about me & this space

welcome to urbanist.world, i am incredibly grateful you are here!

i am melih ayaz, an urbanist, public poliy specialist and sometime traveller based in ankara, working at the intersection of urban and climate policymaking.

it has long been a dream of mine to create a space where i could share my experiences of cities around the world, specifically focusing on the deeply personal ways we perceive them.

this is mainly because urban space is not merely a built environment, but also a living narrative shaped by personal perspective and memory.

in the age of hypercommercialism where every city has begun to look alike, it has become clear that we cannot truly experience a place through travel alone.

that is why i turn to art to uncover the hidden layers of the urban soul and to reveal human stories that are otherwise hard to come across.

while i still love wandering the streets and appreciating architecture, this space allows me to look closer at the world through the lenses of cinema, literature, and music.

as such, this website is divided into four corners of exploration, each offering a different lens on the urban world: walks, films, reads, and sounds.

thank you for joining me on this journey, and enjoy reading!

for collaborations, inquiries, or just to say hello, feel free to get in touch via melih@urbanist.world or find me on instagram @urbanist.world.