In the conservation and restoration of historical monuments, concepts related with visual sense were used to be taken into consideration. However, acoustical environment formed either spontaneously or consciously is one of the basic elements of human beings’ perception of the architectural spaces having acoustical importance. Hence, architectural heritage concept has been broadened in recent years covering acoustics as well. The concept that acoustics of old buildings is part of cultural heritage is accepted more commonly by means of the interdisciplinary works done in the last decade. CAHRISMA -Conservation of the Acoustical Heritage by the Revival and Identification of the Sinan’s Mosques’ Acoustics- Research Project (2000-2003), carried out within the EC Fifth Framework INCO-MED Program pioneered implementing such a concept. ERATO -Identification, Evaluation and Revival of the Acoustical Heritage of Ancient Theatres and Odea- Research Project (2003-2006) hold at the same Framework Program, succeeds CAHRISMA Project with similar goals. In both projects acoustical environment of the spaces is documented by means of objective and subjective evaluations and an innovative way in conservation which is virtual conservation by the audio-visual reconstructions of spaces having acoustical importance in 3D virtual environments is provided. This article presents the conceptual and practical innovations created in the field of architectural conservation based on the ERATO Research Project.

As a big pollution factor, noise influences the human health and its life quality in many countries occupied intensively with industrialization and urbanization more than ever. Most people have to live in noisy environments at different stages of their
life. However, the workers in different noisy industrial plants are the most affected group of people. It is accepted in the whole world that the direct or indirect effects of noise are of various kinds and we are seriously affected physiologically and psychologically. In some situations, noise causes complaints among the workers and it decreases their working performance in the working area. This study aims at the examination of the workers’ evaluations related to noise exposure, who are working in different noisy environments from the point of view of noise levels and noise characteristics. For subjective and objective evaluations also, noise measurements in various industrial plants with different noise levels have been made and a survey through the workers has been taken. Data from the measurements and the survey study are evaluated together for researching the relations between the workers’ evaluations related to noise and the measured noise levels. Using the same data, the relations between the education status of the workers, their working periods in noisy environments and workers’ evaluations related to noise exposure are investigated. Moreover, in order to evaluate the workers’ situations related to regulations, an examination of the Noise Regulation has been made.

Turkey is one of the countries facing earthquakes very often because of its geological and topographical qualifications. And also the consequent cost of these disasters is very high. If the statistics of the damaged buildings in Turkey during the last sixty years are taken into consideration, we see that 62% of the damaged buildings has been caused by the earthquakes.
Because of too many damaged and collapsed buildings after the earthquakes, there is a big housing problem that should urgently be solved by providing (constructing) strong buildings for the victims.
In Turkey approaches to housing problems are taken in three stages:
• Emergency Relief Level (Tents, … …)
• Rehabilitation Level (Temporary housing, ….)
• Reconstruction Level (Permanent housing,.. …)
If this three-stage housing approach applied in Turkey after the disaster is examined throughout the six selected earthquakes, the problems are seen as below:
There is no specific strategy or a determined system that can be followed to solve the problem. It is always decided after the disaster in all these three levels, which prevents us getting ready for the disasters. Besides, this three leveled housing approach after the disaster can not meet the needs of the victims urgently and efficiently and it is also inadequate in using the country’s resources productively. The problems about each level can be gathered under these subtitles: administrative-legal, local, setllement areas, applying and using the designed units, infrastructure, socio-psychological, financial and being unsustainable.
After elaborating the above problems, it becomes clear that the housing problem after the disaster should be handled with all its interactive components as a system. The decision steps that all the districts can observe by adding their local data to the existing system should be formed before the disaster. A sustainable housing system using the country’s resources productively should seriously be designed for an urgent solution.

