Thesis (M.S.)--Middle East Technical University, 2004. / Keywords: Atatürk Orman Çiftligi (AOÇ), Public Property, Open Space, Ankara.

The important positions and proposals of the thesis are firstly the framework posited for a socially sustainable urban environment, and secondly a proposal for the parameters of place formation for sustainable urban design. Research into social sustainability has provided a variety of approaches among which Castells&amp / #8217 / model for urban movements have been adapted as a matrix for social organization in terms of placemaking, highlighting the goals of an urban movement, in this case of a place, with the citizen as urban actor, against its adversary the historical actor. As for the parameters of place formation a matrix of place is developed as a tool for urban design and for measuring urban sustainability. The matrix delineates the six dimensions of place in terms of the three sustainabilities most strongly involved in each / to be measured by the indicators of sustainability which are to be achieved by applying various strategies for urban design. As a result of the study of the underlying dynamics of the paradigms of sustainability, place, and place-making, and the shifting role of urban design necessitated by problems of urbaproposed within a discourse that prefers to see the three sustainabilities in conjunction and, believes socially sustainable communities to be also environmentally and economically sustainable- the issue becomes how to facilitate a place process through urban design. Place as a social product, and place as an experiential, cognitive construct, place as object and subject of place-making, and place as a geographically specific, historical materialist formation are the four vantage points from which to inspect the juxtapositions and differences of the concept / and may be arrive at a theory of place. The predilection that sustainability and urbanization can be evaluated via placemaking stems, on one hand, from a study of the city/urbanization through the works of Harvey, Castells, Lefebvre and Bookchin who emphasize social space/process in the face of physical/geometric space / and an architectural background/disposition which finds place congenial on the other hand. The paradigm of sustainability and place, and place-making as urban design is applied to the case of Temelli, Ankara for a critique of sustainable/unsustainable urbanization. As a geographic, social, economic and historical location within the Greater Municipality of Ankara, Temelli has been a region of attraction for investors since the 1990s. What was once a small village planned for settling Balkan immigrants, became a municipality in 1994 / the land within the municipal boundaries were increased tenfold, and the region was earmarked for an overspill of 650,000 people from Ankara Metropolitan Area in the next 20 years. Four residential areas in the region have been assessed comparatively in terms of sustainable urban forms / and an evaluation of everyday lives have been conducted through surveys and interviews with residents to observe how and if place as social product evolved / how the conceived, perceived and lived spaces interacted.

This study concentrates on the fragmentation process of the city centers. The study suggests that it is not necessarily the planning decisions or the lack of a rigorous planning framework that brings about the fragmentation process. Local and global economic and social circumstances may also give way to fragmentation of the city center. These processes take place through the countenance of developers, city authorities and central government. In this context, the study focuses on the fragmentation process of the city center functions with specific attention to the retail decentralization. The issue is considered within the dilemma between the investor and urban development. The main concern of the study is to put forward the fragmentation process of the city center of Ankara, as a consequence of the changing economic structure and the decision making processes under certain economic conditions, concentrated on decentralization of organized retail. Within this framework three different methods are used to display the fragmentation process. The first one consider the changes in the urban space / the second one focus on the processes of location and relocation of public buildings / and the third one consider the impacts of the organized retailing on the fragmentation of the center through Armada Shopping Center. The first two methods, which are historical and geographical, demonstrate how this process was formed and the final empirical method quantitatively illustrates the fragmentation process. Doing this, the fragmentation process and the changes in the city center analyzed through the entrepreneurs and the major representatives of the central government and local administrations under the given economic and social structure.

The purpose of this study is to assess Turkish squatters, namely &lsquo / gecekondu&rsquo / over the image in cinema in terms of a visual urban archive. In order to analyze this representation in cinema as an urban image, both the cinematic production and urban theoretical approaches about migration and gecekonduzation process are discussed in order to find out the parallelism between the stories of gecekondu in these two fields, and to crosscheck the cinematic image of gecekondu. Therefore, the study is held in accordance with the epochs due to the break points of the history of the phenomenon. The movies are analyzed through a critical discourse analysis after the depiction of each epoch. Finally, the picture of the phenomenon is compared with the actuality of the epochs, academic framework and the cinematic image with the purpose of revealing the cinematic memory about it.

The thesis concentrates on the interaction between man and his settlement within the context of the Roman city in Asia Minor during the imperial period. The analysis is carried out by examining the role of the nymphaea within the context of urban architecture. First of all, an insight of the Roman city and its armatures is given in order to define the Roman urban context. Within this context, the nymphaea are treated as landmarks for mentally mapping the city and as urban furniture in a properly functioning urban public sphere. Six sample cities are chosen as case studies. These are Pisidian Antioch, Perge, Hierapolis, Laodiceia, Ephesus and Miletus. The nymphaea within these cities are evaluated through selected criteria to answer questions such as: Where were the nymphaea usually located in the Roman city? What were their functions at those locations? Considering their role in the public sphere, how did the nymphaea affect the design of the city, urban life and its customs? As a result, it is seen that the location of the nymphaea within the city was not always dependent on the location of water sources. They were often located along the armature to be visible and memorable. Therefore, as an urban element the nymphaea influenced public activity by contributing to civic consciosnes and the making of livable and &amp / #65533 / legible&amp / #65533 / cities.

