İpek Bayrak Wins Second Prize at the World Planning Schools Congress 2026

Recent Bilkent LAUD graduate İpek Bayrak has been awarded second prize in the International Student Competition of the World Planning Schools Congress 2026. Organized by the Global Planning Education Associations Network and co-hosted in Finland by Aalto University, the University of Helsinki and Tampere University, the competition drew student entries from planning schools worldwide under the theme "Peripheral Visions – Rethinking Planning." The winners were announced at the congress in Helsinki on 29 June 2026.

Peripheral Metabolism proposes a spatial strategy for Kırklareli, reimagining the boundary between city and countryside not as a hard edge but as a living, metabolic field. Rather than letting the city sprawl outward unchecked, the project treats the urban–rural interface as a control mechanism, one that guides growth while protecting the productive agricultural and ecological landscapes at the city's edge.

Working across scales, it uses the university campus and a network of urban farming, community gardens and green corridors to hold city and farmland in a productive relationship, turning the periphery into an active, integrated system rather than a zone of loss.