Designing a good indoor environment is necessary for its health effects on the users. Therefore, the assessment of indoor environmental quality (IEQ) should include analysis of objective measures and architectural assessment as well as users’ comfort evaluations. In this research, a wellness center in Ankara, Turkey is chosen as a case space. In order to assess its indoor environmental quality, acoustical, lighting, thermal and humidity measurements on indoor environment, questionnaires on user experience and architectural assessment of the chosen case space is presented. The findings obtained from the measurements and questionnaires are presented in detail. In addition, the relationship between objective and subjective data is statistically tested. Moreover, overall architectural assessment and material type and usage analysis are also included. Special spaces such as, exercise and treatment rooms in the case space are focused specifically for in depth function and activity related analyses. In addition, demographical and space usage data are also statistically tested with considering the importance and physical perception ratings of the IEQ parameters. Obtained results show that, age, frequency of visit and purpose of visit are the factors that affect the subjective evaluation of the IEQ parameters. Furthermore, the measured objective data are compared to international standards, where incompliances are found in the acoustic and lighting conditions of the case wellness center.

Reducing the amount of building energy consumption with changing and transforming world is very important for energy conservation. Energy consumption by mechanical systems is predominant in building energy consumption. For this reason, it is recommended that the wall element should be arranged with a different system. In this way, the structural element and the mechanical system evaluation will be handled with a holistic approach. Evaluations will be made on an approach to integrate building shell performance of vertical building elements (wall) with an innovative design and system. In this study, it is aimed to determine the structure shell performance of radiant hybrid wall system for İstanbul province and to compare with alternative sections. In this way, a new approach will be determined and building shell performance will be evaluated. Performance criteria will be determined as heat loss, sound loss and building costs. As a result, the radiant hybrid wall system and different building shell sections will be compared with TOPSIS, which is the Multi Criteria Decision Making Method (MCDM) method, for Istanbul. For the results obtained from the calculations and methods, a section evaluation will be made which provides the most appropriate conditions.

The medium of the architectural practice and culture has been one of the most significant domains, that the ideology of “modernization” adopted by the proclamation of the Republic leading to vast social, cultural, economic and political changes, embodied in. And the realization of this ideal has been associated with the construction of modern cities in which modernization would become physically visible. In this context, the initiation of comprehensive construction activities in all Anatolian cities, especially in Ankara, has increased the demand for modern building materials. However, due to the fact that the inadequate and undeveloped building materials industry that has been inherited from the Empire, the early Republican years have witnessed the structuring of the building materials industry within the scope of the Republic’s industrialization policies. This structuring process, which has been shaped by various administrative decisions and practices in relation not only to the architectural medium; but also to the historical breakthroughs have positive and/or negative consequences all over the world. These breakthroughs and consequences have played a deterministic role in building production of the period, as well as the development of the building materials industry. In this context, this article reveals the developments in the building materials industry during the early Republican period, the reflections of these developments on the architectural domain and the interrelationship between the building materials industry and medium of the architectural culture and practice, through a historical reading on the important thresholds of the period. The aim of the article is to create a theoretical discussion on the subject and to contribute to the literature, by introducing the development of the building material industry on a narrative that is based on the internal dynamics of the period, instead of focusing the technical qualities of the building materials.

Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) is an innovative industrial wood product, especially as a structural wall in order to meet the rigidity and strength requirements in multi-storey timber buildings. CLT members are assembled with metal connectors (angle bracket, joining plates, etc.) via nails, screws, dowels, etc. For energy-absorbing structural CLT connections, many experimental studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of the connections, especially for the earthquake prone regions. There is no scientific study in this context in Turkey yet. For this purpose; the performance of a full-scale CLT wall-to-floor specimen assembled with metal connection was experimentally investigated under axial tensile force due to bending moments of seismic loads. Domestic angle bracket, plates, and phosphate coated annular ring nails were used. All the displacements and strains were measured and collected during the test of the specimen, behavior of connection and the failure mode was observed. As a result, the back side deformation of CLT wall member was prevented with the plates for a longer period compared with no-plate case and the withdrawal resistance of from CLT floor increased through phosphate coated annular ring nails and extra three nails in the corner of angle bracket on the front side. Domestic metal connectors were used in the experiments to support the metal industry and the production with low cost. This study is a pioneering study in Turkiye on the experimental performance of CLT connections for the structural utilization. The results are promising, and the further experimental researches will continue for the most effective connection type.

Entering the “Westernization” process in the 18th century, the Ottoman Empire experienced the most drastic level in the 19th century. “The Imperial Edict of Reorganization of 1839” led fundamental changes in the public institutions and new kinds of architectural structures emerged. While these structures varied in many areas, the first structures in the administration filed were government offices. Symbolizing state’s power, these government offices made their presence felt throughout the Empire, mainly in Istanbul, in 19th century’s second half. Adana and its surrounding areas emerged as the agriculture center as a result of the agricultural boost. Adana’s status, which was independent state until 1864, has been changed to province in 1867. In the scope of this research, an analysis has been made on the whereabouts of these offices in the Adana Province or the prepared projects; the features of the structures; whether they have reached today or not and their current status and the problems in the preservation of them. The study was conducted in two phases: literature and achieve review and field work. In the first phase, the structures of the period of 1867-1922, as well as the structures of the period of 1922-1930 with similar genre, were determined and listed. In the second phase - lasted between 06.02.2014-15.07.2015 - a field assessment was made with the list of structures in the center and other districts. With the results, the study aims at contributing to the architectural history of the city and preservation science field.