This thesis is a monographic study to examine the transformation of the old industrial district of Ankara, which is yet incomplete. Investigating the significant reasons for its incompleteness, the study will concentrate on the intrinsic dynamics of this process, and particularly on such important contributions of its political actors. The aims of the study are to figure out the roles of political actors in urban transformations, and to evaluate the position of architectural production within such processes. As a consequence of this evaluation, the possible approaches for the similar forthcoming urban transformations will be questioned, with special reference to the political framework and the position of architectural production within the same framework. Maltepe developed as an industrial district since the end of the 19th Century, and served with the same function during the Republican period, until the 1950s when there were necessities and requirements for transformation. The transformation of the district occurred as two distinct processes on industrial production and industrial service areas. The industrial production area remained partially transformed, as a result of resistance mechanisms generated by the unavoidable practical difficulties. The transformation of the industrial service area remained incomplete as a result of varying design decisions at different periods. In general, the incompleteness of the transformation of the old industrial district was reasoned by either the incapability of political actors, or by the confrontations between them. The architectural production in this transformation was defined by the political actors, whose positions were characterized by such circumstances, within which the transformation occurred. Since the circumstances are different in any case, any urban transformation has different intrinsic dynamics and peculiarities in itself. Therefore, rather than approaching the issue of transformation with general policies, the strategies must be developed for each specific case. These strategies would also include the political actors, and the architects who participate in the formation of those political actors.

The main objective of this thesis is to evaluate the question of urban crime and its relationship with the lower income groups in the cities by concentrating in the case study conducted in one of the deprived neighbourhoods of Ankara, namely Hidirliktepe. In the dominant conception on urban crime, there are two main assumptions / urban crime is partly an outcome of urbanization itself and the main actors of urban crime are deprived communities those living in the most deteriorated neighborhoods of the cities. The thesis challenges both assumptions by arguing that urbanization itself could not be accounted for the rising crime rates and it is unwarranted to argue that deprived communities are the main source of urban crime. Against this bias, in this thesis it is argued that the very same perception is used as a part of wider policy of isolation towards the lower income groups, and this social as well as the economic isolation and exclusion has important contributions to the rising crime rates in the deprived neighborhoods in urban areas. The findings of the case study conducted in Hidirliktepe, one of the neighborhoods where the most deprived communities of Ankara live, support these arguments.

Historic commercial centres are subject to continuous change and transformation due to the changing socio-economic and cultural structure and relations of production and consumption. Organized within a traditional structure, these spaces have survived until today with their altering meanings and different identities as well as the restructuration they went through because of the socio-economic transformation processes. Besides, they are not only shopping areas or consumption spaces but also urban areas with a traditional style of manufacture and crafts. Theoretical discussions on the conservation of historic city centres focus on issues such as integration of city centres into contemporary life with functions that do not have adverse effects on the authentic characteristics of historic streets and urban fabrics, the role of new functions, activities and structures in the historic fabric, and participation in the conservation process. Historic buildings adopt functions that are different from their original functions due to changing life styles. Having functioned in a well-organized order and shaped by the socio-cultural and economic structure of their eras, they are subject to interventions due to the functions required by the present conditions, such as the addition of a mezzanine or the establishment of a connection between spaces. As a result of these interventions, the original plan schemes and authentic characteristics of historic buildings have changed. This thesis aims at identifying the types of commercial functions that intervene into the authentic design characteristics of commercial buildings located in the historic commercial centre. To this end, the Commercial Centre of Bursa was chosen as the case and the change in the functions of the hans located in this area was examined in detail.

The main hypothesis of this thesis is that the problem of urban sprawl, as a disorder in the growth of the cities, is not a natural result of the growth of the capitalist city but a phenomenon manipulated politically. Consequently, generally a geographically problematized phenomenon / the urban sprawl is, within this work, problematized with reference to urban politics. In the searching of the politics of urban sprawl, one of the political interventions into the urban space / the master plans has utmost importance in this work. The impact of the master plans on the sprawl of the city will be analyzed. A categorization of urban sprawl is proposed in the work, on the urban geography with reference to politics of urban sprawl. After illustrating the types of urban sprawl, the politics of urban sprawl is modeled. The political interventions of State, Metropolitan Municipality, District Municipalities, Housing Development Administration, Real Estate Agents and Rural Landowners located on the periphery is included in the model and their impact on the urban geography is evaluated. Ankara will be examined as a case in the politics of urban sprawl / her unique characteristics like being the &#039 / planned&#039 / capital city controlled by master plans make her indispensable to study. The political interventions of the actors to the urban space of Ankara is highly visible especially considering urban sprawl in the geography of the city, yet another reason to work on.

The urban space is subjected to countless transformations depending on multiple reasons such as urban planning decisions, the administrative system and regulations. In this context, the aim of this thesis is to reveal the spatial transformation of an urban area at the conjunction of the old and new districts of a historical city. A morphological analysis method depending on quantitative and qualitative chaarcteristics will be utilized to understand its changing spatiality.