Cities, at their best, are constantly evolving organisms that change with their citizens and visitors; forming connections and providing lively interactions.

At the same time, cities are complex ecosystems that produce and sustain perennial, multi-faceted problems. Oftentimes, these challenges are either left alone or approached short-sightedly.

In this session led by Deniz Donmez and Kerem Alper (ATÖLYE), participants explored what makes urban issues “wicked problems” and will be prompted to share their cities’ wicked problems and discussed how growing and nurturing communities can help provided a new point of view towards novel and lasting solutions.

Registrations are now closed.

About the speakers:

Kerem Alper (ATÖLYE)
Kerem Alper is the co-founder of ATÖLYE. As a multidisciplinary systems thinker with a background in entrepreneurship, sustainability, and design, he believes in unleashing the creative confidence in communities to enable meaningful change in the world. Before ATÖLYE, Kerem worked at Nest Labs, designing new business models and digital experiences. Kerem was selected as a Lightspeed Venture Partners Fellow, the British Council Creative Entrepreneur of the Year, a Young Global Leader by the Council for the U.S. and Italy, and a Responsible Leader by the BMW Foundation.

Deniz Dönmez (ATÖLYE)
Deniz Dönmez is a Senior Design Strategist & Service Designer at ATÖLYE. As a transdisciplinary designer and strategist, her work spans across design fields; bringing strategic thinking, research, and narrative building to projects in spatial, digital, learning, and organization design. She works with a diverse set of partners on various challenges, aiming to achieve long-lasting and creative impact. She is also the recipient of global design awards such as LICC, Core77, WAC. Deniz is an instructor at Istanbul’s Bilgi University in Service Design.