Start In Your Own Backyard
Start In Your Own Backyard is a mini-series about how the choices we make, both big and small, can transform the world around us. For host Steve Nygren, this is personal. Two decades ago, while running through the woods on his beloved family farm, he spotted bulldozers toppling trees for what he feared was another soulless suburban development. That sobering moment sparked a question that changed the course of his life: Isn’t there a better way to build community? One that works with nature, not against it?
The answer became Serenbe, a community built on biophilic principles, sustainable living, and the idea that well-being starts in the everyday spaces where we live, work, and connect with others.
Through stories, guest experts, and personal reflections, Start In Your Own Backyard invites listeners to find their own sense of agency. Whether it’s rethinking your diet, running for school board, planting edible landscapes, or advocating for change in your city, the podcast explores what it means to take action right where you are.
With a strong belief in the power of optimism, even when things feel tough, this series shows how each of us can create ripples of positive change.
The question is simple: What gifts do you bring? And are you ready to use them?
Want to dive deeper? Steve’s book, Start In Your Own Backyard: Transforming Where You Live with Radical Common Sense, is out now. An instant USA Today Bestseller, this book is part memoir, part guidebook. It offers a blueprint for building sustainable, connected communities, places where wonder exists in the everyday and people of all ages can truly thrive.
Start In Your Own Backyard
Mehmet Kalyoncu Is Rethinking How We Build Cities in Istanbul & Beyond
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of Start In Your Own Backyard, Steve Nygren sits down with Mehmet Kalyoncu, a developer and visionary rethinking how architecture, mobility, community, and nature can shape the future of cities. What began with a visit to Serenbe has grown into an ongoing exchange of ideas between Serenbe and Mehmet’s work in Turkey.
Raised in the architecture and construction business, Mehmet was deeply involved in the development of Istanbul Airport before turning his attention to a bigger question: How can we build communities that are more connected to people, nature, and one another?
That question led him to found Ion, whose first major neighborhood project, Ion Riva, sits near Istanbul’s Black Sea coast. After visiting the project earlier this year, Steve was struck by its scale, beauty, connection to the landscape, and the collaborative team behind it.
The conversation also explores how the devastating 2023 earthquakes in Turkey reshaped Mehmet’s thinking about development, community resilience, and who gets a voice in shaping the future of a city.
Show Notes
- Ion Global on Instagram
- Ion Conversations at MIPIM 2026
Snøhetta and BIG among architects of "landscape-led masterplan" for Istanbul (Dezeen)
- Mehmet Kalyoncu (Urban Future)
- Mehmet Kalyoncu on Instagram
Are You Ready For Radical Common Sense? Visionary placemaker Steve Nygren chronicles the rise of Serenbe, a pioneering model of biophilic living outside Atlanta, and charts a path for others wishing to challenge the status quo, embrace optimism, and reinvent their communities…and themselves.
Subscribe on Substack and receive a free essay from Steve every week.
Welcome to season two of Start in Your Own Backyard, a series about the power we each have to shape the places where we live and in turn the world around us. I'm Steve Nigren, and this season I'm looking outward, sitting down with people who have shaped the way I think about the built environment, and others who are putting their ideas into action in communities of their own. I believe the built environment as it exists today is at the root of many of our biggest challenges. But I also believe it can be a powerful part of the solution. These are stories about taking agency, using the skills and resources we have, and starting wherever we are. Because meaningful change doesn't always begin with a grand plan. Sometimes it starts in your own vacuum. I first connected with my guest, Melmet Kalyanju, through our mutual friend, urban designer David Green. Mamet came to Sarinbi from Istanbul with a group of architects and designers, and what began as a visit became an exchange of ideas that has continued to inspire both of us. Mehmed grew up in the architecture construction business and was deeply involved in the development of the Istanbul Airport, one of the largest infrastructure projects in the world. But his interest quickly expanded to how design and collaboration could shape the future of city and community life. Eventually, that interest led him to create Ion, a development company that is rethinking architecture, mobility, community, and our relationship with nature. Its first major neighborhood project, Ion Riva, sits on the northern edge of Instabul near the Black Sea. I visited this past March and was blown away by this scale, beauty, connection to the landscape, and the remarkable team Mamet has brought together. MEMET is also deeply interested in the responsibility urban planners and developers have to the communities they serve. Following the devastating 2023 earthquakes in Turkey, his work shifted to rethinking and rebuilding communities from the ground up. He began questioning who gets to shape the future of a city and how much more dynamic communities might be when people who live there have a greater voice. And the exchange of ideas between Sarinbi and Aion is a reminder that when we start in our own backyard, those ideas can travel much further than we ever imagined.
