Aslı Kıyak Ingin is an architect, designer and activist who holds a specific interest in how state intervention to the urban fabric of a city affects some of the poorest residents; practicing an architecture theory that goes beyond technical and aesthetic issues to embody the social, cultural and economical realities of urban space.

After graduating from Mimar Sinan University as an architect, she got a post-graduate diploma from Istanbul Technical University for “Developing a method for the analysis of formal and spatial structure of traditional cities”. In order to get more management knowledge she attended the Design Culture and Management Certificated Program in Istanbul Bilgi University. She works as a designer and design manager at her Celik Dizayn Lighting Company in Istanbul and has garnered several awards for her work. As vice-president of the Istanbul branch of the ‘Industrial Designers Society of Turkey’ and president of the ‘Human Settlement Association’ she is active in the NGO field.

Apart from ‘Made in Şişhane’ Aslı is also active in other parts of Istanbul where urban regeneration or gentrification developments take place by advocating sustainable and participatory models for the development of the neighborhood. Over the last three years Kiyak Ingin has for example established the Sulukule Platform to protect the oldest settlement area of Roma people in Istanbul – Sulukule - and its residents from demolition, instead demonstrating and campaigning for sustainable and participatory models for the neighbourhood development. Together with a group of people she organized events under the title ‘40 Days and 40 Nights’.