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Merve Sahin is an architect and researcher specializing in architectural and digital representation techniques as a medium for storytelling. Her work reveals both tangible and intangible layers of public spaces through speculative drawings and animations, highlighting the political, social, cultural, and environmental dimensions embedded in built environments.
Merve explores the entanglements of human and machine landscapes to address the contemporary architectural challenges of the digital turn. Her material research focuses on forms of transparencies, reflections and fragmentations. This approach results in ‘spatial phantoms’ where spatial expressions remain ephemeral, encouraging exploration and interpretation across physical and digital mediums.
She received a grant from the Austrian Ministry of Art and Culture (BMKÖS) for her research ‘Reimagining Historic Theatre Typologies for the Digital Age’ (2023), which explored the role of communal spectacles in empowering the public voice. Her project All Watched Over was exhibited at the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale, and was finalist in the EU Mies Awards, Young Talent category (2021). All Watched Over addresses the data despotism and urban data ecologies, offering a liberated interior through playful architectural interventions. Merve has also participated in the Art Mentoring Programme at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and completed a residency at the Realities in Transition Consortium, where she developed a collective VR experience for the Ars Electronica Festival (2024). She is currently a S+T+ARTS resident and focusing on the intersections of physical environments and digital media.
In addition to her research, she has worked as an architectural designer in renowned offices, most recently at Wolfgang Tschapeller Architects since 2021. Merve studied at Studio Kazuyo Sejima and received her Master’s degree in Architecture from Studio Díaz Moreno & Efrén García Grinda at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.