SPEAKER_01So let's get to the conversation.
SPEAKER_00I think humanity is good at creating solutions, finding solutions to its problems as long as we feel the power inside us. So that's why we need to establish the power inside us. And our cities should make people have the sense of the power inside them.
SPEAKER_01So they become powerful people.
SPEAKER_02Well, I was about to say good morning, but it's actually evening for you in Turkey. Yes. So welcome, welcome uh to our podcast. Thank you for having me. Well, you know, it's it's wonderful what all the incredible things you're doing there. So for our listeners, would you give them a little bit of background about your uh growing up in the family business and uh and then taking and doing your own thing? Thank you very much, Steve.
SPEAKER_00Um I am Mehmed Kalyunju. Uh I am from Istanbul. I live in London for two years. So I am 33 years old. I studied architecture. I was always interested in design, architecture, building things, um imagining with people and making with people, and talking about what we do together. This was always my uh excitement from my childhood, so I always wanted to be an architect. Then I studied architecture. I was going to uh go abroad to have some international experience. Then my father invited me to the uh family business, uh, which is a contracting business. At that time, the family business with their partners starting the development of Istanbul Airport, which was one of the biggest infrastructure projects in the world, and its connection with the city and the possibility of making something different and better than all other airports was very exciting for me. But I had very limited uh business experience. I only had some in internships. So I accepted it. This was a big opportunity for me to learn, to meet new people, to be involved in something at high scale, but also that can have a transformative impact on the city, which had actually after it's uh it started, because it's at the northern part of Istanbul, the air quality is now uh in better shape, the noise pollution has decreased with all many aspects. So this took around four years, most of my time. But in parallel, uh me and my friend we established Turkish Design Council, which I saw the gap those times um working with best architects and best designers for the airport, but many things was happening in our cities that might be in a different design, or if it was in the hands of a better designers, better architects with a better process that could turn into a better um output. So that was the main reason uh to bring more participatory process into main design decisions in our urban places, but also we aim to we aim to empower the design ecosystem in Turkey. Then I became the chair of Turkey's real estate investors association. Uh I was very young for uh that industry, which was attention, but also tension is sometimes the source of creativity. So I think I managed to bring the main pillars of real estate industry with some tech people, some sustainability people. Then in 2016, I had this conversation with our family members that I want to do real estate, not only contracting or not only industries. So I established the real estate arm in the family business, which I had uh 51% shares, and other family members had the remaining shares. And in 2024, I decided to do it in my way. So I uh exited from some businesses or gained the remaining shares, which enabled me to establish Ion, which is my company working on building beautiful places like Serambi.
SPEAKER_02And and and this is beautiful, and I want to talk more about how far along you are with that, especially since I was there. But uh just so our listeners truly understand your family's business. I mean, you built the Instable Airport. Yes. And I was just amazed, and I I believe it is the largest terminal in the world. Yes. For our American listeners, it is twice the size of the Atlanta terminal. And it's just amazing to think of that size. What a project that had to be. And and you were uh you were very involved in in that actual construction project, right?
SPEAKER_00Yes. I mean, I was young, but I was from the family, so I had responsibility. Um so this was again a tension for me, not having enough experience or practice or knowledge, but responsibility. So only way to uh solve it through was through collaboration, listening more than talking, you know, um finding the best people to help me and help help our company to build uh the best airport in the world. It took three and a half years, which was the um I think uh most interesting thing to people, building such a big thing, because mostly in the Western world, things are taking too much time. So then people are afraid to start things. Um but I think what helped us was of course determination and a good structure between public and private, uh a good PPP model, motivating the private sector to finish as early, but also many uh great people, great consultants, and using some good technology, for example through BIM, building information modeling, we solved six hundred and fifty thousand problems before we start. Wow. Through three-dimensional integration. So those six hundred and fifty thousand problems, if they were to be solved on the site during construction, that would take at least twice time of three and a half years.
