Advisory Board

Mehmet Asatekin
George Beylerian
Levent Çalıkoğlu
Prof. John Heskett
Defne Koz
Faruk Malhan
Sevil Peach
Deyan Sudjic
İlhan Tekeli
Alexander von Vegesack


Mehmet Asatekin

Associate Professor Mehmet Asatekin, Industrial Designer, Faculty Member at Bahçeşehir University. Born in İstanbul at 1946, completed his primary and high school education in Ankara graduating from Kurtuluş Lisesi at 1963. Had his B.Arch at 1969 and his M.Arch at 1971 from Middle East Technical University and his PhD from İstanbul Technical University at 1993. Started his teaching assistantship at METU Department of Architecture at 1971. Worked on industrial design and seating ergonomics in Milan during 1973-74 academic year using the scholarship of Italian Govenment. Participated in the establishment of the Department of Industrial Design and following the establishment in 1969 acted as its Chairperson for several years. Continued teaching in the same Department until his retirement in 2010. Still teaching in the Department of Industrial Design, Bahçeşehir University. He has numerous publications and papers on industrial design and ergonomics. Served as design consultant for Aselsan AŞ between 1982-2001, acted as member of several competition juries and had several awards from design competitions.


George Beylerian

George Beylerian, Founder of ConneXion. Born: 1935, Alexandria, Egypt. Education: Lincoln School / American University, Cairo, Egypt New York University, MA, Cum Laude, in Marketing & Business Administration. As much as anyone, George M. Beylerian is responsible for the coming of age of design in America. Whether as importer, retailer, curator, author, or general impresario, over the past 40+ years he has worked tirelessly to nurture and incubate design in the United States and abroad. Today, as founder and CEO of Material ConneXion and Culture & Commerce, Beylerian continues to shape the face of design and material innovation in the 21st century.Beylerian was born in Alexandria, Egypt to Armenian merchant parents, and, after emigrating to the U.S., he graduated cum laude from New York University with a degree in marketing and business administration. Throughout his college years and until the mid-1960s, he worked in the field of architectural hardware and building materials. In 1964 Beylerian opened Scarabaeus, an innovative retail gallery in Manhattan offering new ideas in home furnishings and decorative accessories with an emphasis on modern, cutting-edge products. His next enterprise, The Beylerian Collection, was a wholesale line of colorful, luxurious, and exotic accessories designed by architects, industrial designers, craftsmen and artists. These products are now widely recognized as having awakened the American market to Italian design, including stylish, plastic home furnishings. Beylerian’s follow-up venture, Casa Idea shop, the first sophisticated lifestyle shop in the country, opened in 1970 at Bloomingdale’s and helped popularize the now-widely-imitated “shop-in-shop” concept. Next, Beylerian turned his attention to contract furniture, specifically focusing on high-end imports from Italy. Steelcase bought his company in 1987, beginning a long and fruitful collaboration between the two. When Steelcase established the Steelcase Design Partnership, Beylerian was named Creative Director and became responsible for creating the image of its boutique furniture, textile, and accessory companies. Among Beylerian’s noteworthy efforts were the highly acclaimed exhibits: Industrial Elegance, Women of Design, Communicating Ideas Artfully, Chairmania, Mondo Materialis, Edible Architecture: Delicious Designs, and Work, Life, Tools. In 1994, Beylerian founded Culture & Commerce, a design consultancy widely recognized as today’s leading design management agency in the U.S. From product design to boutique hotels, Culture & Commerce connects its designers (including Yves Behar, Dror Benshetrit, Milton Glaser, Sami Hayek, Piero Lissoni, MIO, Paola Navone, Philippe Starck, and Marcel Wanders) to a diverse array of projects. From limited collections for TARGET by Starck, MIO, and Hayek, and Rosenthal’s best-selling Vase of Phases to the first designer mouse for Microsoft, Culture & Commerce continues to orchestrate some of today’s most exciting design partnerships. In a career filled with bold initiatives, one of Beylerian’s most outstanding contributions has been as Founder and CEO of Material ConneXion, which he established in 1997. This unique Materials Library and Consultancy is today the world’s leading global material consultancy and materials library. Established for use by architects, designers, engineers, artists, manufacturers and entrepreneurs, the library features samples of close to 5,000 materials, with 45-60 new materials added monthly. The consulting team advises clients in every area of design, from BMW and Target to Proctor Gamble and Steven Holl Architects, on materials strategy, sustainability, performance and aesthetics. Committed to educating the next generation of designers, Material ConneXion’s academic programs provide over 100,000 students worldwide with access to materials knowledge via Material ConneXion’s online database and libraries. Of equal importance is the necessity to create vibrant dialogue on materials and design. As such, Material ConneXion presents exhibitions, workshops and conferences on a diverse array of material-related topics, and publishes MATTER, a quarterly magazine on materials and design. Widely sought out for his insights on design trends and product development strategy, Beylerian is a frequent speaker and media contributor on both domestic and international design issues. He is the co-author of Mondo Materialis, Chairmania (both Harry N. Abrams), Work, Life, Tools (Monacelli), Material Connexion: The Global Resource of New and Innovative Materials for Architects, Artists, and Designers (Wiley), and Ultra Materials: How Materials Innovation is Changing the World (Thames and Hudson).


