Neyran Turan, an award-winning author recognized for her literary works surrounding architecture and climate change, displayed her work and experiences of architecture and environmental design Monday night.

“[Turan and colleagues’] work reimagines the idea of the architectural practice and reflects on the ways in which architectural knowledge is produced by paying close attention to architecture-specific placement in the world,” Turan said.

The College of Architecture and Environmental Design started their lecture series with Turan, a partner of a San Francisco architectural firm known as NEMESTUDIO. The event took place in the Cene Lecture Hall located inside the John Elliot Center for Architecture and Environmental Design with about 85 attendees present.

Turan described herself as curious and is interested in seeing what details and information other places and universities have to offer, she said in an interview prior to the lecture.

“I started studying architecture when I was very young,” Turan said in an interview prior to the lecture. “I was always curious about architecture when I was in high school.”

Once she entered into higher education at Istanbul Technical University in Turkey, she pursued architecture, later earning a bachelor of architecture.

Throughout the 70 minutes of the lecture, Turan gave insight and details on pieces of architecture and respective art geared toward planetary imagination in architecture.

Turan described planetary imagination as “large-scaled systems and their relations to architecture.”

Turan highlighted and told the stories and symbolism behind pieces of work from NEMESTUDIO, like “When Naked Kings All Gone” and “New Cadavre Exquis.”

Turan also tied in pieces of work from other architects and artists in the field, like Jeff Wall’s “The Destroyed Room.”

Turan incorporated ideas from her award-winning book, “Architecture as Measure,” that described planetary imagination in architecture and the ramifications that events like climate change and social justice have on the surrounding environment.

“[Architecture] is a discipline that combines both theoretical things, but also practical things,” Turan said in an interview prior to the lecture.

Turan compared the idea of both the theoretical and practical aspects of architecture to art and science.

Once the lecture concluded, attendees had the opportunity to ask Turan questions.

During the Q&A, Turan was asked about a country she was familiar with, Turkey.

Feb. 6. was when deadly earthquakes struck Turkey along with Syria, killing thousands and causing billions of dollars in damage.

“Events like this are global events,” Turan said. “I think it will impact the way we all think.”

Natural disasters are “reminders” for the ways construction and architecture are thought about and then acted upon, Turan said.

Graduate architecture student Zook Crain was in attendance for Turan’s lecture and liked Turan’s research and ideas she presented. Crain especially liked being able to see outside professionals in their practice, she said.

“[Turan’s] work specifically is really good at setting the problem that we’re looking at, like societal problems, systematic racism and climate change, and putting it on a table that we can look at from a far and be like this is how we have to approach it,” Crain said.

The opportunity for Crane to hear Turan, an associate professor of architecture at the University of California – Berkeley, was something good, as she was able to hear another professor’s “feedback and transparency” on architecture that did not come from Kent State, Crane said.

“Architecture has technical aspects, but also has cultural, social and artistic aspects and that’s always fascinating to me,” Turan said in an interview prior to the lecture.

Anthony Zacharyasz is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].