Önder Küçükerman (born 1939, Trabzon) is a Turkish academic, industrial designer, interior architect, and author. He played a pivotal role in establishing industrial design as an academic and institutional discipline in Türkiye, founding the country’s first Department of Industrial Design in 1971. He is widely recognized for his extensive academic research, books, and sectoral design projects on traditional Anatolian design heritage, the spatial structure of the Turkish house, the history of glass manufacturing, and the preservation of industrial heritage.

Önder Küçükerman was born in Trabzon in 1939. His family included prominent figures in publishing and the arts. His maternal grandfather and grandmother were Kitabi Hamdi Efendi (Hamdi Efendi), a publisher during the transition from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic, and his wife Belkıs Peker. He is also the nephew of the painter Orhan Peker.

After completing secondary and high school, Küçükerman enrolled at the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts (now Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University). He graduated in 1965 and immediately began serving as an assistant within the same institution. During his academic specialization, he focused on person-environment relationships, interior space design, and the act of sitting. In 1977, he earned the title of associate professor with his study titled “Contemporary Developments in Person-Environment Relationships and the Act of Sitting.”

One of the central focuses of Küçükerman’s academic career was the institutionalization of industrial design education. In 1971, he founded Türkiye’s first Department of Industrial Design within the Applied Industrial Arts Higher School (U.E.S.Y.O.), affiliated with the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, and served as its head until 1980.

In 1980, he was appointed Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Industrial Arts. During the transformation of the Academy into Mimar Sinan University in 1982, he became the head of the newly established Department of Industrial Product Design within the Faculty of Architecture, a position he held without interruption until his retirement in 2006. Between 1987 and 1993, he served two terms as Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Mimar Sinan University. Additionally, to support academic research, he assumed the presidency of the Industrial Design Research and Publication Institute (E.T.A.Y.E.) in 1979 and became founding director of the Industrial Design Research Center (E.T.A.M.) in 2000.

Following his retirement from Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University on 11 July 2006 due to age, he continued his academic work through various foundations and institutions. In September 2006, he was appointed Vice Rector of Haliç University; from 2008 to 2015, he served as Head of the Department of Industrial Product Design, and from 2015 to 2021, as Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the same university. In August 2021, he was appointed founding director of the Haliç Research Application and Research Center, a position he continues to hold alongside his teaching duties.

Beykoz işi bir çeşmibülbül sürahi (Antikalar.com)

In addition to his academic career, Küçükerman undertook design projects with industrial organizations. Over the course of his career, he completed 236 registered design projects across various sectors. His principal institutional partnerships and projects include:

• Paşabahçe Glass Industry (1971–1993): He served as design manager and consultant, developing glass product designs that integrated traditional “Çeşm-i Bülbül” and Beykoz glassmaking techniques into industrial production.

TOFAŞ OSA Projesi çalışmalarında FIAT İş Geliştirme Direktörü Jan Nahum ile (onderkucukerman.com)

• Automotive Industry: He developed concept designs for the AS series trucks and light trucks within Chrysler Truck Industry (1981–2001); designed interior and exterior vehicle details for Tofaş (1997–2001); and coordinated the development of the methodology “100 Steps to Designing Products for Industry.”
• Public and Other Institutions: He served on the board of directors and managed design for Sümerbank/Sümerhalı; prepared porcelain and Hereke carpet designs for the Directorate of National Palaces of the Turkish Grand National Assembly; and designed furnaces and stoves for Demirdöküm and television cabinets for Telefunken.

From 1984 to 1992, Küçükerman served as an advisor to the Prime Ministry and the Ministries of Tourism and Culture. Within this capacity, he prepared various state projects aimed at organizing and developing Turkey’s traditional industrial resources from design and creativity perspectives. Since 1991, he has served as Türkiye’s correspondent and representative for the International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH), overseeing documentation processes for historical industrial sites.

He has authored over seventy books on creativity, the history of industrial design, traditional Anatolian production, and architecture.

• Analysis of the Turkish House: In his book “The Turkish House in Search of Spatial Identity” (1985/2007), he analyzed the Turkish house as a modular system, defining its rooms as independent design units capable of accommodating all activities, and its sofás as shared spaces connecting these units.^【1】
• Industrial Heritage Research: He published books examining the production systems and design philosophies of Ottoman-era industrial facilities such as the Feshane Defterdar Factory (1988), Yıldız Porcelain Factory, Beykoz Leather and Shoe Factory, and Hereke Imperial Factory.
• Design Theory: In works such as “Industrial Design: Creativity in Product Design for Industry” (1996) and “Design, Production, Industry and Creativity within Historical Processes” (2015), he explored the theoretical foundations of design within industry.

Küçükerman has also contributed to raising public awareness of design through television and media, participating in sixteen documentary projects. His documentary “The Sail on the Hill,” produced for TRT, won the 1993 Sedat Simavi Television Award. In 2022, his life and work were documented as part of the Atatürk Cultural Center’s documentary series “Living Witnesses of Turkish Culture.” Additionally, as part of İzmir Economics University’s DATUMM project (Modern Furniture in Türkiye), his life, teaching, and designs were studied in an oral history project led by Deniz Hasırcı, Zeynep Tuna Ultav, and Melis Örnekoğlu Selçuk. This research was published as a book and documentary film titled “Reading the History of Furniture and Interior Architecture in Türkiye through Oral History Methodology: Önder Küçükerman.”

He has received numerous awards for his academic and design contributions:

• 1964: Ahmet Andiçen First Prize Award
• 1993: Sedat Simavi Television Award
• 2019: “Turkish Design Council 2018 Honor Award” from the Ministry of Industry and Technology and the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office
• 2022: “Jury Special Award” from Zeytinburnu Municipality’s “2nd Urban Studies Awards” for his work on urban cultural heritage and industrial history

He holds registered patents both within Türkiye and internationally. These include the German Patent Office (Deutsches Patentamt)-registered “Basket-Pitcher” (1981) and “Palmen Dekor” (1985), as well as Türkiye-registered designs such as the “Special Separator Waste Bin” (1990) and “LPG Service Station” (1996).

Önder Küçükerman is married to Yüksek İç Mimar Gözen Küçükerman. The couple has collaborated professionally, particularly on large-scale archival projects documenting and photographing traditional Turkish houses across Anatolia. Önder and Gözen Küçükerman have one son, Orhan.