Architect, civil society leader and businessperson; Mehmet Kalyoncu is the Chairman and Founder of Türkiye Design Council, which is leading the design-led revitalisation of the cities of Hatay and Adıyaman following the February 2023 Türkiye earthquake.

Kalyoncu is also the founder of Humane Urbanism, a new foundation aimed at helping cities around the world to prepare for and recover from extreme conditions like disasters and conflict. The initiative has so far brought together more than 50 practitioners globally to embed humane urbanism as the guiding principle for cities recovering from crisis, and share the Hatay experience as a blueprint.

Committed to fostering Türkiye’s socio-economic development through the lens of design, Kalyoncu drives the Council’s aims of supporting the spread of architectural and design knowledge across the country and internationally, helping to nurture the next generation of Turkish creatives.

Kalyoncu was the first Turkish student accepted into Oxford University’s St Hugh’s College academic programme, where he studied Renaissance Architecture. He studied Architecture at Istanbul Technical University, and joined executive programs at Harvard, Tufts and Babson.

Kalyoncu has gained extensive business experience with Kalyon Holding, the major Turkish construction conglomerate, where he is a Board Member and played a key role in the development of iGA Istanbul Airport.