League Prize Winner Bio
NEMESTUDIO
The League Prize, an annual competition that asks young designers to respond to a given theme, has marked an important milestone in many architects’ careers. Winners showcase their work through a lecture series and exhibition.
Neyran Turan & Mete Sonmez were winners of the 2016 competition.
Neyran Turan and Mete Sonmez founded NEMESTUDIO in San Francisco in 2009. NEMESTUDIO produces work ranging from installations to buildings and landscapes. Its “speculations draw upon the capacity of architecture to define a new relational aesthetic, one that is invested in questions of form and representation while being extremely rigorous about architecture’s relationship to the city, the environment, and geography.”
Recent projects include STRAIT, a 2015 installation and solo show at SALT Beyoğlu in Istanbul and Matters Around Architecture, a speculative project included in the “Currencies of Architecture: Burnham Prize Exhibition” during the Chicago Architecture Biennial from 2015-2016. In 2014, NEMESTUDIO worked with private clients on AG House and LV House, both part of affordable initiatives in Austin and Houston, TX.
Their 2015 Museum of Lost Volumes speculative project won an Honorable Mention award in Blank Space’s Fairy Tales competition and in 2013, Neyran Turan received a research grant from the Graham Foundation.
Neyran Turan is currently an assistant professor at the Department of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley. Before her time at Berkeley, Turan was an assistant professor at Rice University’s School of Architecture. She received a Doctorate of Design from Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD), a Master of Environmental Design degree from Yale University School of Architecture, and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Istanbul Technical University. Turan is also a founding editor of the journal New Geographies.
Mete Sonmez received a Master of Architecture degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD) and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Istanbul Technical University. Sonmez has taught design studios and acted as a guest critic at Harvard University, Rice University, Istanbul Technical University, Boston Architecture College, and the University of Houston. In 2015, he received an AIA Design Award for his work with PAGE on the University of Houston Dining Hall.