Levent Çalıkoğlu

Levent Çalıkoğlu, Art Historian, Chief Curator at Istanbul Modern. Levent Çalıkoğlu is an art historian who has been the chief curator of the İstanbul Modern Art Museum since 2008. He holds a degree in Art History from the Language, History, and Geography Faculty of Ankara University. He completed his M.A. in Museum Studies at Yıldız Technical University in İstanbul and now holds a faculty position at that institution’s Department of Art Management in the Faculty of Arts and Design. Çalıkoğlu also works as an arts consultant for the Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı Foundation and is a member of the Akbank Culture and Arts Centre Board of Consultants. In addition to his “Contemporary Arts Conversations” book series he has published many articles on modern and contemporary Turkish art. Since 1998 he has curated exhibitions at both national and international scales at numerous venues: İstanbul Modern Arts Museum; Akbank Culture and Arts Centre (İstanbul); A Foundation (London); Space Triangle Gallery (London); Martin Gropius Bau (Berlin); Seoul Modern Arts Museum; as well as at İstanbul’s Karşı Art Works, Milli Reasürans Art Gallery and Bir Culture and Arts Centre. Çalıkoğlu’s recently curated exhibitions include: “From Traditional to Contemporary” (2010); Sarkis: “Site” (2009); “New Continent: İstanbul” (2009); “İstanbul Modern Berlin” (2009); “New Works, New Horizons” (2009); “Uninvited” (2009); “Cihat Burak Retrospective” (2008); “Hybrid Narratives” (2007); “Twilight Notebook” (2006); “Stranger with an Angel Face” (2006); “Border Experiences” (2005); “Sculpture Garden- New Acquisitions” (2005); “Thief City” (2005); “Boredom and Rainbow” (2004); “Naked” (2004); “Dangerous Things” (2002); “Its Motif and Itself” (2001); “Death=Death” (2001). Exhibitions in partnership with other curators include: “Journey With No Return” (2010) with Alice Sharp and Peter Cross and “What Water Holds Together” (2008) with Gabriela Schor. Çalıkoğlu worked with Ali Akay to curate “States of Rapt” (2008), “Wang Du – Public Page, 48,49,51″ (2007), “They Travel with Birds with Similar Feathers: Irwin” (2007), “Snow and Road: Abbas Kiorostami” (2006), “To Get Messed up with Nature” (2005), and “Ghost Line” (2004). Exhibitions curated with both Ali Akay and Haşim Nur Gürel include: “Modern Experiences” (2007); “Intersecting Times” (2006); “Memory and Scale” (2006); “Fikret Mualla Retrospective” (2005); “Observation / Interpretation / Diversity” (2004); “New Acquisitions” (2004); “Eczacıbaşı 60 Years 60 Artists” (2003). In partnership with Haşim Nur Gürel Çalıkoğlu curated “Traverse Works” (2001), and with Mehmet Ergüven he curated the exhibitions “Four Walls: Studio” (2000) and “Apokalipsis” (1998).


Prof. John Heskett

Prof. John Heskett, Acting Dean of the Faculty of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. In July, 2010, John Heskett retired from his post as Chair Professor of Design at the School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a post he took up in July of 2004 after fifteen years as Professor of Design at the Institute of Design, Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. He is the author of Industrial Design, (1980), widely used as a basic textbook on design courses in many countries and subsequently translated into several languages; German Design 1870-1918, (1987); and Philips: A Study in Corporate Design (1989). His most recent book is Toothpicks and Logos: Design in Everyday Life, published by Oxford University Press in 2002 and reissued in paperback format as A Very Short Introduction to Design in 2005. He also contributes articles, essays and reviews to numerous magazines, anthologies and catalogues. His recent research is focussed on the theme of how design creates (and not just adds) economic value, with particular emphasis on industry in the Pearl River Delta and Yangstze River Delta of China, and the role of this in Design Policy in governments and corporations. Other areas of teaching include the relationship between design and innovation, the problems of changing the nature of markets, and the problems of designing for global markets. He has also acted as consultant to numerous government and business organizations around the world.


