Balca & Cemre

We are a women-owned full service design company based in Brooklyn, New York. Our projects span a wide variety of residential and hospitality projects: renovations, additions, rooftop and backyard gardens.

The focus of our design practice is on the betterment of our environment, and by extension the experience of living. We believe weaving greenery into any place positively affects the quality of life for its inhabitants. Each one our projects is unique and requires a custom solution to the needs and wants of our clients. We work closely with our clients to establish goals, a budget and schedule, and strive to make the process as stress free and enjoyable as possible. To smoothly navigate the complicated process of a design and construction project from start to finish, we rely on the strength of our collaboration with contractors, fabricators, gardeners, designers, artists and engineers.

OFFICEFORTYONE is a reference to the hometown of sisters and partners Cemre Durusoy, an architect, and Balca Keskin, a landscape architect. Istanbul at 41 degrees north latitude gave their firm its name, though they have long adopted New York as their new home. They established OFFICEFORTYONE in 2016.

CEMRE DURUSOY moved to New York City in 2001 and has been working in the design and construction world ever since. Prior to establishing her own practice Architecture Durusoy in 2012, she worked as a designer at the Brooklyn based design/build firm MADE on brownstone renovations and at Rockwell Group on such projects as the Library !nitiative with the Robin Hood Foundation, Chambers Hotel Minneapolis, Rosa Mexicana restaurant and a prototype store for a new Gap brand. 

Cemre holds a Bachelor of Arts from Bennington College where she studied theater design and architecture, and a Master of Architecture degree from Rice University. She is a registered architect in New York State.

BALCA KESKIN moved to New York City in 2016 and has been working with plants and gardens since. She worked as a landscape architect in Istanbul, Turkey for many years, both on her own and as part of a larger team of designers and horticulturists at the Kemer Golf & Country Club residential development. She is a graduate of Istanbul University Department of Landscape Architecture.

Most recently Balca has been exploring merging her interest in mindfulness and positive psychology with her experience in greenery.