and BArch from Middle East Technical University, Ankara.

The most important and distinctive aspect of my work/proposal is my long term commitment to a context/site. I don’t take on many projects, but remain involved, and do research, and keep coming back to the related issues that have been in focus within the particular project and site. I have a sensitivity for the planetary material commons, the earth, the soil, the water. I have a sensitivity for the underrepresented, the excluded, and justice. I work hard for their representation. I listen, to the site, to the people, to all inhabitants inside and outside. I try to position myself at the intersection of all users, all who have a stake in the context and site, and try my best for their communication and create a conversation where there is no one left unheard. This kind of work is both material and immaterial, and requires a plurality of intelligences. As I slowly take more distance from one site/context to another, I make sure those who take over have similar sensitivity and sensibility towards the work.