SPEAKER_02And so then how did you come to choose the site of ION on the Black Sea? It's for our listeners. I mean it it's uh uh amazing to describe the the the beauty and the vistas, and uh but maybe you can share a little bit with them and how you come to decide on that piece of property and the size of it.
SPEAKER_00I think we can start from Istanbul. Istanbul's geography and its connection with Ion. Istanbul is an interesting city, it's a different city. It has been the capital for two empires, well actually three empires Roman Empire, Byzantine, and Ottoman Empire. And for around last hundred years, it is the biggest city of uh Turkish Republic, although it's not the capital city. Um there is a bus first street in the middle of the city, which is creating the structure of duality, uh, which is one of the things I find it very interesting uh as a pattern involved in some very exciting things in life. You know, there are many philosophies like yin yang or other things that are connected with this notion of duality. So I think Istanbul is one of those cities that has duality. It is east and west, it is young and old, it is a city and it is a very natural place. So all these things need good curation. If Istanbul is not curated and planned well, as you um experienced during your stay in Istanbul, uh Steve, well traffic can really make you nervous. So you cannot enjoy being in Istanbul. So all these things are very interesting about this city. But the city is moving north for two re for several reasons. One, there is big infrastructure investment on north, Istanbul airport, high speed rail, highways, metros and everything. Also, uh southern Istanbul is now losing its I would say uh quality of life in comparison with uh the past because of high density, uh lack of planning, and uh poor condition in some of the public areas. And thirdly, people want more connection with nature, and nature is at north in Istanbul. And fourth, uh climate change. So north of Istanbul is cooler, where the breeze from Black Sea is helping to cool your home and your the environment down. I think all these reasons are creating a reason for the people of Istanbul to move north. And lastly, the earthquake risk. There is a fault line at the southern part of Istanbul where the least risk is on the north. So going north is obviously the way of Istanbul to move forward in future, but it should be planned very well, responsibly, because also it is the last part of nature. So we should build with nature. Uh I mean build places, neighborhoods for the people of Istanbul, but also keep what is existing there. Also to contribute and regenerate some of the natural elements of Istanbul. So with all these logical aspects, it's a site that makes sense. But obviously, it was for sale. So the agents came to me, are you interested in buying? And it was uh very expensive for me at that time. I was just at the moment of choosing should I do this project on my own or should I do it with the family? So I decided to do it on my own because it had the opportunity to uh be different, but it needed time, care, patience, good designers, good architect, and involvement uh very deeply, which could be the discussion among the other members of family, uh sometimes not the easiest way to do things. So that's why I decided to do that. I got some loan, I found that some ways of creating time for this for this progress and preparation, and of course, one of the things was visiting Serambi. We can come to that later. Uh and so the affordability of the site through some innovation of funding, its location and it was on sale, it this all uh made me to motivate to buy this, but also it's a great site when you when you're on it. I felt good. That's that's the last thing I think helped me to make the decision.
SPEAKER_02Well, and then you you know, once you uh embarked on it, you have hired some really celebrated architects for some of the key buildings. Will you share uh some of that with us?
SPEAKER_00Yes. I mean, you know this um there are two notions in the world um starchitects and greenwashing. So people are trying to be very careful about uh not to be recognized in these uh definitions. So working with those names brings some attention which should be managed, but also literally brings the best minds to the project. So and also it was the very simple action for me to say, look, this is going to be different. Because all these architects, this is their first project in Turkey. Snoheta, MVR DV, and Big BR King Els Group. Of course, we worked with uh four Turkish architects in parallel, uh DB architects, Bilgin Mimarlek, Creative Mie Marlek, uh, and Rosa Mi Marlek, Rasa Architects. So uh this was a local and international um uh collaboration. And uh these foreign architects, these big big names, um it is always very good when founders are involved, and it was uh pretty much the case in our project, mostly with Sonohetta, its founders Chetel Thorson. He saw what we were trying to do. And we have good designs, we have new ideas, we have a very visionary scheme, uh, but also working with um some of the best people collaboratively helped us to have a critical mindset throughout the process uh in a natural way. So we all sit in the table, we have a conversation, discussion, and the critical thinking comes, lands by itself without any effort.
