Kutan Ayata

Young+Ayata

Kutan Ayata is an Associate Professor and the Vice Chair in the Department of Architecture and Urbanism at UCLA where he serves as the Director of the Master of Architecture Program. He previously held teaching positions at University of Pennsylvania, Pratt Institute, City College of New York, Cornell University and Columbia University. He received his Master of Architecture from Princeton University and his Bachelor of Fine Arts from Massachusetts College of Art.

His practice Young & Ayata, formed together with Michael Young is dedicated to both built commissions and experimental research. The firm has recently been selected as the winner in an international competition for the design of Agriculture Resources and Management Institute facilities in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of Korea. Their Project DL1310 in Mexico City designed in collaboration with Michan Architecture was the recipient of  the 2021 AIANY Design Honor Award, as well as the 2019 Progressive Architecture Award from Architect Magazine. Young & Ayata were the recipients of the 2016 Design Vanguard Award from Architectural Record. In 2015 they were one of two first prize winners in the International Competition for the New Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, Germany and finalists in the MoMA YAP Program in Istanbul, Turkey. In 2014, the partners were the recipients of the Young Architects Prize from Architectural League of New York. The firm's work has been published extensively and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the Istanbul Modern, the Graham Foundation, Yale University, SCI-Arc, and Princeton University.