About

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© 2026
Nilra Zoraloglu
Architect, Artist and Researcher
Berlin

Nilra Zoraloglu is an architect, artist and researcher working at the intersection of architecture, ecology and soil research. Her practice investigates urban ground, extraction landscapes, material traces and more-than-human forms of spatial knowledge.

Through architectural research, artistic production, workshops and exhibitions, she explores soil as a living archive: a carrier of time, use, depletion, violence and possible regeneration. Her work moves between design research, urban ecology, artistic fieldwork and experimental methods such as soil chromatography, slow observation and situated material practices

Education

Incoming Doctoral Researcher
CUD — Chair for Transitioning Urban Ecosystems
Institute of Architecture
Technische Universität Berlin
October 2026 – forthcoming

Design Research Program
Bauhaus Dessau Foundation in cooperation with Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Hochschule Anhalt and Matters of Activity
M.Sc.
2020 – 2021

Architecture
Middle East Technical University
Ankara, Turkey
2014 – 2020

Exhibition

Depletion, a Design Inquiry?
Group Exhibition
Delta Urbanism Research Group
Delft University of Technology
Delft
2026

VAZIOsobreTERRA
International Group Exhibition
Museu de Arte de Belém
Belém
2025–2026

Absent Matter(s): From Mine to Ours
Group Exhibition
August House
Johannesburg
2025

Presentation of the Berlin Biodiversity Strategy
Exhibition Contribution
Change Hub Berlin
Berlin
2025

Kunstspaziergang Bornholm I & II
Artist Walk
Bornholm I & II Kleingartenanlage
Berlin
2025

What if…? A Transdisciplinary Discourse on the Future of Healthy,Green Cities
Group Exhibition
Haus der Statistik
Berlin
2024

Underlands
Group Exhibition / Living Art Installation
Refugee Week Berlin
Haus der Statistik
Berlin
2024

48 Stunden Neukölln
Festival Participation
Berlin
2023

Group Exhibitions
KHB Studios and Monopoly Gallery
Berlin
2022

Recidencies

New Futures
International Art Residency Programme
Initiatives of Change USA
Johannesburg
2025

What if…?
Artist Residency
Berlin State Commissioner for Nature Conservation and Landscape Preservation
Berlin
2024

Common Ground
Artist Residency
Common Ground Collective
Berlin
2024

Awards / Scholarships

PhD Scholarship
Heinrich Böll Foundation
2026

Grant
Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts
16th Venice Architecture Biennale
2018

Academic Contributions

World Planning Schools Congress
Peripheral Visions – Rethinking Planning
Panel Contribution
Aalto University
Helsinki
2026

Trace Matter: A Slow Encounter with the Urban Soil
Workshop
Copenhagen Architecture Festival
Copenhagen
2025

Soil Chromatography
Workshop
Weißensee Academy of Art Berlin
BA / MA Product Design
Berlin
2025

Planetability: Ecologies of Health in a Planetary Age
Panel Contribution
Technische Universität Berlin
Berlin
2025

Frictioned Functionality: Un/Designing Un/Sustainable Matter
Interdisciplinary Autumn School
Matters of Activity
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Berlin
2022

Bauhaus Study Rooms: Challenging Infrastructure Modernism
Panel Contribution
Bauhaus Dessau Foundation
Dessau
2021

Rethink 100. Yıl
Design and Research Project with TU Wien
Ankara
2018

European Architectural History
Scientific Assistant
Anhalt University of Applied Sciences
Project supervision: V.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Gernot Weckherlin
2020

Publication

“Thinking with Extraction Landscapes: Soil Chromatography as Artistic Knowledge Production”
Published in IDEAs: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Practices in Art & Design, Issue 02: Intersectionality: Creative Inquiries, pp. 158–171
2026

“Landscape and Exploitation”
Article by Nilra Zoraloglu
published in New Futures Art Collaborative
BDK INFO 34/2025
p. 22 ff.
2025

New Futures Art Collaborative / New Futures Residency
Magazine Feature
ART AFRICA
Digital Issue
p. 408
2025

What if…? Documentation of the Art Residency and Exhibition 2024
Exhibition Publication / Residency Documentation
published on Zenodo
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.13347283
featured artist, February – June 2024
published 2025

Last Updated 24.10.37