The requirement for residential buildings has increased as a result of rapid population growth as well as emigrations caused by political and natural factors. Urbanization planners worldwide seek to find out new building construction technologies which are both environment friendly and capable of meeting the requirement of ever-increasing residence construction in a rapid and rational manner. In Turkey, most of the major towns are located in first and second degree earthquake zones. Following 1999 Kocaeli-Izmit Earthquake, structural steel has become the preferred structural material in the sector of residential building construction, and such use shall be further widespread in the coming years. In this study, the aim is to assess and evaluate such steel framed residences within 1st degree earthquake zones of Turkey in terms of energy conservation, upon ascribing emphasis on the variety of bearing systems as well. These steel framed residences examined in this study comply with “TS 825 Thermal Insulation Requirements for Buildings Standard” and “Regulation on the Energy Performance of Buildings”.

This paper aims to analyse the semantical paralells between the philosophical meaning of the terms nothingness and emptiness as they were used by the presocratic philosophers Parmenides and Democritos and the meaning of nothingness and emptiness in the theory and praxis of Rem Koolhaas. First the philosophical context where Parmenides and Democritus used the terms will be explained and the role, which these terms played in the prehistoric cosmovision will be underlined. Then these terms will be compared with some texts of Koolhaas, in which the very same terms play a major role. Further Koolhaas’ concept will be analysed at two libraries, namely the Seattle Central Library and the Très Grande Bibliothèque in Paris.

Virtual reality, since being a new form of architectural representation; when compared to traditional forms of representations, is a medium of representation which the narrative techniques are still in the process of developing. In traditional forms of representation, the viewer is actively directed in both the navigation and view, while in the architectural representations in the virtual reality medium, the viewer who now becomes the user, is left to her/his own personal decisions. Hence, the examples produced in the field of virtual reality are less successful in conveying spatial narratives than in traditional types of representation. In this study, a method has been proposed to develop the representation possibilities of the virtual reality environment by using the denotative and connotative meaning creation techniques of cinema. In the proposed method, meaning creation techniques of the cinema were used together with the interaction element of virtual reality, which is its most unique facility. By using the lighting technique between the denotative and connotative meaning creation methods of the cinema dynamically in the virtual reality medium according to the user interaction, introducing a spatial narrative to the user is directed. The discovery of the narrative possibilities of the virtual reality environment will enable it to be used more effectively as an architectural representation and moreover it will ensure this medium to be accepted as a new genre of art production.

Nowadays theory of architecture has been encountering with topography in a different way. Through several dimensions of this encountering, it seems that the deep meaning of it has been disregarded. It has as a further meaning beyond its physical existence as an ontological part of architecture. It is a kind of interface between the nature and space with its language which has further conceptions. If it is understood properly, there becomes a meaningful dialog among human, space and topography. This dialog has been corrupted via modern paradigm. Furthermore, it has been deeply affected by singular objects of architecture, rapid construction or cultural dynamics of contemporary world. Metropolises reflecting this situation such as Istanbul, it is commonly that topography has been almost neglected. Changing conceptions of the architectural discourses in the current architectural environment deeply effect the dialog between building and topography. This research points out that, topography is not just an environmental data or a kind of concept besides, it is a must to reconsider its meanings in this postmodern and chaotic milieu. It is essential to widen our perceptions that should make us to remember the spirit of being in a place. Thus, the paper has a critical overview to the architectural design process in terms of topography, while it focuses on the meaning of it via its wide context. A new perspective on topography-context relationship could be presented via its topological, ecological and geographical, socio-cultural, aesthetic, perceptional/ physiological and philosophical contexts. Conceptual openings and diversity of those codes have been proposed in an effort to promote our perception.

Wind-building interaction can be estimated with one of three approaches, or a combination of these: (1) on-site measurements, (2) reduced-scale wind tunnel measurements or (3) numerical simulation based on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). It’s clear that for early design stage, existing fore mentioned methods are very time consuming and they require detailed study in terms of of fluid dynamics. These methods are not efficient especially in the case that the building form changes dynamically. Besides, both wind tunnel analysis and CFD simulations are not efficient when it comes to take output data in real-time. Due to all of these reasons, a need for a fast and robust method occurs. At this point, a very powerful method which doesn’t require solid geometry as an input, besides in which there’s no need to use mesh (control volume) is developed. In this study, the details of the developed algorithm and the output of it are given. In addition, the principal building forms are also simulated by the algorithm and the results are validated by the Ansys Fluent software. As a result, it is seen that the developed algorithm can be a guide in wind-building interaction analysis for architects in the preliminary design stage.

