Levent Kara is an Assistant Professor of Architectural Design and
Architectural Theory at the University of South Florida School of
Architecture and Community Design. He received his B.Arch and M.Arch
degrees from Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi (Turkey) 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. His
practice in Turkey involved commissioned design work, competition entries,
and construction supervision. Kara continues to practice architecture with
the same enthusiasm but less involvement through projects both in Turkey and
in the United States. He recently completed a competition in Turkey for a
museum, and is currently working on two mid-scale proposals on USF campus in
Tampa, Fl.
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 an Assistant Professor. Kara’s 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 contemporary dilemmas surrounding the
theory / practice dichotomy.
This main focus on the epistemology of architectural design is further
supported 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.
Less
The Constructed Environment
The Arts in Society
Spaces and Flows
Design Principles and Practices
The Image
