About Dr. Ekici
About Didem Ekici
Didem Ekici is the Chair of the International Programs Committee and a member of the Lecture Series Committee at the Illinois School of Architecture. She is also affiliated with the Unit for Criticism & Interpretive Theory in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and with the Center for the Study of Global Gender Equity at the Illinois Global Institute. She serves as a Director at the Society of Architectural Historians Governing Board (until 2028).
Trained as both an architect and a historian of the built environment, Dr Ekici has lived, studied, and worked in Turkey, the United States, Germany, China, and the United Kingdom before joining the ISoA. Her research and teaching engage themes of health, housing, domestic interiors, materiality, and the Anthropocene across multiple scales—from decorative arts and architecture to urban design—spanning the period from the Enlightenment to the present.
Books by Didem Ekici
Teaching Philosophy
As an educator, Dr Ekici helps students develop the analytical skills needed to address the pressing issues shaping the architectural profession and the broader world, both as future practitioners and as engaged citizens within their communities. She views architectural education as a holistic endeavor—one that equips students not only with professional tools and skills but also with a worldview and values that prioritize the well-being of people and the environment. To this end, she teaches architectural design within an expanded framework that exceeds immediate design requirements, examining architecture’s broader implications across socio-economic and environmental contexts, from the micro to the macro scale. This holistic approach is especially critical today, as we confront unprecedented global challenges, including climate breakdown, intensifying conflicts and migration, and the transformative impact of artificial intelligence.
Dr. Ekici actively experiments with cutting-edge professional tools, bringing digital humanities methods, comprehensive geospatial platforms (ArcGIS), and AI driven analysis into her seminars and design studios.
Education
- Ph.D. in History and Theory of Architecture, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
- Master of Arts in Architectural History and Theory, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
- Master of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
- Bachelor of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey
Research and publications
Ongoing and upcoming research
Poster by Didem Ekici titled “Designing with CO2 from Indoors to Deep Earth.”
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Didem Ekici is the author of Surface, Textile, and German Material Culture: Bodies, Interiors, and Architecture, 1830-1914 (Bloomsbury, 2025) and co-editor of Textile in Architecture: From the Middle Ages to Modernism (Routledge, 2023), Housing and the City (Routledge, 2022), and Healing Spaces, Modern Architecture, and the Body (Routledge, 2017). Her work includes numerous book chapters and peer-reviewed articles in journals such as the Journal of Architectural Education, Journal of Architecture, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, and gtapapers.
Dr Ekici has chaired international conferences, sessions, and workshops for organizations such as the European Architectural History Network, College Art Association, Society of Architectural Historians, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, and Architectural Humanities Research Association. Her research has been supported by fellowships from The Wellcome Trust, German Academic Exchange Service, University of Nottingham, University of Lincoln, The Wolfsonian-Florida International University, and the University of Michigan Institute for the Humanities.
Poster by Didem Ekici titled “Designing with CO2 from Indoors to Deep Earth.”
Garden Office, Nottingham, UK designed and built by Dr Ekici
Teaching and advising
Classes taught
Graduate Design Studios in Health and Well Being
- ARCH 572 Revitalizing Pier 5 in Boston Harbor: Science Pier + Public Waterfront Park
- ARCH 572 Celebrating Water as an Urban Amenity: Activating the Aqueduct of Valens in Istanbul
- ARCH 572 Retrofitting Suburbia for Today’s Households (or What Would a Non-Sexist Suburb Look Like?)
Undergraduate design studios
- ARCH 372-Designing for Human Wellbeing: Cohousing in Urbana, IL
- ARCH 474 Advanced Design II: Mixed Use Development in Humboldt Park, Chicago
Graduate seminar
- ARCH 596 Architecture and Anthropocene Air
Student work from Spring 2025 can be found in this link