This thesis aims to elaborate the concept of responsibilty in design towards user in a critical manner. It investigates the perspectives of the professional design organizations through their design definitions and ethical guidelines, and analyzes the approaches to the issue of responsibility towards user in the design literature. The study sekks to understand the concept of user -the subject and object of design- through the concept of &quot / other&quot / borrowed from philosophy, and offers a different conceptualization of responsibility towards user together with its ethical implications.

Not in every case, the designer is knowledgeable about the potential user. Users can be consulted, in order to obtain knowledge, which is required for the design process. However such a consultation process can be problematic, since users may have difficulty in expressing their needs and problems or they may not be aware of them. The study is devised originating from the idea that if appropriate tools are provided for users, they can express their needs and design related problems. The thesis involves a literature review on the necessity of user knowledge as an input for the design process, and methods, techniques and tools, which provide this knowledge. Based on the findings from the literature review, three fictional case studies were planned and performed by employing two techniques, namely mood boards and drawing and shaping ideal products. These two techniques are developed into a procedure step by step by carrying out the case studies. The thesis proposes guidelines for the procedure of &ldquo / user workshops&rdquo / as a way to elicit users&rsquo / tangible and intangible needs, and user defined problems by directing them to imagine and express a usage context and conceptualize solutions considering their design related problems through a concept development activity and additional creative activities.

High risks imposed by natural hazards, and changes in economic, socio-cultural and technological conditions compel Turkey to transform its cities rather than promote growth. In this respect, urban regeneration became a significant concern demanding a comprehensive and integrated vision and action. Turkey will have to focus on regenerating the built environment in the near feature, rather than follow conventional trends of city-extension development. As scope and methods of urban regeneration planning differ from that of development-planning, a special legal framework and process for urban regeneration is required. The development of comprehensive urban regeneration policies to coordinate physical, social and environmental issues, together with relevant procedural steps, all accommodated within a legal framework are today the most challenging problem in urban planning. To identify the needs in detail, procedural and legal aspects of Zeytinburnu Urban Regeneration Project one of the current urban regeneration projects, related laws and draft laws, and experience abroad are comparatively reviewed here. The main finding is that the procedural steps and legal arrangements of recent regulations represent single-minded understandings of the scope of urban regeneration. There are tendencies of centralizing the powers of implementation, relying only on physical regeneration as a linear process, discouraging all forms of participation. The recent regulatory attempts in special laws concerning regeneration, as well as in laws of &amp / #8216 / development&amp / #8217 / , &amp / #8216 / local administrations&amp / #8217 / and &amp / #8216 / municipalities&amp / #8217 / need to be modified in their procedural and legal provisions. Local authorities can be charged to designate regeneration areas at 1/5000 city master plans which could be coordinated by changing an article within Development Law (3194). Tasks and responsibilities for comprehensive regeneration could be provided with the Law of Municipalities (5272), and the Law of Provincial Administration (5302). These laws could also equip local authorities with prerogatives of implementing regeneration projects. A second procedural requirement concerns the preparation of plans. This demands steps for participatory interventions as well as a versatile structure to allow feedback and returns to former stages of planning. This could be introduced by means of a regulation regarding preparation of regeneration projects. This resembles the regulation on technical specifications for the preparation of development plans of Law 3194. This can enforce the participation of local citizens and stakeholders to the process. Changing the article 13 of the Municipality Law would suffice for the realization of participation processes. The article (24n) of the Greatercity Municipalities Law that enable partnerships between public, private bodies and NGOs can be further introduced to the Municipality Law for the very necessary synergies in regeneration projects.

The thesis attempts at providing a critical evaluation of the city as the mythological site of modernity. For that purpose, highlighting such special nature of the urban context as it finds expression by the cinematic medium, what is aimed at is the analysis of, first, the mythical dimensions of modern urban life as the prime site of enthusiasm and spirit with its fleeting impressions and changing images, secondly, the (re)creation of the city myth through cinema as an elaborate perceptive vehicle for a specific way of picturing and enframing the cityscape and, lastly the representation of the destruction of such myth. In this way, it will also be possible to point out concretely that the city experience of the modern individual simultaneously embodies fascination and horror, hope and despair. In order to explain the situation of the modern individual in the big city, Odysseus&rsquo / s encounter with mythological forces in ancient world are taken as a parable in the footsteps of Adorno and Horkheimer&rsquo / s allegoric interpretation of Homer&rsquo / s Odyssey. Specifically speaking, the cinematic representation of Istanbul-myth and the destruction of this myth in Turkish cinema of the nineties will be examined through three prominent examples in the light of the above theoretical considerations.