English Summaries

---

Non-Structural Component Issues in Buildings and Earthquake
by Gül Yücel - Görün Arun

Earthquake is a geological natural disaster. In many regions of the world there are destructive results of earthquakes which also include social, environmental, economic losses and cause important damages.
The non-structural components of a building do not belong to the static carrier system of a building but include the inner partitions, fittings and technical equipment. Architectural components are the covering system of the building, inner partitions, front materials, chimneys and staircases. The mechanical and electrical groups are heating systems, cooling mechanisms, generators, fire pumps, water storage system, communication equipment, main transformers, elevators, shafts and channels.
The level of the non-structural components is defined evaluating the performance of the electrical, mechanical and fire security systems, pipes, coverings, ceilings, partitions, lighting, and furniture. The structure of the building can be firm and safe enough against the earthquake, but the damage caused by the non-structural components can affect the safety of the users. In this article the issues of the non-structural components of a building are evaluated from such a point of view.



The Legacy from the Ottoman Empire to the Architects of the Republic:
Problems in Architecture Organization and the Failure of Professional Institutionalization
by Oya Şenyurt

As of the mid 19th century when the ideological aspect of architecture was taken into consideration and the principles of design were perceived, the effects of many styles worldwide and the philosophies that generated those styles resonated also in the architectural environment of the Republic of Turkey after the Ottoman Empire was destroyed. This ensured a variety of styles in the country as of the mid 19th century. Architecture has always been the most important means with the strength to represent the ruling power on these lands in the Ottoman Empire or Republic of Turkey. However, could the authors, who were not always architects with diplomas, become subjects with representation powers that were as strong as their structures? This issue is questionable.
In this article, inter-relations of the authors in Turkey and their relations between the ruling powers, rather than the author-construction relations, will be questioned. The problems of failing to institutionalize in architecture as of around the last periods of the Ottoman Empire and the reflections of these problems on the Republic period are important. What are the principles of institutionalization and becoming an organization? And how many of these principles were implemented by the architects in Turkey? The fact that the architects of the Late Ottoman Period and Republic Period united but failed to constitute an organization caused the following issues: financial problems of many architects could not be solved; some architects with ‘favored status’ emerged and thus, all these facts caused the union to become a place where individualism came to the foreground and the union gradually weakened its sanction power.
The fact that a fundamental consensus was not formed between individualism and general interests of the organization caused the failure of professional institutionalization and brought the interest relations of individuals to the foreground. It is interesting that even though the architects managed to unite in various periods, they did not take steps to form a series of rules to create an ‘organizational’ criterion and to ensure ‘institutionalization’ by implementing such rules for a long time.
The fact that individual actions overshadowed the decisions made by the organization caused the architects to become individuals who failed to act collectively, and to be treated according to their closeness to or distance from the central administration. The problem of foreign architects from the Ottoman Empire to the Republic Period, lack of professional consensus, and the failure in separation of the areas of those who practice their profession are also significant problems.
In the article, it was attempted to determine the historic positions of people who were given the title ‘architect’ in Turkey; the difficulties faced by the architects during their attempts to become an organization; and thus, the problems pertaining to the architectural profession which could not be institutionalized for a long time.



Round-Table Meeting
“Urban Transformation” in Istanbul
Deniz İncedayı – Mete Tapan – Güven Birkan – İclal Dinçer – Aykut Köksal – Mücella Yapıcı

Today Istanbul is facing a rapid urban transformation process. There are many urban renewal projects on the agenda which are under debate as well. Their approach to the contemporary scientific criteria and their methods are questioned in many platforms and academic media.
Organizing this round-table meeting, our Publishing Board aimed to discuss these projects in a multidimensional way with the specialists of the subject. The Fener-Balat rehabilitation Project, the Tarlabaşı urban renewal and the concept of “transformation” are interpreted within their many factors, focusing on the state of the architect and architecture in this process.