Defne Koz

Defne Koz, Industrial Designer, Founder of Defne Koz Studio. Defne Koz, industrial designer, divides her time between her studios in Milan and Chicago. She designed more than 200 products for companies like Foscarini, Leucos, FontanaArte, Sharp, Alessi, Mobileffe, Pirelli, Slide, OmniDecor, Nestle, Unilever, Durst, Egizia, Rapsel-Nito, Gabbianelli, Merati, Cappellini, Guzzini, Steel, RSVP, WMF, Authentics, Nissan, Casio, Gaia&Gino, MPD, Alparda, Nurus, 888, Megaron, VitrA, and Sisecam. Her recent product Dondola for Megaron received the Red Dot Award 2009, while her bathroom products for VitrA had the Red Dot 2006; her lamps have been for the past 10 years among Foscarini’s best sellers; her lamp Relax for Fontana Arte was awarded with the “Best in Category” Prize in the ID Magazine Design Annual, and her glasses “Liquids” for Gaia&Gino won the Good design Award, Chicago. Among her architectural projects are the design of the executive headquarters for Eczacibasi in Istanbul, interiors for numerous private houses, various retail spaces, and the renovation of an apartment in the Lake Shore Drive building by Mies Van Der Rohe in Chicago.Her idea of design is influenced by her training in Ettore Sottsass’ studio, by the combination of her Turkish and Italian culture, and by her curiosity for very different product types. Her interests span from humanizing new technologies like digital audio systems to rediscovering the tradition of handmade ceramics.Common to all her projects are her distinctive design language and the research on the sensorial qualities of materials. For Alessi she reinterpreted the technique of metal wire frame, for Egizia she explored innovative decoration techniques on glass, for Sisecam she created the iconic shape of the Turkish olive oil bottle, for VitrA she proposed hi-tech gel materials for the bathroom environment, and she helped reviving the tradition of Iznik ceramics in Turkey.Her designs have been exhibited at Triennale di Milano, Galleria Jannone, Galleria Posteria, Spazio Mudima, Ideabooks, Galleria Post Design, Spazio Vigentina in Milan, Biennale del Vetro Venezia, IDYB Koeln, Kunstmuseum Dusseldorf, Ubersee Museum Bremen, Ozone Gallery Tokyo, Les Atelier Gallery Paris, Abitare il Tempo Verona, Museo di Pietrarsa Napoli, Design Week Belgrade, Design Week Istanbul. She held seminars at UIC Chicago, Domus Academy, Milano; Fukui Prefecture, Japan; Architectural Association, London; Bilgi University, Istanbul; Centro Borges, Buenos Aires, Design Week Belgrade, Design Week Istanbul.


Faruk Malhan

Faruk Malhan, Architect, Founder of Koleksiyon Mobilya. Born in Izmir in 1947, Faruk Malhan is the founder and the chief designer of Koleksiyon Furniture. After studying in Izmir College and Izmir Ataturk High School for his middle school education, he studied at the department of Architecture in METU. He was a student of Mübeccel Kıray, one of the leading names in sociology in Turkey. The strong sociology education that Malhan received enabled him to broaden his perspective on the role of design in shaping the society. He took basic design courses from Professor Fritz Janneba, the representative of Bauhaus. He became a precursor in producing concepts in design by bringing together his practical experience and sociological, aesthetic, and practical aspects of design. He produced his first works in the studio he founded in Ankara. Since its foundation he developed Koleksiyon from small workshops into integrated production facilities through years devoted to design, arts, craftsmanship, creativity, and care. Products he designed take parts in daily lives of people in and out of Turkey. Faruk Malhan raises young designers with great care in Koleksiyon, and is a leading figure of the 70s and 80s, through which the concept of design integrated with life. He pursues this mission with a continuous passion.


