Keywords Abstract

Urban transformation is a prominent topic within Istanbul's urban planning agenda. Transformation process of the city falls under the scope of academicians and the related authorities; and is a focus of debate from different perspectives in daily life. In this atmosphere, centralised policies promote construction facilities as the leading economic sector, and the legislation sets the legal framework facilitating transformation processes. This transformation in Istanbul occurs in two forms; as area-based regeneration projects and single building renewal processes. Area-based regeneration projects have long been examined due to their widespread effects, however single building renewal also leads to transformation over the long term. The motivation behind this paper is to examine the single building renewal process by means of a case study-Bakirkoy, which is one of the sub-centres of Istanbul. In this context, the paper aims to construct an analytical evaluation of the regeneration process in Bakirkoy and tries to evaluate the process linking it with critiques of property-led regeneration debates worldwide. This paper covers a periodical evaluation of this process by attempting to understand the urban transformation pattern by means of a descriptive spatial analysis, and a discussion of recent policies in Bakirkoy case.

Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is a robust tool to systematically evaluate the effects of design decisions on spatial performance and to identify the relationship between the space and its users. Although there is a growing body of POE research on complex buildings, such as hospitals and education spaces, studies on the POE evaluation of public open spaces are limited. More importantly, few studies have investigated public squares designed at the periphery and how they are used. This study aims to identify the extent to which spatial configuration of public squares is related to users' behavior (i.e., modes/distances of access, level of satisfaction). For this purpose, we focused on four peripheral urban squares located in Istanbul, Turkey. The methodology applied in the study includes a synthesis of three types of expertise: 1) behavioral mapping of urban squares (through the analysis of patterns of use based on direct observation), 2) cognitive evaluation of spaces based on perceived factors (through user questionnaires), and 3) quantifying urban public spaces objectively (through the methodology of space syntax and urban morphology). The results identify associations between objective characteristics of public spaces designed at the peripheral districts, patterns of use and users' perception of these areas, to a certain extent. For example, the variety and intensity of activities within the square as well as the length of occupancy are highest for Avcılar square, which is most integrated within its urban surroundings with reduced average block size. An important finding is the association between the average street connectivity levels of these squares with their pedestrian catchment areas. In other words, the more integrated a public urban space is with its surroundings (800mt buffers), its users will access this space on foot from a larger distance. Based on these findings, spatial configuration as measured by space syntax measures appears to be an explanatory measure assessing the potentiality of public open spaces for bringing users together, hence, creating a lively, well-used space. However, the results also point to some disagreements between the perceived (users' evaluations) and objective (syntactic analysis) measurements, which indicate that both types of measurements are needed in POE research of public spaces.