Sports – City – Citizen
by Emre Zeytinoğlu

The relation between city and sports is not only ascribing some functions like racing, show or health to a city. The mentioned relation is above all a project of ‘creating a citizen’. And also such a project intends to establish an identity of society. We have to be aware of the fact that the relation between city and sports develops in line with the government’s apprehensions. For example, from the ancient Greek cities to the boy-schools in 19th century and to the scout camps of Nazis in the 20th century, all utopias of government-identity cover also sports. Therefore, we may conclude that the citizen demands the city to be designed with spaces providing sports opportunities. However such a demand actually stems from an obligation that the government utopias assign on him/her. So, the citizen with his/her willing of sports intervenes to the design of his/her urban environment, and the government prepares the citizen to this intervention and provides him/her the necessary education. Thus, sport is social suggestions of the citizen and the city, reciprocally.



Public Sport Areas and Anatolian Gymnasions in Urban Life in Archaic Period – An Overview
by Nezih Başgelen

Physical training and sport had a significant role in the urban life during the archaic period. Specific public spaces –gymnasions– were assigned for boys and young men where they could run, ride horse, box and wrestle together with a trainer. Although the gymnasions (built by the urban government) were usually aimed to grow up good soldiers in, one of the aims were to achieve a perfect accordance between the physical and mental training. Philosophy, literature and music were also taught in those places where naked young men did physical training and which also included public libraries. Thus, they were the centers of mental training as well as physical one.
In time gymnasions developed and became indispensable places in the archaic period urban life and some structures were also added to them such as stoas, public baths, dressing halls, storehouses, classes, speech halls etc. The palaestra (wrestling area) was an inseparable and the most characteristic part of the gymnasion. In large cities there were two or more gymnasions together with a palaestra.
In the article, the typical gymnasions of the west Anatolia such as the ones in Assos (Behramkale), Pergamon (Bergama), Priene (Güllübahçe), Miletos (Balat) ve Stratonikeia (Eskihisar) are dealt with. They have simpler plan characteristics different from the gymnasions of Greece and its islands.



(Is) Healthy Head from a Healthy City (?)
by Mehmet Rıfat Akbulut

Sport and the city is a highly neglected topic in the literature of urban studies and urban planning with regard of several major ones such as urban history, urban economics, urban sociology, urban systems and models, planning theory, urban transportation and infrastructure, etc. In other words the relation between sport and the city has never gathered enough interest as other subjects had among scholars, professionals and experts of urban disciplines. This is true not only for Turkish literature but anywhere. How these two subject matters should be considered or should be joined in an academic debate and appraisal? Meaning of sport and its reflection to physical space through location of sport buildings may be a good approach to discuss the subject matter. This is the way the topic is considered and debated here.
‘Healthy head is from a healthy body’, can we generalize this Latin saying for also cities? Connections between a healthy person and a healthy society and a healthy body and a healthy city may be more profound and direct than we may expect since cities may be considered as the body of a society. Therefore, a healthy city may be a prerequisite of healthy society?



Life of Tomorrow
by M. Bülent Onur

Today the number of the societies which are aware of the environmental issues, sustainable development and keen on the integration of the technology and life are raising rapidly. These changes and the fact that the market offers the customers affordable prices, trigger the changes in our every day life. We are towards a period which is more and more depending on new technologies. We are also becoming ‘smart societies’ with plenty of rapid changes even without being prepared for them. As individuals using these new technologies we produce new forms of life.
Almost everything on earth has become a matter of technology. Parallel to the concepts such as ‘communication’ and ‘technological dependence’ the area of ‘smart buildings’, ‘smart societies’, ‘health, sport and recreation’ is producing new parameters for the design process, creating the derivatives of the ‘new life forms’. This article deals with the effects of this phenomenon and discusses the new approaches in design in the same context.



A Sociological View to the Sport Practice in the Open Urban Area
by Mahmut Sert

The concepts of ‘urbanism’ and ‘urbanity’ are the key words of the modern society of today. Turkey has developed an approach of urban renewal and transformation taking the west as a model in the process of its urbanism. Today 70 % of the Turkish population is living in cities. But the social facts and factors in Turkey’s urban context are very different from the model taken from the west. Our cities include both, the urban and rural features at the same time and at the same place.
Besides its basic needs such as habitat, working, living, transporting etc. the urban population in the cities is in search of a new ‘urban identity’. In that frame not only the buildings but as well as the practices of urban life become instruments of integration to this urban identity.
The modern codes of the western culture do not fit the Turkish urban process in a satisfying level. On the other hand the consume policies of globalization target to create a new urban identity using its own methods. In that context the sport activities in the open urban air, in the parks and gardens of the city try to convince the citizens that they are living in a modern ‘western’ culture without questioning the social and cultural issues that lie behind.