When the process of transferring the architectural heritage to the future in the context of sustainability is examined, the functioning of cultural assets without harming the values of originality, integrity and authenticity can be described as adaptation of past creativity to contemporary life. Adaptation of cultural heritage to new usage is also important in order to enable the community to experience its architectural heritage with all its values and to develop the awareness and belonging of the heritage. In this context, the preservation approach followed during the preparation of the architectural conservation project developed in accordance with the museum concept of the Bursa Yesil Kulliyyah Madrasa, which is proposed to continue its use with the function of the Museum of Turkish Islamic Arts, and the phases of documentation, research, evaluation and projecting in this direction are presented in this paper.

Building sector in Turkey is responsible for about 35% of total energy consumption. Investigating the impediments in the application of energy efficient measures in buildings is of great importance for energy saving. In this study, 22 potential impediments were analysed by statistical methods in the light of the information gathered from the survey and evaluated according to their importance. The survey included 475 professionals related to the subjects in the provinces and districts of Balıkesir. Based on the results of factor analysis, the impediments were categorized into seven groups: legal regulation, behavioural, sectorial structure, lack of knowledge, technology, end-users and economic. The results of the analysis of the entire sample show that it is most important that contractors with significant impacts in the building design and construction process avoid implementing designs and technologies that reduce energy consumption (behavioural). Secondly, there is not a sufficient level of obligation to implement energy efficient measures (regulations). Another important impediment is that professionals who play an effective role in the decision-making process do not pay enough attention to the designs and technologies that reduce energy consumption (lack of knowledge). One-way analysis of variance revealed statistically significant differences for some impediments compared to occupational groups. In addition, architects and civil engineers and mechanical engineers and contractors share similar views on the most effective impediments. Finally, based on these analyses, several recommendations have been made to reduce the impact of impediments.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of varies street H/W ratios (where H is the building`s height and W is the distance between the buildings) and also the effect of parallel or perpendicular orientation of street canyon to the prevailing wind on urban street wind movement in Izmir, Karşıyaka Shopping District. On the other hand, this study aims to investigate pedeastrian wind comfort performance of typical street canyons which includes varies pedestrian activities such as walking, standing, strolling and long term sitting. The method of this study is based on systematic investigations with in situ wind speed measurement. It is found that street canyon’s H/W ratios and their orientations to the prevailing wind direction affect the wind movement significantly. In Karşıyaka Shopping District, it is observed more wind speed in street canyons which are perpendecular to the prevailing wind compared to those which are parallel. On the other hand, an increment of street H/W ratio increases wind speed in all street canyons. All the streets in Karşıyaka Shopping District were comfortable for short-term sitting and walking activities while discomfort problems were detected in long-term sitting areas. With the findings obtained from this study, pedestrian activities and open spaces in Karşıyaka Shopping District can be made more comfortable by rearranging the area according to the pedestrian wind comfort performance.

Railways are technical systems that has social, political and economical impacts on World history. They are regarded and preserved as instances of endustrial heritage. Conservation of railway studies began in the early 19th century, and passed through various phases. Today, railway conservation studies are expected to “conserve all scientific and technical skills and include all infrastructures”. Railways require periodic maintenance in order to operate and sustain their passenger and freight transportation. In station sites, these functions are fulfilled by operational facilities. Locomotive depots are one of the main buildings of these facilities. Roundhouses represent a distinguished architectural typology among locomotive depots regarding their architectural characteristics, their plans and structural systems. Roundhouses are often become subjects of researches on railway heritage as they are regarded as the symbolic buildings of the steam engine era. In order to regard Turkish railway sites as a whole and define the context of Turkish railway heritage, there is a need to identify such facilities and services and their operational principles. This paper will introduce roundhouses along with their technical and architectural specifications. Then, the roundhouse at Haydarpaşa railway site will be considered as a case study to discuss the conservation challenges and potentials of these unique heritage assets.

