Deniz is an architect and researcher. She graduated from Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Department of Architecture. She completed her master's degree with the thesis entitled An Examination About the Play Potential of Space. Previously, she worked as a postgraduate representative at the Children's History Society based in the UK. She is interested in play, playful urban utopias, and learning environments. Additionally, she is one of the co-founders of Light and Memory: Journal of Storytelling Scholarship and Art Organization and has recently joined the UK Playwork Advisory Team (Play England) for 2024-2025.

Conferences, Publications and Projects

The Transformations of Learning Spaces through Play: Not Another Brick in the Wall but Everybody is Kung Fu Fighting. Published in the proceedings of Yidan Prize Doctoral Conference (2021) in The British Library / Education Department, University of Oxford, UK.

Discovering the Layers of Memory within the Context of Storytelling. The Power of Storytelling Conference, University of Cambridge, UK. (2022, May 26)

The Transformations of Learning Spaces through the Play. Yidan Prize Doctoral Conference, Education Department, University of Oxford, UK. (2021, May 27)

Who wants to Design the Whole City as a Playground? Play, Recovery and Urban Space, RGS-IBG Conference, University of Newcastle, UK. (2022, September) 

The Layers of Memory in the works of Shaun Tan. Graphic Brighton 2022, Comics by and for Young People, University of Brighton, UK.

Designing Schools as a Playful Matter: Reconsidering the effects of learning spaces on children's psychology through the philosophy of play. ECR Conference, British Psychology Society, UK. (2021, Nov 10)

How Spatial Memory Works in Childhood? Domus Centre and History of Education Society,
University of Birmingham, UK. (2021, Nov 6)

Historical Context of Youth. In Kate Tilleczek (Ed.), Education and Childhood Studies. 
London: Bloomsbury Publication, 2021.

Arriving somewhere between playful Utopias and nomadic Personality.
In: Designabilities Design Research Journal, (5) 2020.

Looking for a multidisciplinary and performative architectural Sketch.
In: Designabilities Design Research Journal, (07) 2019.