Pelin Atasoy

Co-Founder Compu-tecture, Inc. (MADCAD.com)

Last Reviewed: September 19, 2026

Executive Summary

Pelin Atasoy is an architect who turned a working frustration into a software company. Trained at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts in Istanbul and practising in Istanbul, London and Washington DC, she spent years watching the construction industry lose time, labour and money to the simple problem of finding the right code or standard — information scattered across separately published volumes, each cross-referencing the others, none of them searchable together. In 1995 she founded Compu-tecture, Inc. to fix it, and built MADCAD: patented software that consolidates building codes and industry standards into one cross-referenced library, delivered through an online, view-only subscription system she invented so that the data stays current, secure and reachable from a phone on site. The company today publishes codes and standards from dozens of bodies — ICC, ASTM, ASHRAE, NFPA, ASCE, ISO and others — across every US state and territory. She sits on the company’s board as co-founder.

Career Highlights

• Founded Compu-tecture, Inc. in 1995 to build MADCAD, described by the company as patented software organising and delivering cross-referenced industry reference information from a single central location.
• Invented MADCAD.com’s online, view-only subscription model, designed to keep reference data secure and up to date while remaining searchable and accessible from mobile devices.
• Developed CAD systems and methods for standardising building components and automating project documentation; the company credits these with letting her complete high-rise apartment projects using small teams in record time.
• Named alongside Zafer Ilgar, the company’s first investor, as a co-founder on Compu-tecture’s board.
• Registered architect in the District of Columbia and a member of AIA, ICC and NFPA.
• Described by the company as an award-winning architect, with practice in Istanbul, London and the Washington DC area, and more than 30 years in the construction industry.

Professional Journey

Atasoy was born and raised in Istanbul and earned her Master of Architecture at Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, the oldest institution of its kind in Turkey. She practised as an architect in Istanbul and London before moving to the United States in 1986, and has since worked in the Washington DC area, where she remains a registered architect.

Her route into software came through the drawing board rather than around it. After the move she began using and customising CAD, and developed systems and methods to make design and construction documentation more efficient — standardising building components and automating the sequence of a project rather than redrawing it each time. The result, by the company’s account, was that she could deliver high-rise apartment projects with small teams and unusually short schedules.

The deeper problem she identified was not drawing but reference. Building codes and industry standards are published by dozens of separate bodies, adopted differently in every jurisdiction, revised on independent cycles, and constantly cross-referencing one another. An architect checking compliance was navigating silos. In 1995 Atasoy founded Compu-tecture, Inc. to build MADCAD, a system that would hold that material in one place, cross-referenced and searchable, so that the research could be done quickly and the time spent on design instead.

The delivery model was as much of the invention as the library. She devised an online, view-only subscription: the customer reads current code text through the service rather than holding a copy that silently goes out of date, which keeps the data secure for the publishers and current for the user, and makes it accessible from a mobile device on a site rather than from a shelf in an office. MADCAD.com now aggregates content from publishers including ICC, ASTM, ASHRAE, NFPA, ASCE, ASME, AWWA, IEEE, ISO, USGBC and The Joint Commission, organised by state and territory.

Atasoy has said she tested the approach in construction first because it was the industry she knew, and hopes the same consolidation can be applied elsewhere. She remains listed on the company’s board as co-founder, alongside Zafer Ilgar, the Berlin media entrepreneur who was MADCAD.com’s first investor.

Education

Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts, Istanbul

Master of Architecture