Inspirational Stories #1: Tifa Studio

Here is the our new article series: Inspirational Stories. In this series, there will be conversations with architects, studios, and content creators whose stories to inspire you about architecture!

The aim of Inspirational Stories is being a collection of inspiring conversations with creative minds who will influence architects and architecture students. In the first article of the series, we are proud to feature Tifa Studio who is a passionate architect and content creator in the architectural field, especially for students and young architects. If you’re not already following Tifa Studio, you can check out his inspiring content on Instagram: @tifa.studio.

With the vision of “Learn and Think Architecture”, Tifa shares ideas that spark curiosity, support learning, and help architects think more deeply about architecture. By answering our questions, he has offered a fresh perspective to inspire and guide for you.

How would you describe your journey as an architectural content creator?

Tifa: My career is a layered journey, started with studying architecture, then expanded through design research, and expressed across multiple platforms. I am trained as an architect, currently pursuing a PhD in Design at PolyU in Hong Kong, with a decade of practice and education in Turkey. Along the way, I founded Tifa Studio, a platform that bridges architectural thinking with storytelling and pedagogy. While I don’t confine myself to the title of content creator, I acknowledge that creating meaningful architectural content, especially for students and the public, is at the heart of what I do. My work spans writing, publishing, teaching, and visual storytelling, all orbiting around the idea of democratizing architectural thinking.

When and why did you build your career in this way?

Tifa: This journey was never a rigid plan, it was actually more like a spontaneous trip where I try many things, fail, stand up, try again and so on. This journey unfolded organically from a personal need to rethink architectural education and public engagement with architecture somehow. I began sharing visual notes, guides, and provocations when I realized how many students lacked access to contextual tools and inspiring references. Over time, this evolved into books, toolkits, and digital experiments. My move into research deepened this direction. I wanted to critically explore how design knowledge is produced and shared, beyond conventional studio boundaries. So, in a way, I built this career to challenge academic silos, to make architecture feel more accessible, and to provoke new ways of learning.

What do you find most challenging about your works?

Tifa: I think it is balancing clarity with depth. I constantly get very confused with how to communicate complex ideas without flattening them. In this age of quick consumption, this is so difficult and challenging. Another challenge is sustaining originality in an algorithm-driven ecosystem. Social media rewards repetition and trends, but I aim to build tools and content that are both pedagogically rigorous and creatively distinct. That’s a slower path, but one I stand by.

Who are the content creators, architects, or interdisciplinary figures that inspire and influence you?

Tifa: As an architect, I’m inspired by BIG Architects, Rem Koolhaas and Daniel Libeskind. For content creation, I can say that Dami Lee and Sedat Bayrak in Turkey inspired me.

Do you follow AI and other emerging technologies? How do you stay up-to-date with the latest trends?

Tifa: Yes but critically. I experiment with AI tools for visual ideation, and editing. But I’m less interested in the hype and more in the speculative potential: How might these tools reshape authorship, or design thinking? I stay updated through academic networks, architectural journals, and cultural platforms. I’m more selective than reactive, I prefer reading slow, thoughtful work over chasing trends. That’s how I protect my intellectual pace.

What advice would you give to young architects and content creators?

Tifa: Stay close to your questions, not just your tools. The most meaningful work emerges from authentic curiosity, not from chasing formats or trends. Architecture is a lens before it is a profession, so invest in how you see, think, and question. At the same time, build your soft skills, communication, storytelling, collaboration. In the age of AI, what sets you apart is not just what you produce, but how you frame it, adapt it, and lead with it. Don’t neglect real-world experience: visit sites obsessively, observe how materials age, how people move, how things fail. Learn how projects are managed, how decisions are made, and how ideas survive beyond the drawing board. Balance the digital with the tangible. That’s where architecture truly lives.