Kentsel Mekan Sürekliliği / Süreksizliği Ve Güvenlik İhtiyacı İlişkisi

Abstract

Kentin oluşum ve biçimlenişinin, yüzyıllar süren tarihsel sürekliliğin bir sonucu olduğu; kenti, zaman içinde süregelen bir birikim ve katmanlaşmanın oluşturduğu söylenebilir. Benzer şekilde kentin oluşumunda mekansal bir sürekliliğin varlığından, tarih boyunca binaların ortak bir anlayışla inşa edilerek, yanyana dizilişleriyle bir düzeni ve sürekliliği oluşturduklarından bahsedilebilir. Kentsel mekan, hem mekanda, hem zamanda, hem de kullanımda bir sürekliliğin sonucudur. Diğer taraftan, kentte başlayan değişimlerin kentsel mekanın mekansal, zamansal, algısal ve kullanımsal olarak dönüşümüne neden olduğu gözlemlenmektedir. Yirminci yüzyılın başından beri bazı belirtileri görülmeye başlayan, etkisi 1950'lerden sonra özellikle hissedilmeye başlayan bu değişim, etkilerini kentsel mekan üzerinde de göstermektedir. Dönüşümün ortaya çıkardığı en önemli sonuçlardan biri kentsel mekanın süreksizleşmesi olarak tanımlanabilecek bir değişimdir. Kentsel mekanın süreksizleşmesi mekansal, zamansal ve kullanımsal boyutlarıyla izlenebilir. Bu süreksizleşme; ekonomik, politik, kültürel ve sosyal alandaki değişmelerin yaraşıra, iletişim, ulaşım ve bilgi teknolojilerindeki gelişmelerin bir sonucudur. Tüm bu faktörler kentsel mekanın oluşturulmasında ve kullanımında çok köklü değişikliklere neden olarak kentsel mekanın süreksizleşmesine zemin hazırlamıştır ve bu süreksizleşme artan boyutlarda devam etmektedir. Kentsel mekandaki süreksizleşme; kent mekanında bir parçalanmaya ve dağılmaya, kentsel yaşamda ise bir kopukluğa ve hafizasızlığa yol açmaktadır. Bu çalışmada öne sürülen temel tez, kentsel mekanın süreksizleşmesinin insan-çevre ilişkisini etkileyerek insanın temel ihtiyaçlarından güvenlik duygusu ihtiyacını olumsuz yönde etkilemekte olduğudur. Kentsel mekandaki güvenlik duygusunu oluşturan etkenlerden en önemlileri; insanın mekanda, zamanda ve sosyal ortamda kendini konumlandırabilmesi ve mekanla ilgili zihinsel haritasını rahatlıkla oluşturabilmesidir. Kentsel mekanın mekansal, zamansal ve kullanımsal olarak süreksizleşmesinin bütün bunlara olumsuz etkileri olmaktadır. Tezin birinci bölümünde çalışmanın amacı, sınırlan ve yöntemi açıklanmaktadır. İkinci bölümde ise tezin çerçevesinin oluşmasını sağlayan temel kavramlar ve bu kavramların birbirleriyle etkileşimi ele alınmıştır. Üçüncü bölümde süreklilik ve süreksizlik kavranılan incelenerek, kentsel mekanın sürekliliği ve süreksizliği mekansal, zamansal ve kullanımsal boyutlarıyla ortaya konmuştur. Dördüncü bölümde kentsel mekanın sürekliliğinin insanın güvenlik ihtiyacı ile ilişkileri ortaya konulmuş, kentsel mekanın süreksizleşmesinin insan üzerindeki olumsuz etkileri üzerinde durulmuştur. Beşinci bölüm, öne sürülen hipotezlerin İstanbul'un bir kentsel mekanında ele alınarak incelendiği bir alan çalışmasıdır. Altıncı bölüm ise sonuçlan içermektedir.

