News

A nation of women

02/02/2012

"Anadolu" (Anatolia) may very well be the "land of mothers," but as Turkey finds its place as a global leader, it needs to become a nation of women. According to the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap report released this week, it has a long way to go. Read more.

Raising girl power on Twitter

01/24/2012

On Tuesday, January 31 at 2PM EST and 9PM IST, we'll host a Twitter chat about empowering young girls with the hashtag #gendergap. Read more.

Social Entrepreneurship on the Rise in Turkey

01/17/2012

Social entrepreneurship is on the rise worldwide, especially Turkey. Ashoka Türkiye's Zeynep Meydanoglu and Matthias Scheffelmeier share insights about what's going on in Anatolia in this blog post.

301,927 has been raised to-date through Van Earthquake Relief Fund

01/10/2012

As long as individuals, corporations and foundations show interest in supporting the longer term recovery and reconstruction process in Van, Turkish Philanthropy Funds will keep the Van Earthquake Relief Fund open for contributions. Read more.

Mustafa Kemal Abadan

Mustafa Kemal Abadan is a design partner in the architectural firm of Skidmore Owings and Merrill LLP specializing in complex and challenging projects. Mustafa was raised and educated in Turkey, Germany and the United States. As an undergraduate student in Cornell University's Architecture program (Bachelor of Architecture, 1982), he distinguished himself by winning the Art Gensler Award for Design Excellence and the Eschweiler Prize for Scholastic Excellence in Design, formulating the foundations for his modernist architectural convictions. As a graduate student pursuing his Master of Architecture in Urban Design, Mustafa studied with Colin Rowe and exhibited an early predilection for the urban projects which would later come to define his career (Master of Architecture in Urban Design 1984).

Mustafa designed SOM's first completed commercial buildings in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines, Brazil, Chile and Kazakhstan. Mustafa takes a leadership position in architectural education through continuous involvement as a teacher, juror and longstanding member of the Dean's Advisory Board at Cornell. As the Chairman of the SOM Foundation since 2005, he has elevated the stature of the annual Student Traveling Fellowships He has served as a selection panelist for the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans since 2000, and as a lecturer at Cornell, at Harvard's Graduate School of Design, and at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, and several international schools of architecture for the past 15 years.

Numerous organization and institutions have recognized Mustafa's contribution to architecture with awards and honors including the American Institute of Architects, Chicago Athenaeum, Progressive Architecture, Metropolis and the Architectural Review. In addition, his projects were featured at the Venice and São Paolo Architecture Biennales, at the Skyscraper Museum and Center for Architecture in New York, the New York Public Library, and at a recent exhibition in Tokyo featuring SOM's current work.

Founding Board Member - 2007 - present