Elif Öngüt is an Architectural Designer at Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM).

Before joining SOM, she worked as an Architectural Assistant at Foster + Partners on residential, hospitality and masterplan projects in the US, China and Saudi Arabia. Prior to joining Foster + Partners, Elif gained work experience in Istanbul with Erginoglu & Calislar and in Tokyo with Hiroshi Nakamura & NAP Architects. 

Elif graduated from Edinburgh University in 2017 with an MA (Hons) Architecture degree and acquired ARB/RIBA Part 1.
During her undergraduate studies, she developed an interest in large-scale buildings, which she pursued in her third year design project and her final year dissertation, exploring their intersection with complex environmental systems forming an insight into our energy future. Both in her design project and her dissertation, she explored an alternative mode of energy production. Through design research and innovation, how it can emerge as a new building typology and a symbiotic closed-loop system in urban environments. After graduating, Elif worked as a freelance writer/designer for the Volume64 platform. A community of recent graduates and architecture students from the AA, Bartlett and Edinburgh University testing architectural ideas, challenging architectural/societal norms within the confines of a cube measuring 4x4x4 meters.



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