My MIT-finding: "Celile Berk Butka" in Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture (2025)
Ekincioglu, M., 2025, Celile Berk Butka, Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture, 1960-2015, Brown, L. & Burns, K. (eds), Bloomsbury Publishing.
Link: https://www.bloomsburyvisualarts.com/encyclopedia-chapter?docid=b-9781350059757&tocid=b-9781350059757-1045, last accessed on August 9, 2025.
Celile Berk Butka (author: Meral Ekincioglu, Ph.D.):
“As an early woman architect from Istanbul Technical University (1942)
and the Republic of Turkey, Celile Berk Butka’s master thesis at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology-School of Architecture and Planning
(1946–1947) and her professional practice spent in the white, Western,
male-dominated, and highly competitive American architecture profession
(1959–1972) are significant thresholds for Turkish-American architecture
history. Her architecture redefined not only stereotypes of Turkish women as an
iconographic ideology of the nation-state (in the 1930s) but also the
assumption of a woman architect who worked on “women’s issues,” including
housing, domestic architecture, interior design, etc. during those years. As a
Turkish woman architect in the United Status, she worked on large-scale,
technical, high-rise, and commercial building projects, and focused on
technical capacities of practice generally considered to be strictly masculine
pursuits within the discipline. In this respect, she opened up a new and
transnational landscape for the next generation of women architects from the
Republic of Turkey, and her endeavors indicate a significant challenge to
American architecture where deep-seated, systemic racism, and gender discrimination
remain critical topics for discussion in its education and professional realms.
In 1936, she began her studies in architecture at the Higher School of Engineering (precursor to İstanbul Technical University), at a time when the institution was characterized by a male-dominated and engineering mindset. Although architectural education was dominated by male architects, she graduated in 1942 and served as an assistant at the İstanbul Technical University, Architectural Design & City Planning Department (1942–1950), conducting two studies, “Sanatoryumlar” (Sanatoriums) and “Konya Evleri” (Konya Houses).
She participated in several national architectural design competitions with her male colleagues, winning a number of awards for their submissions, such as for the Çanakkale People’s House (with Haydar Yücelen, Çanakkale, 1943, honorable mention), the Housing Project in Adana (“Adana Numune Evleri”, Adana, 1944, honorable mention), Ödemiş Urban Planning (with Kemal Ahmet Aru and Orhan Safa, Izmir, 1944, second prize) and the İstanbul Radio House (with Haydar Yücelen, İstanbul, 1945, fourth prize). In 1959, with Kemal Butka (1907–1997), her spouse, she participated in an architectural design competition for the Anadolu Club-Büyükada Hotel, for which they were awarded honorable mention.
Butka attended Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (1946–1947), studying with Professor Alvar Aalto
(1898–1976) as her advisor, and earned her Master’s in Architecture degree with
her thesis, “A Tuberculosis Sanatorium for Istanbul, Turkey.” In her thesis,
her architectural design vocabulary showed obvious influences from Alvar
Aalto’s Paimio Sanatorium (1929–1933). Unlike some discussions on architecture
seen as representative of the nation-state and the Republic of Turkey in the
early 1940s, the content of her Master’s thesis and her understanding of
architectural design give evidence of an emerging realization and appreciation
of how modernity could serve as the logic of an architectural research program,
and an attitude to architectural design thinking. She worked as an Assistant
Professor in architectural design at İstanbul Technical University (1950–1958),
and had a design practice in collaboration with Kemal Butka (1948–1958). In
1959, she relocated to Detroit, worked for Cunningham-Limp & Co., and then
at Stephen-Bangs Associates (1959–1960). She then worked for John Graham & Company
in New York City (1960–1962), and as a project team member, participated in
several projects, including the Westchester Plaza (New Rochelle, New York), the
Moorestown Shopping Center (Moorestown, New Jersey), the May Co. Department
Store (Mentor, Ohio), the Yorkdale Shopping Center(Toronto, Ontario), the
Kaufman Department Store (Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania) and the American Life Insurance
Co. Office Building (Karachi, Pakistan). She then moved to Abbott & Merkt
Co. and contributed to a number of architectural projects including the Gimbels
Department Store, the South Village Shopping Center (Pittsburg, Pennsylvania),
Macy’s Department Store (Colonie, New York), the Woodward & Loundop Department
Store (Alexandria, Virginia), and Hutzler’s Service Building (Baltimore,
Maryland) (1962–1967).
Finally, she worked at Kahn & Jacobs, Architects and projects include: One Astor Plaza (NYC, NY), Riker’s Island Women’s Correctional Institute (NYC, New York), the NY Telephone Building at Avenue of Americas and 42 Street (NYC, New York), the American Airlines Building at JFK International Airport (Gate 11) (NYC, New York), the Equitable Building (Syracuse, New York), the Roure-Depont Perfumery Center (Teaneck, NY), and the Easton-Data Center (Easton, Pennsylvania) from 1967 to 1972.
She passed away on March 6, 1984, in New York City.
Bibliography
Berk, Celile.
1947. “A Tuberculosis Sanatorium for Istanbul Turkey.” Master Thesis,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, US.
Berk, Celile. 1950. Sanatoryumlar. Istanbul: Istanbul Technical University Publications.
Berk, Celile. 1951. Konya Evleri. Istanbul: Istanbul Technical University Publications.
Berk, Celile. her resume, the American Institute of Architects, Archives and Records, Washington, DC.
Ekincioglu, Meral. “Contextualizing Celile Berk Butka in between Two Worlds: A Pioneering Woman Architect from Postwar Turkey to the US,” the 54th Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Annual Meeting, October 7, 2020.
Erkaslan, Özlem
Erdoğdu. 2020. “Yarismalarda Gundeme Geldigi Bicimiyle Turk Kadin Mimarlarin Etkinlikleri
(1938–1969): Bir Kronolojik Dokum.” In Mimarlik ve Kadin Kimligi, Istanbul,
Boyut Publishing: 65–78.
Mori, Toshiko. (interviewee), Architecture, Design, Action, Toshiko Mori on Dismantling Systemic Racism in Pedagogy and Practice, Bucknell, Alice. (Interviewer), Harvard University-Graduate School of Design News,12 August, 2020. Accessed October 11, 2020.”
For all my contributions to “the Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture 1960-2020, Volume 2, 1st Edition”:
•Ekincioglu, M. (author), 2025, Celile Berk Butka (1915–1984), The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture 1960-2020, Volume 2, 1st Edition, L. A., Burns, K. (eds), DOI: 10.5040/9781350059757.1045
•Ekincioglu, M. (author), 2025, Cahide Tamer Aksel (1905–2005), The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture 1960-2020, Volume 2, 1st Edition, L. A., Burns, K. (eds), DOI: 10.5040/9781350059757.1058
•Ekincioglu, M. (author), 2025, Münevver Belen Gözeler (1913–1973), The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture 1960-2020, Volume 2, 1st Edition, L. A., Burns, K. (eds), DOI: 10.5040/9781350059757.1044
•Ekincioglu, M. (author), 2025, Leman Cevat Tomsu (1913–1988), The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture 1960-2020, Volume 2, 1st Edition, L. A., Burns, K. (eds), DOI: 10.5040/9781350059757.1059
•Ekincioglu, M. (author), 2025, Aliye Pekin Çelik (b.1945), The Bloomsbury Global Encyclopedia of Women in Architecture 1960-2020, Volume 2, 1st Edition, L. A., Burns, K. (eds), DOI: 10.5040/9781350059757.1046