With its 2500 years of historical heritage, Istanbul is situated on a privileged location at the crossroads of two continents. Further to this unique characteristic, the city comprises a wide palette of natural and cultural treasures like the Historic Peninsula, the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus. Since the 1970s, part of that heritage has been listed and is thus under protection. However, since the second half of the past century in particular, Istanbul has become a magnet for investments and individuals, with the result that these heritage sites are now targeted under an ongoing pressure of rapid urban growth and urban regeneration. This report attempts to provide an overview of Turkey’s conservation history, by placing an emphasis on risks in the planning of conservation areas in Istanbul. It is based on a study conducted by the authors in 2005-2006, in which all of Istanbul’s conservation areas were documented, digitalized and transferred into the Strategic Master Plan of Istanbul, prepared to a 1/100,000 scale. This paper provides a spatial and quantitative analysis of the city’s natural, archeological, historical, and urban conservation areas, all of which have been listed since the 1970s - when Turkey’s conservation legislation was expanded beyond the scale of single buildings. It also attempts to shed light on the problematic processes concerning Istanbul’s world heritage sites.

Since the 1980’s, the urban regime theory has been one of the most widely used theoretical frameworks in the field of the analysis of urban politics. Seeking a synthesis between the pluralist and structuralist approaches, it focuses on semi-formal and cross-sectoral networks of relationships in cities that are formed around a particular agenda by actors who have a shared sense of purpose. By doing so, they bring together complementary resources and gain the “capacity to govern” in cities. The aim of this article was to discuss theoretically whether the urban regime theory can be applied in the context of the urbanization process in Turkey. Coalitions being formed by different groups of the society and playing a significant role in the urbanization process of the country show some similarities with the regime concept provided by the theory. From this point of view, the theory seems to be appropriate; however, in order to avoid concept-stretching, some points of concern that remind the researcher of the core of the theory should always be kept in mind.

In Turkey, more energy is consumed than the average energy consumption in the world, environmental policies are ignored, greenhouse emission levels are high, issues related to global climate change are disregarded, agricultural land and forestry are destroyed, and the ecological footprint increased; thus, it has become an obligation to take significant precautions. Ecological and technological design of new comfortable, healthy, environmentfriendly, minimum carbon-consuming, self-sufficient settlements contribute to urban sustainability. In this article, selected examples from around the world are analyzed for the future of sustainable cities by putting forward ecological and technological approaches.

An adaptation action to re-use has social, cultural, economic, and ecological benefits. When re-use is being analyzed with the sustainability concept, it can be said that the contribution level especially to social and cultural sustainability of the new function would be high in sustainability of function and also in ensuring continuity of the building’s life. We performed a space study on the historic Millet Hamam in Afyonkarahisar city center to investigate the contributions of the cultural entity, which has been adapted to reuse as a district and cultural home, to social and cultural sustainability. In this study, the components of social and cultural sustainability are defined under two main titles as (i) social, cultural, communal components and (ii) components related to adaptation to the building and the new function. Survey, observation and interview processes were used. The contribution of the new function to social and cultural sustainability was analyzed using surveys applied to the users of the district and cultural home. The results were imported as indicating the success level related to the social, cultural and communal components and adaptation to reuse components. With this study, we show the practical benefits of alternative use for the baths (hamams) in Anatolia, which can no longer serve their original purpose.

System improvement can be used to increase productivity and solve problems in official activities. For the best outcome, the improvement must have a scientific and systematic base. The system elements blend together for collective goals. They interact with each other to realize a special aim. System improvement consists of the analysis of the following: the work flow-chart, place use, official objects use, the form used for official activities, staff use, official materials use, time use, and costs. In order to solve system problems or to improve the system, the managers or the system analyzers use simplifications and/or idealizations in the problem, and/or in analyzing the inputs and outputs of the system. A suitable communication is another important issue for productivity. For a harmony between buildings with a long use life and for modular organizations, a flexible architectural planning is needed. Thus, the design should not prevent rational work conditions and should satisfy the changeable needs of the office. A model to improve the management buildings used by private work sector is therefore proposed in this study. The model is beneficial for the designer in clearly indicating which steps have to be followed in such designs. The model can be used as a program or a checklist for designing the management buildings in the private work sector. It is hoped that this model will serve as an easy guide for designers.

Hospital designs aim to obtain the lowest possible construction, maintenance and operational costs together with patient satisfaction, comfort and privacy. To satisfy these needs, the efficient design of nursing unit areas becomes considerably important. This study was thus conducted to analyze planimetric design efficiency of nursing unit floors by defining certain floor areas and floor area ratios. To test existing nursing unit floors, quantitative assessments were noted in regard to their planimetric efficiency: the utility value of the built floor area, both in terms of its allocation to patient space (served), support (serving) and circulation space and the relative proportions of these. Results were presented in a comparative table. Of the 15 hospital floor plans analyzed, five satisfied minimum space requirements for patient areas, while another five were in the optimum range for circulation areas. Two were defined as the least efficient, having the lowest patient-to-circulation area ratio.

In Turkey today, with the increase in availability of natural gas, detached heating devices are being preferred over existing heating devices. Due to the lack of chimneys in existing buildings in Turkey or the presence of chimneys that fail to conform to standards, the use of C-type balanced chimney devices has increased. C-type balanced chimney devices take the combustion air directly from the outside by a specific air duct as detached heating equipment, with enclosed combustion chambers and a specific waste gas exhaust duct, and they are ventilated independently of the field of equipment. Because of their essentiality, the use of a chimney is not required in these devices; the waste gas is exhausted through walls, windows, doors, or balconies. The natural gas is a clean fossil fuel that requires no storage in buildings and is easy to use. However, water vapor, carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides are produced by the combustion of natural gas. It is widely known that high concentrations of these products can have some adverse effects on humans such as dizziness, headaches and nausea. As a result, the waste products could recoil through wall openings on the façade to create unhealthy indoor environments that could be dangerous to human health. Therefore, the importance of standards and regulations about the positional arrangements of the waste gas exhaust ducts of C-type balanced chimney devices on building façades is increasing. In this research, we analyze the studies of the Institution of Turkish Standards, Chamber of Mechanical Engineers, gas distribution companies, municipalities and authorized firms and compare the criteria to determine the necessary application method. According to our comparison of the references accessed, the criteria are not uniform.