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 Emin&ouml / n&uuml / 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 Emin&ouml / n&uuml / 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 Emin&ouml / n&uuml / Square lost its well-defined formal structure and transformed to a space which is deprived of activity structure and legible identity.

Aracaju: A Construção da Imagem da Cidade discute, em termos de percepção urbana, como a imagem de uma cidade se forma ao longo do tempo, no sentido de ser total ou parcialmente incontrolável ou a conseqüência de um direcionamento intencional dos seus formadores de opinião e agentes públicos, privados ou técnicos, que selecionam apenas os pontos positivos da cidade. Essa idéia é elaborada, no estudo, a partir da clara associação entre os cartões-postais da cidade, comercializados no passado e hoje em dia, e a Aracaju percebida atualmente por seus habitantes, verificada nos questionários aplicados, cada qual com o seu olhar específico, mas com resultados muito homogêneos em relação às características fundamentais da cidade. Numa perspectiva histórica, tenta-se retomar a Aracaju vista ao longo do tempo, por décadas, através principalmente da coletânea dos diversos cartões-postais existentes desde a primeira década do século XX e outras fontes como história escrita, poesias, relatos etc. Os marcos urbanos mais destacados são também evidenciados, quer aqueles resultantes da construção física da cidade, quer os estabelecidos na relação entre a urbe e seu meio ambiente. Assim, faz-se uma tentativa de mostrar como Aracaju foi moldada e se apresenta hoje com a imagem de uma bela capital, cidade tranqüila, admirada por todos, que a têm como o melhor local para se viver, um exemplo de organização... enfim, como a capital com melhor qualidade de vida do país! De certa forma, isso evidencia a falta de uma visão mais crítica da população em relação às questões urbanas e ao modo de viver, fato esperado ao se tratar com imagem, nitidamente falsa e expressão da forte manipulação da mídia na sociedade contemporânea. / Aracaju: The Construction of the City Image discusses, in the context of urban perception, how the image of the city was formed through time, in the sense of being total or in part randomly built or instead formed as a consequence of a driven intent to select mainly positive views of the city, by opinion makers and public agents, private or technical. This idea is developed here starting from the clear association between postcards printed in the past and today and the Aracaju city currently perceived by its inhabitants, evaluated by questionnaires applied. Each one reveals an individual perception of the city, but all provide very homogeneous results in respect to its main characteristics. In an historical perspective, it was tried to recover the temporal trends in viewing the city for decades, by the collection of postcards available since early 20th-century and other sources, like written history, poetry, personal memories, and so on. The highlighted urban marks were also described, both resulting from physical construction of the city, as well as from those established between the city and its environment. Thus, this analysis provides an attempt to show how Aracaju was forged and presents itself as a beautiful State capital, calm and beloved by all, with a high standard in terms of life quality, an example of city organization...In short, the State capital with highest life quality in Brazil! In a certain way, at the same time this supports the lack of a more critical view of the city by its own population, in respect to urban questions and its way of life, an expected issue when dealing with perceived image, clearly false and expressing the strong Midia manipulation in the modern society.

The practicum examines the impact of the physical layout of cities on the way we perceive them. In particular it examines the influence of natural, social, and built elements in perception of the downtown core of Winnipeg. It goes on to propose an urban design strategy for the downtown core, supported by supplementary urban design guidelines. / October 2016

This thesis aims to set out an urban design framework, based on pedestrian experiences and pedestrian spaces, in order to take up streets to design or enhance them as pedestrian friendly urban public places. This could also be considered as a model of approach, which assumes a normative manner. Pedestrian urban places are surveyed, then analyses are drawn that will lead to design. In that framework, the study first summarizes theoretical concepts of urbanity, urban quality and pedestrian experiences, which are necessary for examining these places. Then, it puts out how an urban place is examined with respect to the three main headings, which constitute the components of urban places: urban form, urban image and urban activity. The study area, 7th Street in Bah&ccedil / elievler, has become a secondary centre with its vitality and the diversity of activities attracting many people from other districts besides local residents. However, initially planned within a housing cooperative, the neighbourhood has lost much from its cultural and urban accumulation due to global dynamics based on consumption. What is more, 7th Street is quite inadequate in providing an easy circulation both for pedestrians and vehicles as well as providing a quality urban place with its every element. Hence, the street has been examined with the above framework. This is done first with respect to the above mentioned components, and then with the information based on maps, photographs, personal observations and questionnaires which are done in order to find out the problems and characteristics of the users as well as their perceptive qualities. The conclusions together with strengths and weaknesses, which are derived from these surveys, have been used to set specific design guidelines for the area.