About FADA
Design is a powerful tool we use to transform our environment, and hopefully, make it a better place. More than ever as designers, but also as citizens of this world, we are aiming to design artifacts, buildings and cities that not only reflect our dreams, creativity, ambitions as individuals and as societies but are also respectful towards our world and its inhabitants. Our programs emphasize the responsibility of the designers for their impact on the environment. Our graduates will contribute to a new understanding of design based on an ethically responsible approach towards the environment and thus, will become involved actively in the creation of a better world. We envision a future where our graduates lead the way to developing more environmentally resilient ways of designing not only in Turkey but also all around the world.
Our programs are shaped around the main idea that design is about creating. Studios in our curricula have a higher credit and hour per week value in comparison to similar programs. We believe that the studio, where our students learn by doing and experimenting, is the center of all design education that is supported with integrated theoretical courses. In order to achieve that goal, our studios are open to the use of the students 24 hours every day.
At FADA, we have developed a special program that takes creating and making beyond the boundaries of our studios. Our Design-build-studio is a summer program where our students design and build projects for various communities. Our students have designed and built over fifty projects since 2015. Our design build program gives our students the experience of not only designing but also building and realizing their ideas. Also, they experience the satisfaction of reaching out and helping people through design.
Vision
To provide an intellectually rigorous learning and research environment for educating creative, innovative, ethically and socially responsible as well as globally competitive designers.
Mission
Create a learning environment that emphasizes imagination, critical thinking and technical innovation as well as social and environmental ethical responsibility; establish programs that will be the best in Turkey and also are renowned for their excellence internationally; bringing together a faculty who are willing to try and develop new and fresh methods, approaches and ideas to address the continuously changing and dynamic profile of our students as well as the new challenges of 21st century; establishing cross-disciplinary approaches and cooperation of various creative fields that are studying the environment.
Dean's Message
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In 2024, the Faculty of Arts, Design, and Architecture at MEF University celebrated its 10th-year anniversary.
In these ten years, our innovative curriculum, which centers on learning by doing and design studios; our workspace—Hangar—free of walls and designed to support peer-to-peer learning; our young faculty with international recognition and achievements; our non-hierarchical learning environment; and most importantly, our hardworking, pro-active students who enjoy creating together, have led us to great successes. When we consider that this decade included a global pandemic, major earthquakes that shook the country, and the necessity of online academic terms due to these events, it becomes even more apparent how valuable these accomplishments are.
Since its establishment, our faculty has prioritized creating and maintaining a learning environment that emphasizes imagination, critical thinking, technical professional competencies, as well as social and environmental responsibilities. Our graduates, nurtured with these priorities, are proudly representing us today in different cities across Turkey and the world, both in professional life and in prestigious master’s and doctoral programs. These alumni, who maintain strong ties with our faculty and each other, continue to mentor our students whenever needed.
Perhaps the greatest success we’ve achieved over these ten years is the creation of a sincere, innovative, and egalitarian culture within the Faculty of Arts, Design, and Architecture at MEF. With the students and alumni who are equipped with this culture, we look forward to many more decades of working and producing together.
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Prof. Dr. Åžebnem Yücel
Dean, Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture
MEF University
Faculty of Arts Design and Architecture
