Emin Mert Yilmaz (Istanbul, Turkey) was born in 1977 and studied at The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where he received his Bachelors of Fine Art in 1999 and Bachelors of Architecture in 2000. Upon graduation, he worked as an assistant and project architect in the award winning practice of Carlos Zapata (Boston, Massachusetts), where he was involved in many significant private residential and commercial projects. From 2004-2006, he worked as a project architect at the practice of Zyscovich Architects (Miami, Florida) where he focused his attention on the design of large-scale residential high-rises and mixed-use developments. In 2006, he returned to Istanbul as a partner in his family-owned design and construction practice, Yiltur.
In 2011, he established CKMY Architects with Can Kendir in Istanbul, Turkey.