SPEAKER_02Well, there are incredible images, and uh, we'll put those on our uh on our webpage so uh listeners can actually see uh what we're talking about. Uh there it's just beautiful in the way it's uh incorporated with nature and and capitalizing on the views. It's uh I can hardly wait to come back and see those uh as you're coming. But and then our mutual friend uh David Green introduced us. And uh uh my surprise, uh we had a conversation and suddenly, what, seven? Um uh you along with uh six other folks uh arrived from Sydney to visit Cherapy. Share how uh how that came to be and uh what that experience was.
SPEAKER_00So I think it is a very good example of how connecting with people helps you do things easier. So my connection with David Green comes from Istanbul Airport. Uh he was working at Perkins and Ville by then, helping us to have a master plan for the airport city project, which had some uh challenges, so it couldn't continue. But I had the opportunity to work with David. And then uh, you know, the Syrian civil war happened in during um 2014, one year after Istanbul airport, and the city I was born, Gaziantep, is a uh border city with Syria, had incredible influx from Syria, obviously, and um millions of people started living in Gaziantep. So it needed some planning, it needed some thinking and conversation among people to have a plan. That's why I asked David, David, I know we are working on this airport project, but this is really something you could do some change, you could make an impact, and that would be beneficial for those people. Would you uh come to Gazi and Tep with me? And he said yes. And I wasn't expecting that. Because why would an American go to a city near a civil war and help the people there? I mean, that made me uh show respect to David and sh see that he's really uh interesting, interested in helping people or designing places for people to live in better cities. So we went there, we saw the mayor, we had workshops, we saw in which areas Syrian people were living, and we had a plan. We shared this with uh decision makers. They were excited to implement it, but they didn't have the enough time, everything was urgent, everything was very fast. Uh so unfortunately the ideas was left on paper, which was basically uh a container camp that could turn into a part of city. So something temporary could turn something something a part of the city with a little bit marginal investment, but that needed to be planned at the beginning. So then a friend of mine, uh Jamil Mas, who is also the head of urban planning of uh Ion Riva uh through his company came. He told me you should see this example, Serambi. These people did what we are trying to do. And I looked at the website and I was amazed by it. I mean, all the words, all the images, the way the website was designed. It's all the things that I had feeling and I had imagining, but was not able to choose the right words to create brief. I saw them on the screen. So it was a shocking moment for me. And I told him we should go and see this. But it's a project in Atlanta. I mean, I how could we go there and just see it? But also we should learn the story. So we should meet with the people who did it. Then I asked David, David, I want to meet the person who made this. And uh he introduced me. You replied very fast, we very kindly. Then we came and saw Serambi, and it changed everything. And I also invited the architects working on the project, landscape architect, our head of design. I said you should see it, then start working it. Because something that is done before us, I mean, holds effort, imagination, and emotions, and those are very humane uh things that should be um respected. And I I always try to find uh if it is done before, and discover it and honor it before I start my project. So that is what I did, I think, uh, by visiting Serambi. And it was it was a critical moment for the uh way which Ion River project went through.
SPEAKER_02Well, and when I visited, I was amazed to hear of the changes you'd made you might share with the the the folks how that how that influenced you and what you went back and and and did change to the plan.