Today travel time by urban transport has varied as a result of developing urban facilities, land use pattern, development of transport infrastructure and alternative transport system options for communities. Different factors such as transportation mode, transportation distance, travel route as well as disability status, child ownership and working conditions play a role in the differentiation of individuals’ travel time. However, age group, gender and the purposes of travel should be specified as some of the main factors among travel time differences that are investigated in this work in order to find out statatisticaly meaningful differences. This study has argued the differences between the travel times of urban transport throughout Ankara on these three basic factors. According to household survey in Ankara, it has been applied to Welch’s ANOVA to research whether the participants’ purposes of travel influence the average of travel time or not. It has showed that there are statistically considerable differences in general and gender between the average of travel time depending on the purpose of travel. It has been applied to post-hoc tests for determining purposes causing these differences. The difference has been generally seen between travel times for the purpose of work, school and shopping. Individuals from different age groups have differences in travel time for school and shopping. The purposes of travel and travel times of young and middle-age group distinguish from each other. However, there are no considerable differences for child age group between the purposes of travel and travel times by gender.

Tram systems, which form the basis of sustainable transportation systems, are operated on specified trails according to their characteristics, and are less accessible than other types of wheeled transportation. In order to ensure sustainable urban development and to increase the efficiency of tram systems, it is necessary to take pedestrian accessibility into consideration in the planning of tram systems. The main purpose of the present research is developing suggestions to meet the passenger expectations for services offered in rail systems by evaluating the rail mass transportation systems and pedestrian transportation with the concept of accessibility to provide sustainable development in cities. The sample of the present research consists of tram stops in Konya city center. In order to define the quality of service and the problems encountered by the passengers on the pedestrian access to the tram stops, a survey questionnaire was conducted with those who preferred trams for their trips in addition to observations conducted in the sample area. Problems encountered in pedestrian accessibility in tram stops were defined with the results of the observations and the questionnaire findings, and suggestions were developed to provide sustainable urban development by improving the performance of tram lines.

While technology and urbanism design the way of life of today, the concept of “aging” also rises as an important factor in the future of cities. Although Turkey has a young population today, it is in countries that are aging with the prolongation of their life span and the decreasing fertility rate. According to this, the rapidly rising urbanization (65% in 2000, 92% in 2015) and the demographic structure of the change process should be evaluated for the interaction of urban economy. One of the notable strategies of this interaction is the concept of “active aging”. Active aging defines a process by which individuals can actively take part in social, economic and cultural activities throughout the aging process. Thus, active aging individuals can also participate in the activities they desire within their possibilities. The concept of active aging, that is developed by the WHO towards the end of the 1990s, defines the process of maximizing the opportunities for health, security, participation to social and economic life for these people in order to improve quality of life as people age. In this point, small and medium sized cities which are more widely preferred as living place and local economic potentials are emerging as an important tool. In this study, the concepts of aging and active aging are explained in the process of urbanization at first. Subsequently, The demographic characteristics of Turkey and Balikesir Province and a field survey conducted in the central district (Altıeylül and Karesi settlements) sample is examined. Finally, an evaluation and a system proposal that care about mitigating the effects of the economic aging will be put forward.

One of the most important indicators of quality of life is the well-planned housing and the environment, which increases user satisfaction. The uncontrolled and irregular urban development adversely affects the elements that directly affect the user satisfaction, such as residential use, physical and climatic comfort characteristics of the residential environment, accessibility to urban common use and social reinforcement areas, security and neighborhood. For this reason, it is important to know the development of urban space and the built environment characteristics in the evaluation of housing-housing environment satisfaction. An irregular and uncontrolled spatial development is observed in the central district of Kırklareli, which we have chosen as the study area. Urban space changes continue to be the demolition and reconstruction of buildings in single parcels with differentiations of building heights and construction arrangements in many parts of the city. It is important to know the relationship between the built environment characteristics of the central district of Kırklareli and the satisfaction levels of the users, and to determine the plan needs and demands. In this context, the aim of the research; to find out the interaction between built environment features and user satisfaction of the housing-housing environment and user expectations in Kırklareli city center. It is believed that the findings of the data obtained from the analysis and survey evaluations in place can define various problems related to the physical conditions offered by the housing and housing environment within the scope of the study area in a multidimensional framework extending to the residential, residential environment, building island, city, region and upper scales.