The most basic need of all humans is to lead a healthy life. Since people spent most of their time indoors, indoor air quality plays an important role in forming a healthy environment.
Indoor air is negatively affected by pollutants that are from the sources outside the building, from the usage of the building and from the building products. All the pollutants have different structures. This variation makes differences in the adverse health effects on human and the preventions that should be taken.
Risk is defined as the frequency, probability and result of a specific undesired event. To evaluate the indoor air quality of a building, risk must be examined. The steps of risk analysis are risk assessment, risk management and risk communication.
Pollutants from the building products are gases and particles. Gases are; combustion products (carbon monoxide, oxides of nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, coal smoke etc.), volatile organic compounds (formaldehyde etc.), toxic natural gases (radon, ozone). Particles are; aerosols, organisms (bacteria, fungi, virus). Table of pollutants from the building products will help the evaluation of risk analysis.
In risk assessment, determining indoor air pollutants in pre-research step will save energy, time and money in health risks. Building itself and the occupants are determined in pre – research step of indoor air quality risk analysis.

Consisting of the relations occuring in life, environent is the complete whole where life itself formed. A building is an artifical environment designed and built to meet the user’s needs. These needs are fulfilled with the properties of building products that form the building. Life cycle of building products is a whole sequence of processes related with each other beginning with the extraction of the raw materials that form the product and ending with the disposal of the product.
Life cycle processes of building products are;
• Raw materials extraction,
• Production,
• Application,
• Usage,
• Recycle,
• Disposal.

Building products are directly or indirectly in interaction with environment during life cycle process. In order for the designers to give the correct product decision, the information of the effects of the building products to the environment during the life cycle processes have to be obtained.

The renovations made at the Ottoman military organization which began at the beginning of the 18th century has influenced the modernization of the state and the society. After the abolition of the Janissary with other “Ocak”, several military buildings with various functions required for the new military organization were built. Several military buildings and or building groups such as 1 administrative building, 14 barracks, 11 schools, 12 hospitals, 17 police stations, 4 factories, 4 armories, 2 depots, 3 bakeries totaling 68 in number were built after 1826 in Istanbul, which was the center for the first army, reflect the westernized features that were different from that of the traditional Ottoman Architecture.
During the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century some legal regulations concerning restoration and preservation of the military buildings were made. However in spite of these regulations only 47 out of 68 remain today. After the second half of the 20th
century 44 military buildings have been registered as part of cultural heritage by the Council of Monuments. Through time, these buildings have faced several problems of preservation caused by issues related to ownership, function, user failures and natural disasters. Buildings, which require maintenance, repair and restoration according to the related regulations, lose several of their original features while they are restored.

Cities are places where societies, individuals come together and socialize, and a platform bringing together all social and cultural classes and ethnic groups and all different segments of society. Especially public spaces (official and private) have played a fundamental role in the establishment process of the cities. Individuals carry out their socio-cultural experiences through activities within these physical urban environments. In this sense, structuring of the society takes place in open public spaces where the relationship between individuals and society is supported by the physical environment.
However, today, we can observe that with the uncontrolled growth in big cities, they failed provide an ideal environment for living, and physical characteristics of installation of buildings and outer spaces are not in line with the expectations of the users living in the city, and inadequacies and defects in the open public space design in terms of supporting public living are evident. Besides, as a result of unorganized public spaces, spatial boundaries between different social groups became more distinct.
This study aims to analyze the behavior patterns and their possible relationships with the continuous and integrating aspects of the urban environment. In the conceptual content of this study that analyses the role of architecture and urban space in structuring social relationships, meaning, culture, public space, architectural environment concepts -the integrational and interactional aspect of urban space- and how different science fields evaluate public, meaning and space relationships will be discussed.

Almost the entire homeland of our country is under earthquake risk. According to the researches it is a fact that most of the existing buildings in our country do not achieve the earthquake safety conditions.
As it is also mentioned in the report of National Seismic Earthquake Council, the existing building replacement with the new buildings in natural obsolescence duration may occur in a long term or maybe it will take centuries. The renovation of all existing buildings is economically inconceivable, unreasonable in terms of engineering and impossible for the construction period. So the existing buildings must be checked systematically in a short period of time then in a priority order high vulnerable buildings must be made earthquake safe.
Therefore in the doctoral thesis named “Visual Evaluation Method of Earthquake Vulnerability Risk of the Constructed Buildings” which is the referee of this paper, a rapid and economical evaluation method is developed to analyze the earthquake vulnerability of existing buildings. The aim of this paper is to briefly explain basic notions about the earthquake vulnerability risk and developed vulnerability assessment process.