SPEAKER_00Well um we saw that having buildings, houses with different architectural character not very distinct but different I mean not to win's maybe siblings or cousins uh we saw it it was possible because this was the main thing I mean uh making every home the same would be terrible but how could we have something different but also in harmony so seeing that was possible uh was very interesting uh we saw how school was important a good school a school that the community likes is important and of course sense of community the planning of high street vulnerability bicycle I like the bicycle store I mean it was very beautiful very delicate it showed I think the communities and the places uh importance on bike which is I think very important in the USA also we show uh we we have seen the uh local shops all these things uh also the community farm I mean we are still trying to do it we couldn't do it uh all these things really changed our perception and helped us to imagine Ion River in a way that can be different it gave us confidence I mean listening to you and how you simply shared what you did so nothing was confusing for us it was very simple it helped us a lot to um do the writing for our place and it was interesting you you you shared with me how you changed the main street because of your experience with the people uh at Serinbi and being on the streets and the the cafes and spilling out into the streets yes I mean that was a major change exactly we made a more pedestrian framework on on the retail whereas we had the high street with cars uh but after seeing Sarambi I saw the management of car is a really very important issue so we um hired one of the best mobility consultants from Italy to help us because the local knowledge was not enough about cars and if we were to work with locals we had the risk of doing the same mistakes that had been done in Istanbul for decades. That's why we worked with um someone uh from abroad but seeing how car cars were part of the neighborhood but in a way that is curated and uh managed prioritizing the pedestrian and bicycle use and then I I was just very honored to be invited to to conto the huge European real estate uh event uh and i your pavilion built right on the on the beach was it was was incredible I mean one of the most innovative pavilions I've ever seen and would you share it with with everyone that uh that pavilion but the table uh and how it converted yes well I mean we build places for people to live and what is life life is eating life is listening to music life is having a conversation life is arts culture then uh we thought I mean why don't we show the life itself instead of buildings because that's why we build buildings for life then uh we had a table we called it super table it is a table to have meals have a conversation uh listen music so it was a stage at the same time also we had a digital art uh reflection on it so it was a multipurpose surface uh we curated it in a way that uh we have certain times of the day during the MIPIM event which is four days that we show all different aspects of life and it worked very well it was a big risk for us making such investment uh as a marketing investment but not showing the product I mean people would think well why do you invest uh in in uh something that you don't show because failes are to show but we just wanted to remind people the main reason why we build places and have conversations about it and that those insights also helped us to shape the remaining parts of the master plan but also meet new people show our approach for development show in what kind of processes we would develop a neighborhood but we didn't show very directly what we are going to do in Iron River but in an indirect way through some books some films on the walls or a 3D model which was a bit abstract we used the opportunity to show but it was not the main thing main thing was a human connection well it it was just it it was just incredible it's one of the most impressive things I've seen we'll get some pictures of that too so how how do you feel post that did it accomplish what you wanted? Well yeah it worked very well yeah I mean uh as I said it was a big risk but we gained um huge appreciation and uh reputation by doing something like that. It was a new thing it was different.
SPEAKER_02Well and for our listeners this is this is Europe's largest uh real estate expo and thousands of developers and all these models I mean some models were larger than rooms it was incredible a building and then you and then you you you you build a pavilion there were only like what eight or ten most of them were countries that had pavilions and you had this pavilion and you walked in it and it was just totally different than anything going on with the with the music and the look. So we'll get some images so our people people understand that. Yeah so so uh how are things uh at IN how is construction coming and uh I mean the site's beautiful uh I I was just amazed one of the most amazing things is all the all the housing you have for your builders and your engineers that are all set up temporarily and it'll on the site of a future park and that that just amazed me to have that uh that that capacity uh to to move forward on on some fairly rapid building.
SPEAKER_00Mm-hmm Well I think there's two uh parts of Ion Riva which was before before the earthquakes in Turkey in 2023 and after that which also had a very strong impact in my life after um seeing a city that was demolished uh after a b big earthquake having lost more than 50,000 people and uh almost 95% of the city center which is an ancient Roman city and through uh Turkish Design Council we created a collaboration group to have conversations with people first and design the city uh for the decision makers and Ministry of Urbanism to build it back. And that took eight to ten months which it changed my perception on development I mean cities and the roles of individuals making places when everything is going to start from the beginning from point zero. The difference between a mayor and a shopkeeper or a citizen is very very less than our societies living in normal conditions. That makes new kind kinds of governance possible so the mayor or the minister the decision maker people that has the authority in society to make decisions about the future of the cities they need to share those with the people that live in the city in extreme conditions. So all those things I had questions in my mind could there be another way to uh make this like humanity um built the first human settlements in the world to do it together for real and then I decided to study at the LSE I took the LSE Cities program so that's why what you have seen as the um outcome of the first phase which is around 120 villas are the old um mindset of Ion that changed after my experience during earthquake and now we have the new way of living I would say which in many ways is very old for example the old villas are concrete now our new villas will be either stone brick ram dirt or timber more natural products that has low lower carbon emission but also provides the people living in the home a healthier life so that's one of the main differences second is we have courtyards in the middle of the homes in every home again a very big fundamental difference than what we had done previously so it is basic creating a void in the middle of the home for different possibilities of life to be lived you can put a tree in the middle of your courtyard and see a tree every morning in the middle of your home when you wake up or you can have a Japanese zen garden you can put a I mean some garden that you like that is your own garden in in your in the middle of your home and courtyards are like thousands of years people are doing courtyards. It is a very old way of living which can be described now a new way of living and also ram dirt is something we will do use in our houses it is it has a different kind of connection with people because we are coming from earth if our home is from earth the um the feeling that you have in the home is very different that is just very uh has a strong connection with with humans so all these new things needed some time to plan I think uh in September we will have the design freeze around 91st 90% and before the end of this year we will have the 100% of design freeze and next March we will start the construction it will be a fast construction because many things many problems will be solved before we start and also we will work with very good contractors and our plan is to finish everything by June 2002 29. So in two and a half years we plan to finish the project.
