Sima Akdurak

Sima received her B.A. in Architectural Studies and History of Art from Tufts University and is currently pursuing her Master of Architecture at MIT. Growing up in Turkey has shaped the way she thinks about architecture—particularly its relationship to memory, reconstruction, material culture, and collective life. Her honors thesis, Foundations for the Future: An Earthquake Relief Design for Izmir, Turkey, received the Madeline Harrison Caviness Prize for excellence in architectural scholarship.

Her professional experience includes Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in New York and Ateliers Jean Nouvel in Paris, where she has worked across concept design, visualization, and large-scale international projects. Her work is driven by a curiosity about how architecture can respond to change while remaining grounded in place, material, and community.