Today, it is widely accepted that communities need to collaborate when making decisions on behalf of the individual, society and the environment. Hence, planners engaged in participatory initiatives need to understand how best to design and carry out a participatory planning process. In order to answer this question, all factors affecting participatory processes need to be determined, since only then can steps be taken to design and execute the best participatory process for each stakeholder in every unique context. By focusing particularly on the factors affecting participatory processes at interactional level, this study aims to determine the socio-psychological dimensions of participatory planning processes, the aim being to bring to light some hitherto unexplained factors involved and thus help to improve these processes. Based on previous discussions in participation literature, the ultimate aim of this study is to provide subsequent researchers and those involved in participatory planning practices with a framework on the socio-psychological dimensions, namely communication, power, attribution, relationships and persuasion, of participatory processes at interactional level.

Rather than by any personal or mental features, a child’s behaviour is shaped by the spaces he/she occupies, namely his/her physical environment. In this context, urban open spaces such as the immediate surroundings of the home, the school garden and playground, all of which constitute the child’s physical environment and the spaces the child interacts in, are of great importance in the formation of the child as a member of society, and his/her socialization and development. In light of the role it plays in child development, making the physical environment more livable for children has become crucial, particularly in northern European countries, and various studies, projects and practices are being realised in these countries. Foremost among these studies are Child Friendly City initiatives. Other studies and practices may be analysed under headings such as street, school garden, playgrounds and the child’s transportation between school and home. In this study, the aim is to highlight the importance of physical environment for children, and, in this context, to put together a literature study related to applied and on-going studies and practices around the world in the effort to make the physical environment more livable for children.

City may be defined as the artificial creation of communal life in a natural environment, made up of complexes of buildings that cater to human needs. Urbanization then is a process that forms a chain of events over time. It may be said that city itself is a process, when viewed as whole. In this article, this formation process is examined taking Nicosia on the island of Cyprus as the example. The article was prompted by a number of factors, namely similarities between the walled city in the centre of Nicosia and its equivalent in European medieval settlements, the fact that Nicosia’s walled city has survived to the present relatively intact, and its lack of mention in available sources. The article examines Nicosia’s walled city in the context of findings on the medieval cities of Europe. The information on Nicosia city in the medieval period and 13th-15th centuries was taken from available sources, and interpreted by analyzing the physical structure of the settlement. In the introduction, an overall perspective is given of the historical period of Nicosia city. This is followed by a detailed description of the medieval period and 13th-15th centuries of the city. The article concludes with an evaluation and comments on the the physical formation of Nicosia city at the close of 15th century.

A wide-ranging study was conducted in order to develop an applied soundscape approach for the evaluation, conservation and rehabilitation of acoustic comfort in urban areas. The steps taken in developing the approach proposal were; deriving objective and subjective evaluations of the sound environment via field and laboratory studies, statistically analysing the data, and correlating the results. Field studies concerning urban acoustic comfort are time-consuming, and the aim of this research was to investigate how the processes and the steps involved (obtaining, gathering, arranging and archiving sound environment data) may be accelerated and made more systematic in order to reduce the time spent on fieldwork, and benefit the practical application of findings. The aim of this paper is to explain the steps taken in the statistical analysis of the study. Therefore, using the data from field and laboratory studies, 1) comparisons were made between the on site questionnaire survey and listening tests in laboratory, 2) variance and t-test analyses were conducted between the semantic differential test on site and the jury test in the laboratory, and 3) a simple regression analysis was made between the tests on two different environments and sound quality metrics.

The deeply-rooted commercial structure tradition of Kayseri is based on the city’s constant and centuries-old role in international trade and commerce. Throughout the Seljuk period, Kayseri’s bazaars were located outside the city walls, in the immediate vicinity of the city. Building of commercial structures in the citadel itself and the centre of the city began during Ottoman times, the period in which the city’s traditional commercial structure began to appear and grow. In 1497, the Sanjak Bey of Kayseri, Mustafa bin Abdulhay, constructed the “Kayseri Hançerli Sultan Vakfı Bedesteni”, surrounded by 38 stores, and thus began the establishment of the commercial fabric of the city. Over time, the Bedesten has changed both physically and functionally. These changes have been for the worse and have led to the Bedesten and its surroundings being defined as an “area of declining trade”. Factors that have negatively affected the structure’s physical make-up include environment, natural disasters, improper restoration, deliberate corruption, and haphazard changes made by users. Economic factors playing a role in its decline include changes to its original function as a ‘shopping’ centre, its traditional customer base, and the type and quality of goods traded there. The Bedesten is discussed here under four headings; Introduction, Bedestens as Ottoman Commercial Structures, Kayseri Hançerli Sultan Wakf Bedesten, Evaluation, and Conclusions.