Born in İstanbul in 1948 and graduated from Galatasaray High School in 1967. He studied Architecture at Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts (DGSA). In the same institute, he became an academic member at Urban Planning Department. Later on, he studied Urbanism in Paris with the scholarship he was awarded from the French Government. He completed his doctoral thesis in 1978 and his associate professorship thesis in 1981. He resigned his academic membership from Mimar Sinan University in 1982 and continued making contributions to academic platforms as an invited jury member, juror, project manager, seminar coordinator, lecturer. Between 2009-2016 he was back to Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University as professor lecturer and was retired in 2016.

Since 1990, he pursues his profession within Karabey Limited Architecture. During his academy life, he has written around 100 articles about culture, society, communication, design, environment, city and architecture. Later on, around 250 articles of him was published in several architecture magazines, newsletters and, professional platforms.

Haydar Karabey has designed 200 architectural projects of which 100 of them were built. He has been a principal member in many competition juries. He is married to Architect Banu Karabey and lives in İstanbul.