Murat Balamir was born in Ankara, Turkey, in 1941 and educated at TED Ankara College. He studied architecture at the Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, graduating with a Bachelors and Masters degrees in 1965 and 1966, respectively. After winning a British Council Scholarship, Murat travelled to the UK and enrolled in the 1966-67 postgraduate ‘General Design’ course run by the Architectural Association’s (AA) Department of Development and Tropical Studies, in London. After finishing at the AA, Murat remained in London and accepted a position with the Housing and Planning Department of the newly-formed Greater London Council, where he was to work until 1969. Balamir won further scholarships from the UN and from the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development and undertook an MPhil in Planning at University College, London, which he completed in 1971. During this period, he was also appointed as an Assistant in the Department of City and Regional Planning, within METU’s Faculty of Architecture - a role which he was to take up in 1975, following his military service (1973-1975). Murat’s subsequent career was within academia, teaching at METU from 1975 until 2008 (then continuing as a part-time lecturer, from 2008-2016). He served as the Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Architecture from 1985-1997, was the founder and Director of the Housing Research Center (KAM) and, between 1988-2000, was the editor for the journal of the Faculty of Architecture. In his later career, he developed a specialism in disaster mitigation and conservation planning, lecturing within the Earthquake Studies programme at the Institute of Science in the 2000’s. In connection with this, Murat was a board member for the METU Disaster Management Center and Informatics Institute, as well as a member of the National Earthquake Council from 2001-2007. He was a participant in the ‘Istanbul Earthquake Master Plan’ and helped draw up the disaster management reports associated with the National Disaster Policy of 2002 and the Turkish Earthquake Council of 2004. Alongside numerous conference papers and articles, Balamir published a number of major books within the field, including ‘Disasters, Risk Management and Mitigation Planning: Concepts and Terms (2018).
Sources
- Architectural Association Student Register, 1945-71. AA Archives
- Architectural Association Membership Register, 1969. AA Archives
- Melih Ersoy, M., ‘Sebgili Dostum Murat’In Ardindan’ METU JFA, 2022, No. 2, pp.XVII – XX
- Murat BALAMİR, Prof. Dr., (1941-2022). Middle East Technical University, Department of City and Regional Planning website, 2022. Accessed 25th November, 2025: https://crp.metu.edu.tr/en/murat-balamir-prof-dr-1941-2022
