Pinar Sefkatli is an architect and PhD candidate in the Designing Rhythms for Social Resilience Research at the University of Amsterdam (Prof. dr. Caroline Nevejan and Dr Olga Sezneva).

Her research formulates rhythm as a concept for understanding the social life in cities and for identifying design spaces for socio-spatial issues through engaging with the context of Amsterdam Zuidoost. Pinar studied architecture at Delft University of Technology (Msc 2015) and Polytechnic University of Milan (Bsc 2013).

Before starting her PhD, she collaborated with architecture studios from Amsterdam and Rotterdam, was research assistant at City Rhythm research (2018) and worked for the Chief Science Office at the city of Amsterdam.

Research methods

Current research projects

The DRSR research explores new methodologies for analysing city rhythms to understand urban issues better and contribute to policy-making. The research takes place in Amsterdam Zuidoost and builds on an interdisciplinary collaboration between the architecture, urban studies and data science fields, with a PhD researcher and a Post Doc researcher from each discipline (from the University of Amsterdam, Designing Urban Experience Chair by Prof. Caroline Nevejan and from TU Delft, Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Chair, by Prof. Alessandro Bozzon).

Habidatum, a New York, Amsterdam and Estonia-based urban analytics company, is a partner in the research. At the same time, AMS Institute is the host organisation, strengthening the team with expertise in data analysis and visualisation of rhythms in data. The research is funded by NWO (Dutch Scientific Research Organisation). The city of Amsterdam contributes to the research with the involvement and supervision of the neighbourhood teams (gebiedsmakelaars) of Amsterdam Zuidoost, and the researchers of the Statistics and Research Department of the city of Amsterdam (OIS).