Elif Kendir-Beraha is an architect and academic at the Faculty of Architecture in Istanbul Bilgi  University. Her PhD research, which focused on traditional Anatolian stonemasonry as a case study displaying the impact of making and craft knowledge on architectural conception, was completed at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She has a M.Sc. AAD from Columbia University, and a B.Arch. and  M.Arch. from the Middle East Technical University. Her main areas of interest are political ecology of urban environments, craft culture, architectural phenomenology, and the epistemological impact of sites on building praxis. She has exhibited her research nationally and internationally. She has co-founded FOL Collective, an occasionally productive art-design research collaboration with Ceren Balkır Övünç, and has organised and participated arts and design exhibitions within and outside of this framework. Since 2023, she continues her research as a part of Design Anthropology and Critical  Practices [DACP] research group with Amina Rezoug Ayar and Veli Şafak Uysal from Bilgi Faculty of Architecture.

[2014] Ph.D., Architecture,  RMIT University Spatial Information Architecture Lab (Melbourne, Australia). Dissertation: Learning From the Construction Site: An Epistemological Investigation of Stonemasons and Architects in Action. Advisors: Mark Burry, Suzette Worden. External Examiners: Glenn Adamson , Peggy Deamer , Edward Robbins .

[2002] M.Arch., Architecture, METU, high honors. Thesis: Appropriation of the Gigantic: On the Relationship between Architecture and Modern Technology. Advisor: Emel Aközer. Jury: Uğur Tanyeli, Zeynep Mennan, Jale Erzen, Ünal Nalbantoğlu.

[1998] M.Sc., Advanced Architectural Design, Columbia University (US). Project Based Masters Program. Studio Instructors: Mojdeh Baratloo; Steven Holl & Yehuda Safran; Zaha Hadid & Patrick Schumacher.

[1996] B.Arch., Architecture, METU, high honors.

Architectural design, design theory, phenomenology and architecture, craft culture, architectural epistemology, cultural landscapes, epistemological impact of sites on design thinking.