Evaluating the Open and Indoor Recreation and Sport Areas
by Turgay Turan

Recreation is one of the basic needs of today’s modern society. Human beings use the open air and indoor sport centres and places to fulfil their needs for sport and health. There is a variety of such areas and institutions answering every level of social and economical possibilities. These institutions, private or public, can be evaluated from the point of urban and architectural design and be discussed in that context as well. In this article the issues of the sport areas (open and indoor) in the urban space are seen from that point of view and it is tried to summarise the main problems of that kind of spatial organisations in the urban context.



Sports and a City
by Necati Güler

Some cities are identified with some sports. As the name of the city is pronounced that sport comes to mind or when talking about a branch of sport the first thing to be thought is the name o a city. There is such a relation between the city of Antalya and football. Speaking of the relation of commercialized sport and urban environment the author explains how a city full of historical and cultural values has changed in terms of theme and physical environment.



Design Practice on Urban Space
by İnci Şahin Olgun - Bahar Aksel Enşici

This paper shares the outcomes of ‘Spatial Analyzing Techniques’ studio at City and Regional planning in Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. The aim of the studio is to support creativity and give a notion of urban space and designing techniques to planning students, who are familiar with upper scales such as 1/25.000-1/1000. The studio focuses on a different part of Istanbul every year and starts with detailed spatial analyzes; in fact the main idea is to encourage students to develop small scale designs. After understanding the urban space in a wide extent, students define the problems and needs of the area. Individual projects driven by different conceptual approaches, define each student’s own solution in the urban design scale.
Examples in the text are from Beylerbeyi, a historical housing area on the Bosporus. The are in order: A New Park in Beylerbeyi ‘High Park’, ‘Aqua Pass’, ‘Antique Theather’, ‘Blue-Green Beylerbeyi’ Square Design, ‘Moving Subsurface’, ‘Beylerbeyi Kemerağzı Park’, ‘Beylerbeyi Watching Terrace’.



Forum of Tykhe, Daughter of Okeanos and Tethys, in Istanbul: Forum Constantini II
by Fırat Düzgüner

In a former article we discussed the words of Zosimus about the circle shaped forum of Constantinus. The forum is founded on the myth of goddess Tykhe, the daughter of Okeanos and Tethys, for which Ions and Greeks say “Agahta Tykhe”, a saying for speeding someone on his/her way. In the passage (lanua) blessed by two churches, Hagia Eirene and Mega Ekklesia on the north and south of the forum he depicts the sunrise (Helios-the place where sun rises-Far East, old city-Byzantion) when the emperor leaves his palace Magnaura and enters the forum; his pass from the old city to Constantinopolis on the exit of forum; and the sunset (the place where sun sets-Ethiopia in Africa) when he is back in the evening. This building most probably became a model for the circle shaped forum (St. Peter’s Square, Piazza di San Pietro) of Vatikan (Nero). When Okeanos and Tethys disputed, Okeanos caused flooding on the rivers (the Flood of Noah) which resulted in great tectonic events. They made peace when the water drew back and rivers reappeared (the end of the Flood). However Istanbul suffered two great earthquakes in 361 and 447, periods of Constantinus II and Theodosius II, which damaged the Hagia Sophia and city walls of Marmara. Most probably the Okeanos shaped forum of Constantinus was also damaged by those earthquakes. So Tethys, whose rancor didn’t pass by as a woman, took her revenge on Tykhe, who supported her father during the dispute, by blasting the forum.



