Founder of Emre Arolat Architecture
Emre Arolat is a distinguished Turkish architect and the Co-founder of EAA – Emre Arolat Architecture, a practice that has grown into one of the largest and most influential architectural firms in Turkey with offices in Istanbul, London, and New York. After graduating from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and working in his parents’ firm, he founded EAA in 2004 alongside Gonca Paşolar, establishing a design philosophy rooted in “situationalism”—an approach that rejects a singular signature style in favor of designs deeply connected to the specific social, historical, and geographic context of each site. His career is marked by a prolific output of internationally acclaimed projects, most notably the Sancaklar Mosque, which reimagined traditional Islamic architecture through a subterranean, minimalist form, and the Istanbul Museum of Painting and Sculpture. A highly decorated professional, Arolat was the recipient of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2010 and serves as a prominent educator, holding various visiting professorships at institutions such as Yale School of Architecture and the Berlage Institute.