This article is based on the researches carried out in İzmir Selçuk in May 2015 and in Bursa İznik in September 2016. Cartographic redrawing
method, which is a quantitative method, and commented walk method were used together in the researches to examine the change of cities.
While the two methods are used together, it is aimed to examine the consequences of the commented walk method in detail due to the fact that
this method is never used in the field of urbanism, however, it has made significant contributions to the researches. Therefore, the aim of this
article is to discuss the place of commented walk method in urban studies, to contribute to the literature by revealing which themes the method
brings to the fore and how it benefits to understand the change of the city. This article aims to discuss how the commented walk method is used in these researches and the contribution of this method to urbanism instead of explaining the change of cities over the years. Throughout the article, first of all, the findings obtained through quantitative methods have been examined and the transformation of the cities has been explained in detail. Then, the thematic headings of the commented walk method, which is the main subject of the article, is revealed, the findings are discussed and as a result, the contribution of this method in a research that tries to understand the change of cities is revealed.

There are many traditional settlements and buildings in the world that are produced with public experience and determined to have environmentalist qualifications. None the less, it is known that most of the buildings constructed in recent years have contributed to the increase of environmental problems. Initiatives to reduce environmental damage have produced many methods for environmental assessment of settlements and buildings. One of these methods is the LEED certification system created by the USGBC. In spite of all the current approaches to environmental problems, in many regions of the world, the buildings and settlements that have been built under the guidance of a common culture for centuries are quite successful in terms of user, environment and life cycle, and these designs which do not have a certain designer are sustainable, have design features such as energy efficient, healthy in respect to its users and environment. However, it is possible that specific details of these successful designs in traditional architecture cannot find the appropriate equivalents in the criteria of current building evaluation and certification systems or that the score weights of the systems do not show parallelism with regional conditions. For these reasons, it is seen that these design approaches and the rational solutions created in line are not used in contemporary architectural design processes. The aim of this study is to examine the traditional buildings and settlements that contain successful solutions in the use of limited materials, systems and resources under the credit of “Materials and Resources” in LEED v.3 and v.4.1. In this context, a comprehensive “survey” of sustainable environmental design and vernacular architectural heritage was conducted for the review and “LEED v.3 and v.4.1 Materials and Resources” credits were evaluated through the selected House C. As a result of the evaluation; environmental friendly House C in Diyarbakır which is thought to have positive effects on the level of resource consumption and waste generation, the health of the user and the environment, is assumed to receive a high score when evaluated with an appropriate assessment method, was not able to score. Development of prerequisites and credits for the evaluation of traditional buildings designed with local and cultural information and able to meet the needs of their users in both LEED and other green building certification systems in this context; will be more efficient and effective in terms of preservation and sustainability of vernacular architectural heritage.

In this study, it is aimed to develop a design-decision making model which helps the building element detail designers to create design alternatives according to the design factors and determine the most appropriate solution by evaluating the alternatives. In the development of the model, the general design-decision-making process phases (analysis-synthesis-evaluation) adopted by various theorists looking at design in terms of system approach were followed as a method. In the analysis phase, the preliminary information obtained from the previous design phases is analyzed and design factors that can affect the detail design are determined. In the synthesis phase, alternative detail design solutions are developed according to the design factors and the relations between them. Thus, feasible detail design alternatives that can meet the design objectives of the building element can be obtained. In the evaluation phase, by using an appropriate evaluation method, feasible alternatives are evaluated according to design factors and the most suitable detail design alternatives are selected. The developed design-decision-making model allows designers to use his intuitive power and creativity during the creation of a detail design alternative and simplifies the understanding and control of decisions both in the creation of alternatives and in the evaluation process. Automating the model and integrating it with BIM systems will eliminate the process length and time loss, enabling more efficient use of the model.

Deriner Dam and its surroundings; geographical location, morphological characteristics, climate, vegetation cover, traditional cultural features and diversity, has an important potential for recreational purposes. Deriner dam lake which has a reconstructed physical structure and its surrounding firstly, the current situation should be put forward natural, cultural and historical richness of both recreational and tourism aspects of the use, promotion and ecological continuity. For this purpose, SWOT analysis was performed to reveal the current situation. Then, AHS technique was used to determine the strategies for the development and effective use of the factors resulting from SWOT analysis. As a result of SWOT analysis has been put forward, 9 strengths, 7 weaknesses, 9 opportunity opportunities and 4 threat elements of Deriner Dam Lake and surrounding. Considering these SWOT analysis results, 3 main and 7 sub-strategies were determined.

Apartments thought to be one of the architectural heritages of the 20th century; it was built intensely in our country after World War II. The aim of the article is to establish the specific values that need to protect the apartments built on the European Coast of the Bosphorus and to create data for the conservation work to be carried out by experts on these buildings. After the World War II, in the floor apartments shaped by the social, socio-cultural, economic, architectural and technological developments in our country; old, design, style, traditional structure-material, standardization, personal memory, residential stock, functionality, environmentalism, group-plural-homogeneity and urban identity are required to be preserved as cultural assets. The architectural, urban, socio-cultural and economic gains that our country will provide through the special
values of the apartment buildings are explained.