BASECAMP
Merve Bedir is an architect. She works with infrastructures of hospitality and mobility about/towards the collective intelligences and imaginaries of the landscape. She is currently a visiting professor at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne- EPFL Architecture. Merve is co-founder of Aformal Academy in Pearl River Delta region, Kitchen Workshop in Gaziantep, and Center for Spatial Justice in Istanbul.
Merve holds a PhD from Delft University of Technology, and a BArch from Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Previously, she worked as assistant professor in Hong Kong University, Department of Architecture. She co-chaired Design for Partnerships for Change panel of United International Architects Conference (2023). Her recent publications include “Kitchen Workshop: Cityzenship as Infrastructure” in Feminist Infrastructural Critique (2024), and New Silk Roads in e-flux architecture (co-editor, 2019, 2024).
Merve’s recent design projects include an industrial kitchen in Gaziantep, Turkey, and Postane repair project in Istanbul. Her fellowships include Pogon (Zagreb, 2024), BAK (Utrecht, 2022), Alserkal Foundation (Dubai, 2021), Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, 2019). She co-curated Hands on/ Hands off (2023); Automated Landscapes (2017-19); curated Vocabulary of Hospitality Istanbul and Rotterdam (2014 and 2022); and uncommon river Plovdiv (2015). Her work has taken part in Istanbul Design Biennale (several editions), Urbanism and Architecture Biennale Shenzhen (several editions), Venice Architecture Biennale’s main exhibition (2021), Sao Paulo Architecture Biennale (2017); and most recently installed in BAK Utrecht (2023), and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (2023). These were reviewed in The Guardian, Avery Review, and Frieze Magazine.
Merve holds a PhD from Delft University of Technology, and a BArch from Middle East Technical University in Ankara. Previously, she worked as assistant professor in Hong Kong University, Department of Architecture. She co-chaired Design for Partnerships for Change panel of United International Architects Conference (2023). Her recent publications include “Kitchen Workshop: Cityzenship as Infrastructure” in Feminist Infrastructural Critique (2024), and New Silk Roads in e-flux architecture (co-editor, 2019, 2024).
Merve’s recent design projects include an industrial kitchen in Gaziantep, Turkey, and Postane repair project in Istanbul. Her fellowships include Pogon (Zagreb, 2024), BAK (Utrecht, 2022), Alserkal Foundation (Dubai, 2021), Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, 2019). She co-curated Hands on/ Hands off (2023); Automated Landscapes (2017-19); curated Vocabulary of Hospitality Istanbul and Rotterdam (2014 and 2022); and uncommon river Plovdiv (2015). Her work has taken part in Istanbul Design Biennale (several editions), Urbanism and Architecture Biennale Shenzhen (several editions), Venice Architecture Biennale’s main exhibition (2021), Sao Paulo Architecture Biennale (2017); and most recently installed in BAK Utrecht (2023), and Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (2023). These were reviewed in The Guardian, Avery Review, and Frieze Magazine.
Grace Lostia is a vegan chef by trade, fermenter by methodology, anthropologist by training, and antifascist organizer by practice. In her practice, kitchens are political places for situated and inter-glocal actions, an essential space for learning and un-learning together while nourishing solidarity based practices of collective care and social engagement.
Grace has been a long-time figure in the city's anarcho-activist fabric, and active board member of the Moira cultural center as chair and programmer. Amongst many other activities, Grace organizes music events as Black Earth Events and is part of Rebella Pirata Crew, in radical support of the queerpunx local, DIY, underground scene of Utrecht that refuses to mainstream.
Fellow at BAK during 2020, Grace is the coordinator core member of the b.ASIC a.CTIVIST k.ITCHEN and FieldMealNetwork research.
Grace has been a long-time figure in the city's anarcho-activist fabric, and active board member of the Moira cultural center as chair and programmer. Amongst many other activities, Grace organizes music events as Black Earth Events and is part of Rebella Pirata Crew, in radical support of the queerpunx local, DIY, underground scene of Utrecht that refuses to mainstream.
Fellow at BAK during 2020, Grace is the coordinator core member of the b.ASIC a.CTIVIST k.ITCHEN and FieldMealNetwork research.
