Search results

Valuable historical monuments have important potential in the context of cultural tourism in cities. In addition, for the protection of these structures, in terms of ensuring social and cultural sustainability, it is also important to transfer these values to future generations.

The social and cultural sustainability of Erzurum Great Mosque is investigated by viewing the social and cultural sustainability of the mosque through the factors created by Chan and Lee and the criteria created by Stubbs.

As a result, the social and cultural sustainability of Erzurum Great Mosque is revealed, allowing us to propose what should be done to transfer the values of this structure, which has historical and cultural significance, and the culture it represents to future generations.

This study contributes to the literature as to evaluate a historical building, in terms of social–cultural sustainability.

Commercial areas and bedestens (covered bazaars) are important public areas in Turkish cities and towns. These areas and buildings are essential in that they contribute vital economic and social characteristics to Turkish cities and towns. In the Ottoman period, these commercial areas, alongside inns, baths, mosques, and stores, were engaged in trading and manufacturing and formed a central part of life for the residents. The number of bedestens in a given city was dependent on the size of the city or town. All social, administrative, and economic activities were organized within these bedestens. Commercial structures, in which the bedestens are located, with different functions, such as arasta, inns, markets, covered markets, and stores, are the main components of the commercial districts. These structures were built by the order of the Sultan for the purpose of reviving and providing direction to the economic life of the city or town. One of the key components of these commercial structures was the bedestens. In terms of Turkish culture, a bedesten can be defined as the heart of the commercial district. Although these structures were built to sell textiles, they later functioned as places where antiques and/or valuable goods were also sold. Bedestens were usually a unique type of structure, with masonry masses between wooden stores located in the middle of the trade center of the city or town. The top of the bedesten, which was usually built as one storey and rectangular in shape, had a domed roof covered with lead. In this study, spatial analyses of these important architectural elements were conducted in terms of city planning, folk culture and commercial life. The bedestens selected for the study were those in historical cities located at major commercial road axes from the Ottoman period. The bedestens in these historical cities were examined, within the context of their planning, and assessments were made. The relations that these structures have with each other in general, and their common and different features, were also investigated.

Determining the suitable material and accurate thickness of the thermal insulation layer used in exterior walls during the design phase of a building can be challenging. This study aims to determine suitable material and optimum thickness for the insulation layer considering both operational and embodied factors by a comprehensive assessment of the energy, economic and environmental (3E) parameters.

First, the energy model of an existing building was created by using Autodesk Revit software according to the as-built floor layout to evaluate the impact of five alternative insulating materials in varying thickness values. Second, using the results derived from the model, a thorough evaluation was conducted to ascertain the optimal insulation material and thickness through individual analysis of 3E factors, followed by a comprehensive analysis considering the three aforementioned factors simultaneously.

The findings indicated that polyurethane with 13 cm thickness, rockwool with 10 cm thickness and EPS with 20 cm thickness were the best states based on energy consumption, cost and environmental footprint, respectively. After completing the 3E investigation, the 15-cm-thick mineral wool insulation was presented as the ideal state.

This study explores how suitable material and thickness of insulating material can be determined in advance during the design phase of a building, which is a lot more accurate and cost-effective than applying insulating materials by assumed thickness in the construction phase.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is unique in investigating the advantages of using thermally insulating materials in the context of a mosque structure, taking into account its distinctive attributes that deviate from those of typical buildings. Furthermore, there has been no prior analysis of the cost and sustainability implications of these materials concerning the characteristics of subtropical monsoon climate.

Between traditional and contemporary there are two contradictory visions. The first adopts originality and returning to the traditional, while the second advocates modernity and liberation from the old. The present paper discusses how to benefit from the present facilities without losing features of the past when developing new neighbour-hoods. Al-Dira', a traditional quarter in Al-Jouf, Saudi Arabia, is elected as a case study within which the housing unit and the urban pattern are analysed. Visual documentation, surveying, mapping, and interviews constitute essential tools to get an insight on the traditional planning and design process. On the other side, Al-Rabwa, a typical contemporary officially planned district, is investigated. It is concluded that the need for modernization should be balanced with originality. Understanding forces that shaped traditional quarters and are still embedded in the community offers a stream of information that can be utilized in contemporary development. A responsive development needs to consider local identity while formulating compact low rise buildings with courtyards and carefully positioned openings, small scale open space system, straight roads for cars and protected walkways for pedestrians, well distributed parking lots, and integrated relationship between housing, mosque and market.

The purpose of this paper was to investigate housing satisfaction in a traditional neighborhood of Izmit, Turkey. According to this purpose, it was investigated whether the perceived living conditions (PLC) were mediating the effect on participants’ general housing satisfaction caused by satisfaction with the perceived quality of facilities (FQP), satisfaction with performance of local authorities (LA), satisfaction with social relations (SR) and satisfaction with physical surrounding (PS) in the Topçular neighborhood of Izmit District in Kocaeli, Turkey.

According to the hypotheses developed within the framework of the theoretical model, by using structural equation modeling (SEM), first, the direct relations between the variables were tested (PLC → overall housing satisfaction (OHS); PS, SR, LA → PLC; FQP → LA), then the indirect relationships between the variables were analyzed with the mediated role of OHS (PS, SR, LA → OHS → PLC).

The results show that all factors affected the OHS through the PLC. In conclusion, as the living conditions of the individual living in the neighborhood improve, the conditions take an active role in the relationship between the OHS and the satisfaction with the other relevant factors in the neighborhood, namely, PS, SR and performance of LA. In this relationship, it is seen that the satisfaction with PS has a negative effect, while the satisfaction with SR and satisfaction with the performance of LA have positive effects.

