İrem Yılmaz Akçay, who started her education at Hisar School in the High School Preparation Department, graduated from Hisar High School in 2011.
İrem, who prepared her portfolio for international university applications under the guidance of Hisar International Universities Counseling Office, preferred Kingston University in London among the acceptances. She graduated from this university with BA (HONS) Architecture department in 2014 and returned to İstanbul.
After completing her architectural studies at Bahçeşehir University, İrem worked in Turkey’s leading architectural firms such as at Autoban, Emre Arolat Architects, Servotel and Seba Construction. Nowadays, İrem, who is a graduate student in the Department of Philosophy at İstanbul University, thinks that every architectural work has a philosophy. She believes that philosophy education is very nourishing both in the field of architecture and in her general life orientation. İrem, who voluntarily participated in social responsibility projects of organizations such as Make a Wish and LÖSEV during her education at Hisar, believes that club activities and social service projects create a very important simulation for business life and develop the person. She states that her biggest dream was to produce and turn everything she designed into a work of art since her childhood. İrem emphasizes that the teachers at Hisar High School helped her a lot in discovering her talents and shaping her career. Our graduate, who attended in an international competition organized by Nature’s Voice Our Choice (NVOC) with the guidance of her teachers who noticed her talent in the field of art focused on drawing after this success and opened her first personal oil painting exhibition.
After working with many prestigious companies, İrem founded her own company named “ÎARA”, and now is currently dealing with two different brands under this company: With “ÎARA Créatif Studio”, which is an architecture and design studio, İrem provides service on architecture, interior architecture, furniture design, decoration and consultancy. She plans to open a new website to offer special production design furniture belonging to her own brand. This website will also include an online shopping page where products from local and foreign designers will be displayed. Besides her architectural education, İrem transformes her aptitude for drawing and handcrafting into an advantage and specializes in jewelery. She creates the jewelery brand “ÎARA Fine Jewelery”. In addition to being a successful architect, our graduate is a successful jewelery designer, sadekar and master of nail art. Under the brand of “ÎARA Fine Jewelery”, using silver, gold and precious stones, special products are created, each of is different from each other, and the designs are completely handcrafted.
In her future plans, İrem aims to develop and carry the brands ÎARA Créatif Studio and ÎARA Fine Jewelery to even better places. Describing Hisar School as a place beyond school, where she can discover herself and make dreams, İrem defines being a member of Hisar as an individual who is free and creative while at the same time has a social consciousness and sensitivity. We wish success to our beloved graduate İrem whose brand, ÎARA Créatif Studio, took place in January issue of Home Art, one of Turkey’s leading decoration magazines.
