The iwan, which has a deep-rooted history in near eastern and Asian buildings, is a landmark of Islamic architecture. Iwans are used in all building typology, such as vernacular and public architecture. Iwans have an especially important role in Turkish architecture, both in spatial organization and in forming typologies. An iwan is covered on three sides and can be used as portal, interconnection unit, room or royal room, but its most prevalent usage is in the form of four-iwan courtyard. This schema has both a functional role and symbolic meaning as evidenced by the first iwans, found in the houses of Horasan and Maveraunnehir.

Beginning in the mid-20th Century, consumer-oriented production approaches replaced early attitudes towards mass production and helped mass customization move forward. Through the widespread use of information technologies, the mass-customization approach aimed to position the consumer and his/her preferences directly in line with production processes with the help of consumer participation methods and product configuration tools. In this study, the house as a product system, consisting of related sub-systems within a housing market, is being researched as a consumer product which may be customized in the pre-occupancy stage with the help of the mass-customization approach. To do that, adaptability and user participation approaches must be discussed. Then the mass-customization approach is adapted in the housing industry as a tool for adaptability. The field study has focused on the mass-customization approach used in the production processes of high-end multi-story housing in İstanbul. In order to research the level of mass customization used in these housing areas, two surveys have been conducted. The first of these was given to the construction firms, the second to potential buyers. The results were discussed, and suggestions were generated. With the help of the data obtained, it has become clear that in the building and housing industry, consumer-oriented production and mass-customization approaches are improving and providing potential for adaptability. The results also confirm that, for the time being, the mass-customization approach of the producers is mainly used for providing variety and adaptability on the finishing and equipment levels, despite the fact that most of survey participants have customization expectation on the spatial organization level.

Civil Society can be defined as the ability of organizations and individuals with civic consciousness to cope with social problems. It is also accepted as a source of regional development. Social capital plays an important role in civil society through the trust, norms and networks that facilitate actions and the effectiveness of society. In this context, the structure of civil society in the NUTS II regions of Turkey has been put forth as the main theme of this paper. Indicators defining civil society according to the social capital literature have been produced by primary and secondary data and grouped under specific headings through factor analysis. Accordingly, the indicators that define civil society have been categorized under three basic components: Sociality, Charity and Active Participation. Weight coefficients of factor analysis have been used in deriving the civil society index for NUTS II regions. Thus, the regional distribution of a civil society index consisting of three sub-indices was evaluated. Findings of the analysis reveal the differences between eastern and western regions of Turkey and metropolitan cities.

This paper presents a study on the development of a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model for the evaluation of end products of the architectural design process. Potentials of the developed model were investigated within the scope of architectural design education, specifically an international design studio titled “Design for Disassembly and Reuse: Design & Building Multipurpose Transformable Pavilions.” The studio work followed a design process that integrated systematic and heuristic thinking. The design objectives and assessment criteria were clearly set out at the beginning of the process by the studio coordinator with the aim of narrowing the design space and increasing awareness of the consequences of design decisions. At the end of the design process, designs produced in the studio were evaluated using the developed model to support decision making. The model facilitated the identification of positive and negative aspects of the designs and selection of the design alternative that best met the studio objectives set at the beginning.