Tuğra Ağrikli, an AA Diploma 18 student who will be entering fifth year in 2025–26 has been awarded the first-place prize for her essay RiskWith Benefits(Mw: 7.5) by The Avery Review, an online journal of architecture led by Columbia GSAPP, which published its 72nd issue on Friday 27 June. The essay talks about the imminent earthquake of 7.5 magnitude expected for Istanbul and positions the country's current legal frameworks of disaster mitigation as an apparatus for a lucrative urban transformation. It uses seismographic data and legislative histories to build a personal and critical account of the new urban condition.

Click here to read Ağrikli’s essay.