Irmak Turan is a PhD candidate in the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She holds a master’s degree in Building Technology from MIT and dual bachelor degrees in Architecture and Civil Engineering from Columbia University. Irmak’s doctoral dissertation examines the connection between the environmental performance of buildings and urban real estate economics. In her current research, she measures the value of design qualities, such as daylight, by combining methods of building science, financial econometrics, and urban analytics.
Before coming to MIT, Irmak practiced as an environmental designer in New York City and Istanbul. She developed design strategies to improve the impact of buildings in the areas of energy, water, materials, waste, health, and ecology. She has lectured on sustainable architecture, building performance, urban metabolism, and building lifecycle impacts at numerous institutions. Irmak has held leadership roles in the MIT Climate Action Advisory Committee, MIT Architecture Student Cabinet, and MIT Climate Changed research collaborative.