In addition to injuries and loss of life, natural disasters also damage the buildings and living spaces where people spend most of their time. Structural damage occurring after disasters interferes with housing, health, education and infrastructure. Education is one of the most important factors to consider. Education should not be interfered with during the temporary construction process. It is essential to build temporary educational facilities as quickly as possible in order to provide continuing education. Also, in order to reduce waste, it is essential that the temporary units provided are able to be used again for another disaster. The site, materials and structural system should be selected and applied properly. For this reason, the notion of sustainability should be considered throughout the entire process - site selection, design, production, construction, usage and post-usage processes of post-disaster educational buildings. In this study, the examination of the process of post-disaster sustainable temporary educational buildings will be carried out in order to establish post-disaster temporary educational building in accordance with sustainability criteria. This will allow students who are victims of disasters to continue their education and contribute the economy, while also protecting the country’s natural resources.

Due to rising competition in the international construction market, competitive strategies are becoming ever more important. This study aims to identify the level of importance of a variety of competitive strategies in construction companies to create a theoretical framework for competitive strategies in international construction business. In the questionnaire titled: ‘Identifying the Parameters of Strategic Performance Comparison Tool in International Construction Companies’, professionals were asked the level of importance of parameters in acquiring a competitive edge in international markets for construction companies. 82 people who currently work for international construction companies responded the questionnaire. The Relative Importance Index (RII) of competitive strategies in construction companies was calculated using the survey results. The construct was redesigned through the Pearson Correlation and principal components analysis (PCA). The results of the PCA denoted that the construct of competitive strategies in construction companies can be explained by three main factors in sync with Porter’s three generic competitive strategy types: F1 Cost Leadership in Construction, F2 Specialization and Focus and F3 Differentiation in Construction and Company Resources. The analysis results show that the competitive strategies related to “Differentiation in Construction and Company Resources” have a greater importance level, while the diversification strategies have a lower importance level. Which means specialization in some type of construction activity and focus on a specific group of customers is more effective than diversification strategies in gaining a competitive advantage in the market.

Shopping streets are integral parts of public spaces in traditional shopping areas of Central Business Districts (CBD). Furthermore, as modern shopping venues, shopping centers offer advantages for modern lifestyles with spacious shopping areas, variety of commercial and social activities, and economic value of their investments. These advantages act in favor of shopping centers and improve the level of shopping street social sustainability and its relevant concepts. The aim of this study is to analyze the main shopping streets of Ankara, using the concepts of social sustainability. In this study, these concepts, such as locality, identity, vitality, viability, sense of place, conviviality, meaning and local characteristics of the shopping streets are investigated. For the first time, the retail unit locations in Ankara, their brands and their business types, are illustrated on thematic land use maps using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) software. Next, population activities and consumer spatial behavior are observed and marked on maps that are also referred to as social sustainability maps. The results of the study can be useful in formulating strategies within the framework of social sustainability, which is a relatively new concept.

The personal boundaries that an individual experiences can be figured out based on the relationship between dwelling, working and socializing as the three main axis of everyday life. The boundaries that are illustrated as the concept “personal reach” in this study, are being formulated in the influence of several parameters such as urbanization, transportation and housing. Focusing on transportation as one of the most distinctive parameters, the transformation of the transportation systems and vehicles in time are being investigated through the case study of Istanbul in the scope of this enquiry. According to this context the transformative effects of transportation on the concept is being explored and the change of an individual’s personal reach patterns are surveyed. In order to clarify the alternation mentioned, urban scale maps explaining the progress of the transportation systems are prepared to convey this progress visually. In the process of Istanbul’s urbanization in time, early years of the republican era emerge as a distinguishing period in that transportation and the city co-evolve together. Accordingly, focusing on the first years of the republican era and the present days of Istanbul in particular, the survey presents a reading on the two eras’ transportation opportunities regarding the personal reach concept through the maps configurated.