Urban design factors involved in the aesthetic assessment of newly built environments and their incorporation into legislation: The case of Istanbul Newly built environments in cities whose features have changed due to neoliberal policies and priorities have often been criticized for their lack of aesthetic qualities. This criticism has made the aesthetic assessment of such environments more important, raising two crucial questions: how such an assessment can be performed, and how it can be incorporated into legislation. This article focuses on both questions in the case of Istanbul by determining and ranking formal aesthetic factors using factor and ANOVA analyses of the results of a survey conducted with three different sampling groups (scholars, designers, and officials) in Istanbul in 2017. The results of the analyses show that scholars' views in evaluating urban formal aesthetics are different from those of officials and designers. In addition, the analyses reveal that "character and identity", "green design", and "incompatibility between identity and design" are three important factors affecting urban formal aesthetics in newly built environments. These results are then followed by a discussion on how these factors can be incorporated into legislation in the case of Istanbul.

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PurposeThe increased flexibility in urban planning practice under neoliberal policies had impacts on urban aesthetics, such as causing cities to lose their unique character and identity, especially in developing countries. However, importance of the control and management of aesthetics has not been adequately addressed in the current planning legislations in the literature. Conventional legislation devices (such as zoning ordinances, building codes, etc.) provide little effect on aesthetic control for the flexible planning era. The aim of the study is to examine how a supplementary legal tool (a checklist) can be developed to provide urban aesthetics control and management for a city under neo-liberal influences by taking into consideration the relationship between urban environmental aesthetics and related legal regulations.Design/methodology/approachThe research focusses on the Istanbul case. In this study, the aesthetic parameters with factor analysis using urban design parameters that affecting urban aesthetics are determined, how inclusion into the planning laws and regulations of these aesthetic parameters are examined and a checklist for aesthetics control and management are proposed.FindingsThe findings reveal that although there are different and fragmented legal sources that directly or indirectly deal with the aesthetic control and management for urban design and there is a lack of a supplementary legal tool as control management.Originality/valueChecklists in the aesthetic control area can be a practical legal tool, which can establish a routine by giving proper attention to aesthetic quality and its related parameters of planning for all developing countries under the influence of neoliberal policies.