Pınar Aykaç

University College London

Contesting the Byzantine past: four Hagia Sophias as ideological battlegrounds of architectural conservation in Turkey

2017-2018: Fall

Weinberg Fellow in architectural history and preservation

Pinar Aykac received her Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and her MSc in the Conservation of Cultural Heritage from the Middle East Technical University where she worked as a research and teaching assistant. She holds a PhD from UCL, Bartlett School of Architecture. Her research discusses how the museum concept expands into the historic city through a musealisation process and transforms the urban form of the Sultanahmet district, which has been the public face of Istanbul’s historic peninsula. She was a conservation team member of the Presidential Ataturk Museum Pavilion Conservation Project, Commagene-Nemrut Conservation and Development Programme, and the Gordion Conservation Management Plan. She also worked as a consultant for conservation projects in Turkey such as Okten and Sabuncuoglu Soap Factories in Antioch and the city of Hasankeyf Surveying, Restitution, Emergency Measures, and Reinforcement Project.