Cities are dynamic systems; consist of physical and social networks which interact each other constantly. In this age, an emergent term: Big Data -which is generated with activities that are taken shape in cities integrated with information technologies- provides wide range of inputs for analysing relational structure of cities and uncovering behavioural patterns of city users. This study, searches for methods to develop urban strategies based on the feedback relationship between city’s physical and social networks, by considering the data generated from Location Based Social Networks (LBSNs) - that becomes a significant part of daily life as a result of rapidly-developing technologies - together with the outcomes of space syntax analyses. In the case study of the research, for the center Kadıköy region, analyses are held in 3 sequential steps: 1) Acquiring crowdsourced data that users generated in location-based social networks and helding the density analyses in GIS. 2) Helding the space syntax analyses for urban physical network for the study area. 3) Superposing the outcomes in GIS to analyse relationships between the density of urban activity areas and topological characteristics of the physical networks in the study area. In the case study, by considering results of the analyses, making predictions for expansion trends and developing urban strategies compatible with expansion trends of Kadıköy center, are targeted.

Together with local and regional planning decisions, the rapidly developing industrialization has also affected the development of the real estate markets. In this context, in historical development, in the Sincan Town, the Ankara Chamber of Industry 1. Organize Industrial Zone and Ankara Merkez Dökümcüler Industrial Site and its periphery also affected the development of the real estate sector as a center of attraction and because of this, Törekent Neighborhood was chosen as the study area which is close to the OIZ. As a result of increasing employment with the center of attraction in the district increase in activity in real estate area observed and hence, various spatial and environmental factors influencing housing prices were also formed. The purpose of the study; to reveal the development in real estate and in this direction, to analyze the characteristics affecting the house prices especially in the framework of development with planning decisions, in the western corridor of Ankara. Literature review, examining the spatial development of Sincan Town, making face to face interviews with related employees in Sincan District Municipality, obtaining the properties and prices of 50 house for rent and 50 house for sale through face-to-face interview technique with real estate agents and determining how these propoerties affect the prices of houses for sale and rent via the created hedonic price model are determined as the method and methodology of this study. As a result, in Törekent Neighborhood, in Ankara’s Sincan district which has been a sub center of Ankara in historical development, while the structural supply characteristics of houses for sale being more effective on the sale prices; functional and location-related features are more effective on the rental fees of rental houses.

Sustainable development has become one of the main global agendas of our time since the 1970s. It is undeniable that people must find a way to live in harmony with their natural and built environments in order to protect the earth in the long term. Recognizing that both heritage and sustainability have crucial importance to society, it is essential to promote sustainability as a critical goal, when certifying the continuity of original characteristics in a historic environment. From this perspective, following a discussion on the theory of these two concepts and the framework of related policies in Turkey, this research analyzes and evaluates the historic Sarıyer, composed of Sarıyer and Yenimahalle quarters, two integrated neighbouring Bosphorus villages on the European side of the strait. With an emphasis on sustainability and energy efficiency, this study concludes with environmental and architectural conservation proposals for the study area.

Public open spaces in the coastal areas constitute important part of the recreational areas in İstanbul. These green spaces are a few of the limited activity areas where people may relax in the hectic and chaotic metropolitan life. However, the ever-increasing population and rising constructions threaten the future of the coasts of İstanbul. Despite the potential of Marmara Sea as bringing visual and tangible interaction with water, unused and unwelcome recreational areas in coastline where people cannot perform any activity neither on land nor on sea are in the danger of destruction and privatization. This paper aims to underline opportunities and treats that effects user inclusiveness in the recreational areas in the coasts of Istanbul with a research on user’s requests and suggestions in Maltepe-Kartal Coastline. At this juncture, having picnic comes out as a local and critical problem, since air and environmental pollution caused by barbecue and the smoke affect the use of the space for different activities by different users. Although this problem reduces the user inclusiveness, it is rarely discussed in the existing literature, and mainly ignored in the planning and design process. In the scope of the work, the ideas of the users from opposite views are gathered together in the framework of judgmental sample technique by using survey and interview method. Consequently, the findings obtained from the participation of users from different point of views and experiences on the place highlight that the recreation areas in the coasts of İstanbul should be designed and planned by bringing solution to the local problems.