Burak Erdim’s book, “Landed Internationals: Planning Cultures, the Academy, and the Making of the Modern Middle East” recently received special mention for the International Planning History Society (IPHS) first book prize. The First Book Prize is for the most innovative book in planning history, written in English and based on original new research. Books must have been published in the previous two calendar years to the IPHS international conference.
In a Q&A about the book, Erdim describes how the project completely transformed the way he understands architectural education and practice:
“When I was an architecture student, I was taught that architects, landscape architects, and designers shape our world,” he says. “However, if we dig a little deeper into what architecture and planning projects are, we see a much broader international supply chain made up of an economic and bureaucratic network of finance structures, corporations, politicians, developers, interest groups, lawyers and policymakers.”
Burak Erdim teaches lecture and seminar courses on the history of modernity, modern architecture, and urbanism as well as graduate and undergraduate studios. He is also the coordinator of the Graduate Concentration in the History and Theory of Architecture. His research examines the operations of transnational networks of housing and planning during the twentieth century within contexts of decolonization, national liberation, and globalization, as well as in relation to discourses and political economies of development.
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