Levent Kara

Associate Professor of Architecture
Phone: (813) 974-6003
Email: lkara@usf.edu
Website: LinkedIn

Dr. Levent Kara joined the University of South Florida's School of Architecture & Community Design in 2010. He received his B.Arch. and M.Arch. degrees from Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi (Ankara) and his Ph.D. from the University of Florida. Kara is a registered architect in Turkey where he practiced for several years before coming to the University of Florida for doctoral studies in 2002 with a full four-year Alumni Fellowship. In addition to his earlier work in Turkey, which involved commissioned designs, competition entries, and construction supervision, Kara recently resumed architectural practice both in Turkey and in the United States. In 2012, he received three design awards from the American Institute of Architects, with his USF INTO Education Building and Museum of Troy from AIA Florida Chapter and USF Z-Bridge Education Building from AIA Tampa Bay Chapter. In 2013, one of his designs in Turkey, Kuscuburun Railway Station in Izmir, received critical recognition in the International Station Central Symposium & Exhibition in Istanbul and Ankara. Currently, Kara is a principal in the Ankara-based structural and architectural design firm EDK Proje and also works at the USF SACD Design Workshop as a lead designer.

Prior to his appointment at USF, Kara taught design studios and theory and history courses in the School of Architecture at the University of Florida as a tenure-track Assistant Professor. Kara continues to participate in the studio reviews at the University of Florida and other Florida schools of architecture. His teaching and pedagogical work also include Visiting Critic at Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi (2012-2013), Invited Critic at TED Universitesi, and Design Curriculum Consultant at TED Universitesi (2012-2013).

Supporting his architectural practice and teaching, Kara's theoretical research investigates architectural design as a critical practice in the production of culture. To this end, his scholarship mainly concentrates on the epistemology of design thinking, from the fundamental modalities of architectural design in terms of the relation between thinking and making, to the more contemporary discussions on the conceptual and practical aspects of design processes. This main focus on the epistemology of architectural design is further articulated by lateral research on the interfaces between architectural design and other modes of cultural production, including formal philosophical investigations in natural epistemology, aesthetics and culture theory, and pedagogical investigations in architectural design and theory. Kara's writings range from formal philosophical subjects in epistemology, aesthetics, and culture theory, to architectural design, theory and criticism, and architectural pedagogy.