SPEAKER_02That's incredible for the for the size of that project it uh it's beautiful it is it is fast. So you you have uh uh two incredible platforms between the Design Council to to create a uh a place where where ideas can be exchanged and now Ion where people can actually see something very different for your part of the world so what what is your hope for the future the next 20 years in the influence that these two platforms are going to have I think um humanity is good at creating solutions, finding solutions to its problems as long as we feel the power inside us.
SPEAKER_00So that's why we need to establish the power inside us and our cities should make people that they have the sense of the power inside them so they become powerful people I mean in in term in terms of character and and way of living. Because sometimes people I mean we make we mistakes when we feel weak. People lie when they feel weak. People attack when they feel weak. So I think our cities should either and our communities should I either make us feel that we are not weak, we are strong or avoid people having the feeling of weakness. But how much can you do in life you have these feelings, emotions and you need to find a way to manage it so if we feel strong that we can shape our communities, we can m make our streets in the way that we like through conversation through communication and through a collaborative participatory process I think we will expect less from powers beyond our communication I mean the states ministries municipalities boroughs councils many parts of the world these institutions cannot do everything for the communities I mean if we ask and expect everything from these institutions things will take time and you will miss uh some part of your life. You always have the option uh to do it together with your neighbors but I think this is the future that we will shape together. I think we will see a new kind of governance that people in neighborhoods has more potential to shape their future in connection of course with the people in authority so this is not um chaos or this is not in in my opinion um anarchy but this is a new kind of governance that gives the power back to neighborhoods to communities into geographical limits that people can govern themselves and I think uh in the book of um a pattern language which is uh written for towns and uh I think it it it has American authors. Yes they say the limit for people to govern themselves is 7,000 or so so I think some of those thinkings we will see in the future.
SPEAKER_02So I'm very hopeful but we need to put some effort and we need to believe we can make this or otherwise we will need to um wait for approvals for you know uh permits all those sorts of things that are making us patient but our cities are getting older we lose the chance of regeneration we lose the chance of planting a tree why would a neighborhood a person expect an authority to plant a tree I mean why don't we plant our trees by ourselves so that new kind of living I think will be solution to some of the things that we face today well your attitude your approach and what you're doing is one of the very reasons that you're one of our very first interviews on starting your own backyard because my goodness uh here you are in a very interesting part of the world in in Turkey uh and rather than than deal dealing or worrying about some of the the the bigger governments and the things you can't control you literally are starting in your own backyard uh and it's going to influence as you say your hope is and I think it's going to influence uh a lot of things uh in your part of the world and and now on the internet you'll probably have people coming to visit you as it happened with you bringing your team to Serenby. So uh we we realize how connected the world is with people who are doing uh innovative things that do connect people and nature so exactly I mean that is just very exciting about humanity and world that we are connected. Is there anything else you would like to share with our listening audience before we say goodbye?
SPEAKER_00Well thank you very much I mean it's an honor to be here. I mean also thank you very much for all these um words for our project I hope we will be hosting you again and uh looking forward to visiting Atlanta again.
SPEAKER_02Let's see which one will happen uh earlier well that's wonderful we we would love to to host you again a lot has changed that you were here and uh and and you're some of the most gracious hosts that I've ever experienced so I will absolutely uh change your calendar to come uh whenever that invitation arrives thank you it will be a pleasure thank you for the conversation