ConCave*

ConCave is a Ph.D. student-led group in the School of Architecture of the College of Design at Georgia Tech. It’s goal is to build a community revolving around design and research. The group aims to engage with a larger group of design students and scholars, and to enhance the network of Ph.D. students all over the world.

Contact: concave@design.gatech.edu

Team: 
Dr. Tarek Rakha, Academic Advisor
Dr. Elisa Dainese, Academic Co-advisor

Zahra Mirzaei
Hayri Dortdivanlioglu
Marisabel Marratt
Yousef Bushehri
Mehmet Bermek
Yeinn Oh
Eleanna Panagoulia
Jun Wang
Sanaz Ahmadzadeh Siyahrood
Fatima Javeed
Gustavo Do Amaral
Raha Rastegar
Sevda Babalou
Yasser El Masri
Wenbo Guo

Alumni
Zorana Matic
Heather Ligler
James Park
Kurt Hong

Hayri Dortdivanlioglu is pursuing his Ph.D. degree in architecture as a Fulbright Scholar at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His dissertation research concentrates on intertwined relationships among seminal principles of the Roman architect, Vitruvius. It revisits Vitruvian canon and challenges the dichotomy between practice and theory in architecture through a technological reading of Vitruvius’s foundational treatise, De Architectura.
In a broader sense, his research interest includes the interaction between technology and design, architectural theories, mapping, and data visualization. Besides his concentration in architecture, Dortdivanlioglu received the Science, Technology, and Society certificate from Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts at Georgia Tech.
Hayri has been teaching architectural design studios at Georgia Tech since 2017, where he has received teaching awards and recognitions. He is also the co-founder and coordinator of the ConCave Ph.D. Student group in the College of Design at Georgia Tech, and the academic coordinator of the International Ph.D. Symposium 2022 and 2020. Before coming to Georgia Tech, Dortdivanlioglu received his B.Arch. with the excellence in graduation award, and M.Arch. from Middle East Technical University [METU] in Ankara, Turkey, where he taught various courses on architectural representation, and design studios.

website: hayri4.com

Marisabel Marratt holds a B.A. and M.Arch from Princeton University, has a combined twenty-five years of professional practice in architecture, interior architecture and scenography as Senior Designer on projects of wide range and scale, and has garnered a number of design awards. She is a Ph.D. candidate in the History and Theory concentration of the School of Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is focused on nineteenth and twentieth history and theory, philosophies of technology, and aesthetics. Her interests lie at the intersection of history and theory, science and technology studies, studies in technicity, design and materialization. Her specific research centers on the post-war period, and the work of French philosopher of technology Gilbert Simondon (1924-1989), his study of the human engagement in techniques of materialization, their modes of existence, and as particular manifestations of techno-aesthetics. She is interested in exploring the resonance between this work and architecture, with the potential to contribute to the current discourse surrounding history, emergence, materiality and environment. Marisabel also holds a Graduate Certificate in Science and Technology Studies from the Ivan Allen School of the Arts at Georgia Tech. Alongside her research and studies, Marisabel teaches architectural design studios and a survey course in the History of Modern Architecture at Georgia Institute of Technology.  She has presented her papers at conferences, published in edited compilations and participated in, organized and led symposia. She is a member of the Executive Board of the ConCave Ph.D. student group of the College of Design and Academic Coordinator for the 2020 International Ph.D. Symposium, “Divergence in Architectural Research”.

Yousef Bushehri is a Ph.D. student in evidence-based design, examining the relationship between environmental design and healthy aging. His research interest brings together design, aging, disability, and measurable health outcomes. In addition Yousef is interested in methods of analyzing and quantifying spatial experience so that designs can be compared to extract characteristics to inform future guidelines. His past works include practicing as an architect in Kuwait, participating as an artist in residence at Google's Paris office, and working as a research assistant at the Simtigrate Design Lab. Yousef attended The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. for his BSArch (2011) minoring in psychology and March (2013) focusing on digital media, and recently completed his MSArch (2016) at Georgia Tech with a concentration in healthcare design. Most recently he has been a studio instructor for undergraduates and is also a painter and illustrator.

website: www.leyousef.com

Prior to joining the Ph.D. program, Eleanna received her Diploma of Architect-Engineer from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece in 2013 and her Master of Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015. Between 2015 and 2019, she joined the professional practice as an Architect at the international firm Foster + Partners in California and London, specialized on computational and BIM methodologies for project development and coordination during design and construction stages. Eleanna is a registered architect in the UK and Greece and a member of ARB.