About

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Icollectist is a multidisciplinary design studio founded in Istanbul in 2025 by Yunus Emre Kara and Sinemis Sarıgül Kara. The studio operates across architecture, interior design, product design, and spatial research — treating each not as a separate discipline, but as part of a single, continuous act of thinking.

For Icollectist, design is neither decoration nor problem-solving alone. It is a form of inquiry: into context, into memory, into the relationship between built space and human experience. Every project begins with research, and every research eventually finds its way into form.

Yunus Emre Kara – Interior Architect, Co-Founder
 

Yunus Emre Kara studied interior architecture at Anadolu University Faculty of Fine Arts, and continued his education in interior architecture, graphic design, and applied industrial design at HAWK Hildesheim in Germany.

Between 2010 and 2025, he served as Design Director and Partner at Zoom TPU — one of Turkey's most recognised architecture and interior design practices, published in a Prestel monograph written by architectural critic Philip Jodidio. During this period, he led the design of landmark projects across healthcare, culture, hospitality, and corporate sectors.

His career pivoted significantly with Liv Hospital Ulus (2013) — the first project in which he fully applied parametric and organic form methodologies to a built environment. Inspired by the visual language of the human body's inner surfaces and the imagery of the film Fantastic Voyage, the project translated biological morphology into spatial experience. It was shortlisted at the World Architecture Festival 2011.

This language deepened at Memorial Wellness Clinic at Zorlu Center (2014) — a 255 m² space within one of Istanbul's most architecturally significant complexes, designed by Emre Arolat Architects and Tabanlıoğlu Mimarlık. At small scale and high intensity, sculptural surface continuity and a deliberate rejection of clinical typology made it a concentrated laboratory of organic form.

The philosophy reached institutional scale at Memorial Bahçelievler Hospital (2018): a 72,000 m² complex that became the world's first hospital to receive LEED Platinum certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Patient-centred design principles, environmental sustainability, and material precision guided every decision across 320 beds, 15 operating theatres, 49 intensive care units, and 135 outpatient clinics.

At Medicana Ataköy Hospital (2023), serving as Head of Design, he pioneered the use of Corian® Solid Surface across a 23,000 m² facility — creating three-dimensional forms and integrating lighting elements into seemingly homogenous surfaces while achieving the highest hygienic standards. The project was featured in Domus and Dezeen, and published in Le Moniteur.

The fullest expression of this evolving spatial philosophy came with Doruk Nilüfer Hospital, Bursa (2023): a 55,000 m² complex with an iconic parametric lobby of organic columns rising through a naturally lit atrium. The project was shortlisted at the World Architecture Festival Inside 2024 in the Health & Fitness category — published in ArchDaily, The Plan, Geberit International, and Visi — and cited as a benchmark of future-oriented healthcare design.

Beyond built work, Yunus has exhibited at Salone del Mobile – Euroluce in Milan (X-Lamp, 2019), participated in the 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial with the MONOLITH: Stone and Symbolic Form installation at Borusan Art (2016), and reached shortlist at the Red Dot Design Concept Award (Spin Table, 2015). He has contributed to Cumhuriyet, Istanbul Art News, and Arkitera as a writer and commentator on the future of architecture and design. He has lectured at Anadolu, Yeditepe, Altınbaş, Gedik, and Özyeğin universities, and served as jury member at the Asia Young Designer Awards (AYDA) Turkey 2022.

Sinemis Sarıgül Kara – Architect, Co-Founder
 

Sinemis Sarıgül Kara is an architect specialising in architectural design, project management, and implementation coordination. Her expertise lies in translating complex design visions into precisely executed built realities — particularly across large-scale healthcare and institutional projects. Her technical rigour and creative precision form the structural backbone of Icollectist's practice.

She was part of the Liv Hospital Ulus team — the project that first brought parametric design into the heart of Turkish healthcare architecture — and has since been a core force in every Icollectist project.

Begüm Öncül — Project Coordinator Based in Ankara, Begüm is an experienced interior architect with deep expertise in spatial planning and project coordination, particularly for healthcare facilities. Her methodical precision and broad institutional knowledge bring rigour to every stage of the design process.

Ege Türkmenler — Business Development & Contract Management A long-time collaborator and trusted partner, Ege brings strategic clarity to client relationships, business development, and contract management. His expertise bridges the creative and commercial dimensions of practice, grounding ambitious design in operational reality.

Işıl Budak — Associate Partner, Architecture Based in the Netherlands, Işıl is a practicing architect and close collaborator whose long-standing partnership with the studio extends Icollectist's reach into the European context. Her presence strengthens the studio's capacity for international projects and cross-cultural design dialogue.

 The experience that shaped Icollectist was built over fifteen years at Zoom TPU — one of Turkey's leading architecture and interior design firms, featured in a Prestel monograph written by architectural critic Philip Jodidio. During this period, the founding partners contributed to over 150 projects across healthcare, culture, hospitality, retail, and corporate sectors, working with some of Turkey's most demanding institutional clients across Turkey, Russia, Kazakhstan, Iraq, Libya, Qatar, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Romania, and France.

Selected prior work includes Liv Hospital Ulus · SALT Galata Auditorium · Memorial Bahçelievler Hospital · Memorial Wellness at Zorlu Center · Medicana Ataköy Hospital · Doruk Nilüfer Hospital · Florence Nightingale Hospital Istanbul · Henkel Showroom · TR-Pharm Office · Avrasya Hospital · Kolan Hospital · Marriott Hotels · DoubleTree by Hilton · LÖSEV Complex Ankara · Pasha Bank · Hyundai Showroom · Cumhuriyet History Museum · Torunlar Cinema Complex

 Awards & Shortlists— World Architecture Festival Inside 2024, Shortlist — Doruk Nilüfer Hospital (Health & Fitness) — World Architecture Festival 2011, Shortlist — Liv Hospital Ulus (Health – Completed Buildings) — World's First LEED Platinum Certified Hospital — Memorial Bahçelievler, 2018 — Red Dot Design Concept Award, Shortlist — Spin Table, 2015 — Asia Young Designer Awards (AYDA) Turkey 2022, Jury Member

Exhibitions & Cultural Events— Salone del Mobile / Euroluce, Milan — X-Lamp, 2019 — 3rd Istanbul Design Biennial — MONOLITH: Stone and Symbolic Form, Borusan Art, 2016

International Press— Domus — Medicana Ataköy Hospital, 2024 — Dezeen — Medicana Ataköy Hospital, 2023 — Le Moniteur (France) — Medicana Ataköy Hospital — ArchDaily — WAF Inside 2024 Shortlist, Doruk Nilüfer Hospital — The Plan (Italy) — WAF 2024 Shortlist — Visi (South Africa) — WAF Inside 2024 Shortlist — Geberit International — Doruk Nilüfer Hospital Reference Project, 2025 — Prestel Monograph — Zoom TPU: Interior Design from Istanbul (Philip Jodidio) — Cumhuriyet — "Mimari ve Tasarımda Gelecek Nasıl Olacak?", 2019 — Istanbul Art News — "Mimari ve Tasarımda Gelecek", 2019 — Arkitera — Featured commentator, multiple publications

Lectures & Academic Engagement— Özyeğin University — "Design for Interiors: Holistic Design", 2024 — Gedik University — 10th National Interior Architecture Meetings, 2021 — Yeditepe University — "Nesiller Arası Tasarım Kültürü", 2020 — Altınbaş University — "İnsan Psikolojisi Bağlamında İç Mekan Tasarımı", 2019 — Anadolu University — Interior Architecture Talks, 2018