The study was applied only to Turkey’s Izmit Province. Research may also be applied to other cities apart from those in Turkey. A small sample was also used in the study. Reaching a wider sampling for SEM can lead to different results.

Planners and designers should consider satisfaction – including various factors involved in planning, designing and refurbishing the neighborhoods – as the most important design data.

The results of this study show that living conditions had an active role in the relationship between OHS and certain factors in the neighborhood: satisfaction with PS, SR and performance of LA. This study offers a framework to LA such as policymakers and urban planners to develop relevant and effective strategies and to improve dissatisfactory conditions in new and peripheral areas.

The originality of the paper is based on revealing the factors affecting the housing satisfaction of people living in the province of Izmit. This study offers a framework to LA such as policymakers and urban planners to develop relevant and effective strategies and to improve dissatisfactory conditions in new and peripheral areas.

The paper aims to describe the positive and negative effects of night lights in historical sites, as well as the most salient challenges faced by the visitors of these sites and determine ways to address them. The study aims to suggest several light-and-shadow approaches and designs to enhance the experience of visiting historical sites.

This study identifies problems of nightlife in historical sites with an online international questionnaire to determine the preferences and difficulties faced by visitors of historical sites during day and night. After that Egypt was determined as a sample case of a developing country; its archaeological sites need to be improved. The main problems of historical Egyptian sites were investigated and approaches in developing historical sites with interactive lighting design were presented after an online questionnaire to the Egyptian society.

The paper shows that archaeological sites need some development, especially in their technological and lighting aspects, to overcome visitors’ low night-time interest in archaeological sites. Research has found certain limitations in the effects of constructing artificial illumination. The study provides modern sustainable solution for some light challenges in historical sites with approaches and solutions to solve it.

The results of that research could be applied in developing countries, but with larger specific studies to the historical urban locations according to the politics of the country.

The paper includes sustainable approaches in developing historical sites with technological lighting design required to enhance historical sites at night-time and make visits more interactive and interesting.

This paper presents an identified need of historical sites visitors’ to study applying modern approaches in enhancing urban historical sites.

A comparative analysis of ideologically opposed Turkish newspapers’ coverage of the Gezi Park protests, which was a wave of pro-democracy movement in Turkey, is critical because the media not only have a strong influence on opinion formation (Fairclough, 1989) but also provide the most relevant context for observing controversial interpretations and practices of democracy in Turkey. Although previous research on the media framing of social movements (Chan & Lee, 1984; Dardis, 2006; Hackett & Zhao, 1994; McLeod & Hertog, 1999) has shown that the media delegitimized the protests to serve the interests of the political status quo, it is expected that a much more complicated attitude may be revealed in the Turkish media because of the protest issue and polarized media. To this end, I triangulate corpus linguistics with frame analysis to explore discrepancies between the right and left wing newspapers’ coverage of the protests. Contrary to previous studies, no sort of unanimity on the side of the political authority is observed in Turkish media. While right wing newspapers widely use delegitimizing frames to portray the protests as an international plot or a masquerade, left wing newspapers only use legitimizing frames to deem the protests as a reasonable reaction to the controversial policies of the government. The findings of this study provide a new understanding of changing media attitudes toward social mobilizations in an era which has witnessed a series of movements for democracy and equality.

This paper analyses changes in the activity pattern of Damascus city from late modern era (late Ottoman rule) to the contemporary era. The research objective is to explore the impact of the socio-historical process on the evolving morphological structure of the urban core and to draw implications for post-war reconstruction.

Space Syntax methodology was employed to trace the historical and morphological changes in the urban core of Damascus. The timeframe was divided into five periods covering the city's socio-political transformation and five maps depicting these periods. Local and global integration measures were used to analyse the changes in the urban core across each period. Normalised angular choice (NACH) measure was used to identify the changes in the city planning system.

The results revealed that the urban core corresponded to the main streets, which had socio-economic importance across history. However, introducing a new planning system influenced by Western planning ideals led to the creation of multi-morphological patterns. At the city level, the study found that the urban core was more accessible in the preplanned areas, while the organic expansion of the informal settlements was exclusive of the core area. At the local level, some informal settlements showed an intense core. Intelligibility analysis revealed that earlier periods showed considerably higher values, implying declines in the ease of navigation of the city over time.

This study did not account for the political, economic and cultural factors that could shape morphological changes in Damascus. In addition, the study adopted historical reference points to understand the morphological changes, as high-quality geospatial data was not available to monitor the recent post-war situation.

The research findings give a foundation for a more contextualised historical understanding of spatial structure and changes, which can contribute to the post-war reconstruction and redevelopment of Damascus city.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to trace historical spatial changes in Damascus from a space syntax approach, weaving together socio-historical and configurational studies. In doing so, it shows how historically informed and spatially aware urban planning and design policies can support policymakers and built environment professionals in planning and redevelopment.

This study aims to evaluate the reuse of monumental structures through sustainability components, with the aim of emphasizing the sustainability of re-functional monumental structures.

In this study, which is based on situation analysis, urban inns in Samsun which is located in the Central Black Sea Region of Turkey, are discussed over the data obtained from archive and field studies in line with the environmental, social and economic sustainability criteria determined as a result of literature research.

The sustainability of the sample in the environmental, social and economic context has been revealed and what should be done for the sustainability of monumental structures over environmental, social and economic components has been discussed.

It has increased awareness of the environmental, social and economic dimensions of adaptive reuse as well as increasing the awareness of the buildings.

This study contributes to the literature in terms of evaluating monumental structures through the determined sustainability components. It is the first study on the sustainability of urban inns in the province of Samsun, the construction material of which is stone.