Hayriye Oya Saf received her undergraduate degree (2000) from Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Architecture. She completed her master's (2001–2004) and doctoral studies in Architecture at the Izmir Institute of Technology Faculty of Architecture. Her master's thesis was titled "A Typological Analysis of Parcel-House Relationship in Ottoman Western Anatolian Cities: The Case of Kula," and her doctoral thesis was titled "A Method for the Analysis of Lot-House Relations in Ottoman Housing Pattern". Between 2006 and 2011, she worked as a research assistant at the Department of Architecture, Izmir Institute of Technology Faculty of Architecture. In 2012, she began working as an assistant professor at the Department of Architecture, Mersin University Faculty of Architecture. She currently holds an assistant professorship at the same university. Her main research areas include urban morphology studies, sustainable urban planning, sustainable architecture and ecological design approaches, new building design approaches in historical environments, sustainable tourism buildings, Ottoman cities, Ottoman houses, surveying–restoration and conservation studies. She was a member of the Izmir Branch of the Chamber of Architects between 2000 and2012. Since 2012, she has also been a member of the Mersin Branch of the Chamber of Architects.