Transformation of a public space in İstanbul: the Eminönü square

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, Şehir ve Bölge Planlama, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2006

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: TÜMAY ÇİN

Danışman: Fatma Cânâ Bilsel

Özet:

Urban public spaces have always been subjected to physical, economical,social, political and cultural transformations of the city. These changing dynamics could cause decay in the spatial qualities and could also lead to a loss of values and identities of urban spaces, especially in public spaces. This thesis explores the qualities of a particular urban space in Istanbul: the Eminönü Square. Providing a guideline for the future urban design projects,the structure and the identity of the historical public space is aimed in this thesis. Firstly, in order to evaluate the qualities of urban public space a method of analysis has been developed in the study. For this purpose, the urban design theories and their methodologies of analysis have been discussed with respect to three main headings: urban form, urban activity and urban image. Furthermore, as parallel to this purpose, the criteria of the quality of urban space are developed by the help of the morphological, visual and perceptual analyses. In the second stage, the formation-transformation processes of the Eminönü Square, spatial dynamics and urban operations have been discussed within the framework of the method of analysis in a historical aspect. The results of the analyses show that the spatial dynamics and the urban operations affected the quality of the Square negatively in all formal, visual,social and perceptual aspects. In other words, the Eminönü Square lost its well-defined formal structure and transformed to a space which is deprived of activity structure and legible identity.