Protecting the Ideational Ownership Rights of the Architects
by Z. Gönül Balkır

Architecture is an art of spatial organization. Besides using the data and multi-dimensional information of different areas and sources it also needs the knowledge of legal area. The practice of architecture uses the lawful obligations and organizations in order to organize and fulfill the rights of the public and the client. The architect has to satisfy the needs and demands of the public or its client and is not free as an artist of the fine arts. On the other hand, the product of architecture, as a piece of art, is also supported in the legal frame by special laws such as the ‘Construction Law’, the ‘Protection Law’, the ‘Ideational Ownership Law’ etc. The legitimate context and legal issues cause a lot of discussions and interpretations in the field of architecture and its practice. To protect the professional rights of the architect can only be possible by developing special laws and by supporting the importance of the idea of ideational ownership.



Ahi Celebi Mosque from Past till Today:
Proposals for Restitution
by Ahmet Ersen - K. Kutgün Eyüpgiller - Tuğba Barlık

IAhi Çelebi Mosque is located on the coast of Golden Horn at Eminönü, Istanbul, neighboring the Zindan Han from the west. The founder of the mosque was Ahi Çelebi who lived in the 15th century. The construction date of the building is unknown due to the lack of any inscription but estimated to be 1499-1500. The mosque is mentioned in the official documents, which cover the work of Architect Sinan, about a restoration work after a fire. Ahi Çelebi Mosque is made up of two spaces, a domed prayers’ hall supported by four arches and a portico covered with six domes. Prayers’ hall is enlarged on the east and west by narrow spaces which are covered with brick vaults. The only minaret of the mosque is adjacent to the main hall on the west.
The building has undergone many interventions since 1499, the estimated date of construction. Due to this, many construction techniques are visible in the different parts of the mosque. The mosque has survived two fires, in 1539 which demolished the complete building and in 1653. It is also possible to think that the building was affected by the fires in 1554, 1795, 1818 and 1852. In the 1990 restoration work led by Pious Foundation Directorate, plasters and the lead coverings of the domes were removed, but the work could not be realized for a long period of time. After the preparation of the restoration project in 2004, implantation work started and the restoration work was completed in 2006.



An Example of Reuse of Early Republican Period Architectural Heritage:
Rehabilitation Project for Çayırova Technical Horticulture School
by Elif Özlem Aydın (Oral) - Reyhan Çömlekçioğlu

Çayırova Technical Horticulture School (1943) is one of the training models of early Republican Period (1923-1950) modernization project in agriculture field. Training role of the school came to an end in 1990 and the complex converted to Seed Certification Test Directorate. The architectural organization of the school includes the spaces which have training, socialize and sharing production functions that meet the expectation of young Republic. Some of these units became out of use, because of the functional change in 1990. In 2007 a big part of the unused units of the complex has been appropriated to Gebze Institute of Technology. Considering the memorial, cultural, economical value and adaptive reuse potential of the units, a rehabilitation project has been developed for the complex using architectural survey data. Adaptive re-use projects have been prepared for two units as the first stage of the project. The aim of this study is to present the phases of the project in methodological framework.



Elderliness and Active Ageing
by Osman Tutal - Aylin Çiftçi

The Research Agenda on Ageing for the Twenty-First Century is designed to support the implementation of the Madrid International Plan for Action on Ageing, adopted by the Second World Assembly on Ageing in Spain, 2002. The Research Agenda identifies the priorities for policy related research and data collection. Simultaneously, it encourages researchers to pursue studies in policy related areas of ageing where the findings may have practical and realistic applications.
This study is based on active ageing, which is the process of optimizing opportunities for health, participation and security in order to enhance quality of life as people get aged. Active ageing allows people to realize their potential for physical, social, and mental well-being throughout the life course and to participate in society, while providing them with adequate protection, security and care when they need. The word ‘active’ refers to continuing participation in social, economic, cultural, spiritual and civic affairs, not just the ability to be physically active or to participate in the labour force. Older people who retire from work, ill or live with disabilities can remain active contributors to their families, peers, communities and nations. Active ageing aims to extend healthy life expectancy and quality of life for all people as they get aged. ‘Health’ refers to physical, mental and social well being as expressed in the WHO definition of health. Maintaining autonomy and independence for the older people is a key goal in the policy framework for active ageing.