Ali Hiziroglu

Ali Hiziroglu was born in Istanbul and graduated from Saint Joseph High School. He completed his architectural education at the Ecole Speciale d'Architecture in Paris, where he graduated with honors and served as a design workshop assistant. He completed his master's in architecture and urban design at Columbia University. After returning to Turkey from New York, he started working at ERA in 2003. He adopted and incorporated into the company culture an architectural approach that favored teamwork and collaboration over individual architectural solutions. At ERA, he participated in design-oriented architectural project processes and gained experience in implementing these projects on construction sites. He managed the design processes of large-scale, mixed-use projects with complex geometries such as the Garanti Technology Campus, Zorlu Center, and Istanbul Technopark. In 2007, he was a finalist at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) with the Shenyang Starmall Plaza project, marking the beginning of ERA's experience in China. Now, he is a partner in ERA and continues to work in the fields of architecture and urban design at ERA's Istanbul and, since its establishment, Beijing offices. Ali Hiziroglu is the Chairman of the Board of the Istanbul Association of Freelance Architects and leads a design studio at ñzyeƒüin University's Faculty of Architecture.