Sevil Peach

Sevil Peach, Interior designer, Founder of Sevil Peach Architecture & Design. Sevil Peach, born in Turkey, studied Design at Brighton University, England. Sevil formed her London based studio SevilPeach, Architecture+Design in 1994; having previously worked for several leading Architectural practices. As a team they have a wide range of experience including Retail, Healthcare, Exhibition and Residential projects however, over the past fifteen years they have developed an in-depth interest and expertise in workplace design, working with clients who have wished to re-cast their work environments to both better support their business goals, organization and employees and to develop new working patterns and relationships. Their groundbreaking workplace solutions for the interiors of Vitra’s offices in their Weil am Rhein Campus in Germany which won Office of the Year award, has led to a longstanding and on-going consultancy to Vitra on creation of new office concepts and products as well as designing numerous exhibitions, showrooms and offices throughout Europe and USA. Their approach to work environments has led to their involvement in a great number of internationally recognized projects for clients such as Sony, Mexx, Deloitte, Novartis, Eczacibasi Holdings, Microsoft. They have recently refurbished and created further new concepts for Vitra’s Offices and are currently working on a new concept for a Laboratory Workplace for Novartis in Shanghai, Swiss Re Headquarters in Zurich and are collaborating with Herzog & de Meuron Architects on the new Tate Modern Museum Extension Building in London. Sevil has participated in a number of International workshops and conferences for, amongst others, the Bauhaus, Dessau; Roskilde University, Denmark; Oslo City Conference; Designmai, Berlin; Mind the Map Conference, Istanbul; SIA Symposium, Basel; LAI in Amsterdam; Worktech, Amsterdam and led various summer workshops for Vitra Design Museum at Boisbuchet, France.


Deyan Sudjic

Deyan Sudjic, Director of Design Museum in London. Deyan Sudjic is Director of the Design Museum in London. Founded in 1989, the Design Museum is the UK’s cultural champion of design and wins international acclaim for exhibitions of modern design history and contemporary design. Before joining the Design Museum in August 2006, Deyan was Dean of the Faculty of Art, Architecture and Design at Kingston University, visiting professor at the Royal College of Art, and the Observer newspaper’s design and architecture writer. He was Director of Glasgow 1999, UK City of Architecture, and in 2002 was Director of the Venice Architecture Biennale, which attracted more than 100,000 paying visitors for the first time in its history. Deyan was for several years visiting professor at the Academy of Applied Art in Vienna, running a course in design history and theory. From 2000 to 2004 he was Editor of Domus, the international magazine of art, architecture and design, and was Founding Editor of Blueprint magazine from 1983 to 1996. Deyan has published many books on design and architecture, including The Edifice Complex published by Penguin and monographs on the work of the Japanese fashion designer Rei Kawakubo, the British-based designer Ron Arad and the design practice Future Systems. The Endless City was published in 2008 by Phaidon. The Language of Things was published by Penguin in October 2008. His most recent book, Norman Foster: A Life in Architecture was published by Orion in 2010. Deyan was appointed as a CABE commissioner in March 2006. In 2004 he was awarded with the Bicentenary Medal of the Royal Society of Arts for the promotion of design, and was made an honorary fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was made an OBE in 2000.


İlhan Tekeli

İlhan Tekeli, urban and environmental planner and social scientist, was born in 1937 in İzmir. He continues to teach part-time at the Middle East Technical University’s Department of Urban and Environmental Planning, from where he is retired. He had been the founder president of the History Foundation of Turkey, and served as member of the Council of Higher Education. He is the author of numerous articles and books on subjects such as, urbanisation, planning, local governments, the economical history of Turkey, methodology of history and geography, macro geography, political programmes, etc.


Alexander von Vegesack

Alexander von Vegesack, Chairman of the Board of Vitra Design Foundation. As a freelance curator and collector of industrial furniture design, Alexander von Vegesack set up the Thonet Museum in Boppard am Rhein and advised international museums in shaping and adding to their design collections. He organised exhibitions in Paris for the Centre Georges Pompidou as well as the Musée d’Orsay and was commissioned by the American Federation of Arts to conceive the first major exhibition on the history of bentwood furniture, which was shown in ten leading US museums. He realised similar projects in Eastern Europe for the German Foreign Ministry. In 1989 he establishes the Vitra Design Museum in cooperation with the furniture producer Vitra, which he is heading as the founding. He conceived an independent foundation financing itself almost exclusively through its own performance. In this role, he has created a continually changing programme of internationally touring exhibitions on design and architecture, including the publication of numerous associated catalogues and other materials. In addition, he initiated an annual European museum conference to provide the most important museums in these fields with a forum for the exchange of ideas and programmes. For over ten years, he has also worked with the Vitra Design Museum and the Centre Georges Pompidou to organise an internationally recognised seminar programme in France for designers and architects as well as artists, craftsmen and artisans from various disciplines. In March 2008 the Pinacoteca Giovanni e Marella Agnelli in Torino, Italy opened an exhibition about his private collection “Scoprire il Design – La Collezione von Vegesack”. Alexander von Vegesack served as a member of the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, is Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and holds the German order of merit.