The subject of this study is the transformation of the urban space with a special emphasis on its impacts on urban life and human psychology. This study reveals a correlation between the continuity / discontinuity of the urban space and the psychological safety need. Concentrating on the discontinuity of today's urban space, it aims to emphasize the importance of urban space on psychological and social aspects of human life. The formation and development of the city is an outcome of a continuity in space, time and use; therefore one of the very important characteristics of the urban space is its continuity in space, time and use. However, a great change has been observed in the physical appearance and functioning of the urban space since the beginning of this century. According to some researchers the roots of this transformation goes much more earlier, even to the sixteenth or seventeenth century. These changes are observed in many cities in the world and also in Istanbul. The spaces are ceaselessly demolished and rebuilt without any contextual relation between the former and the latter. The buildings are fragmented both spatially and contextually, the exterior space formed around them is ill-defined and amorph. The city spreads in a dispersed way with new settlements and working places. The historical places are destroyed to make room for freeways. The result is that the cities are being transformed in a way that makes it impossible for the formation of a collective memory. This transformation has been mainly determined by economical developments, especially the changes which the capital has undergone. The city has changed from 'market place to factory town to no-town', as the capital has shifted from 'barter to money to credit'. The economic developments and the technological developments causing great changes in the society and culture has affected the city and the urban space simultaneously, since the urban space is simply the mirror of the society. It can be assumed that the changes and developments in the economic, politic, social and cultural domains caused a 'discontinuity' in the urban space in various aspects. The new information, communication and transportation technologies effected the utilisation of the urban space, changing the activity patterns or even destroying some of them. The functions of the urban space is limited only to transportation function. The main hypothesis of this study is that this discontinuity has some negative effects on the human need for psychological safety. Throughout the text the continuity and discontinuity concepts and their relations with the urban space is divided and studied in three parts which are (1) space, (2) time and (3) use. In fact, this division is not very clear and neat; there are many interconnections between these domains. This classification is rather used for explanatory purposes. (1) The spatial continuity / discontinuity is determined by the physical continuity / discontinuity of the components of the space, namely urban spaces, solids, and surfaces. Continuity / discontinuity in space is studied in two categories; the physical and the perceptual. Mostly the latter is the outcome of the former; but apart from the physical properties of the space, the mode of transportation in the space also plays an important role in the perception. The physical continuity of the space contributes to the perceptual continuity. The people perceive their environments as an ordered pattern, constantly trying to inject order into their surroundings, so that all the relevant perceptions are joined one to the other. People search for, or try to create, a sense of order and continuity in what they saw. That proves the importance of the existence of a physical continuity in the urban space. The spatial continuity must involve an order and a pattern. The concepts of anticipation and prediction, which enable the urban space to be perceived as a space of safety and pleasure, are formed as the result of the physical continuity. Anticipation and prediction which have great importance in the urban space experience are constructed by finding out clues in the space about the next space to come. These clues help to form connections and perceptual continuity between spaces. (2) The continuity in time can be considered to be the continuity of the urban space in historical perspective. It is essential for the construction and preservation of the memory, both personal and collective. The discontinuity in time, on the other hand, creates a physical and psychological environment where everything changes radically. This prevents the creation of the collective memory and does not allow for any permanence. The economic and technological developments that changed the modes of production radically brought new concepts to the society and culture which are speed, consumption and change. The building and the urban space became as abstract units for buying and selling, and furious cycles of construction - destruction - reconstruction became the logic of the era. The discontinuity in the urban space causes the loss of urban identity, causing some kind of agoraphobia. This situation creates an urban life that can be described as schizophrenic: a life with no connection to past and future where only fragmented 'now's are experienced. Today, the city is considered to be 'an anarchic and archaic semiotic system which renews itself independently. In such an environment, there is no kind of contextual or structural continuity. The XI architecture has different values and creates an atmosphere of anxiety resulting in a radically schizophrenic urban space. (3) The continuity in use is the functioning of the urban space with all variety of activities such as communication, transportation, exchanging goods and information, sharing, meeting with the others, feeling a sense of belonging and so on. The discontinuity in use is the dull functioning of the urban space. The zoning and land-use policies of the twentieth century and the developments in communication and information technologies changed the activity patterns in the urban space. The urban space is being less and less used for its extensive functions except transportation. The changes in the modes of transportation also affected the activity patterns. The automobile brought a new way of life an atomised living where the socialisation is reduced to its minimum. The continuity / discontinuity in use is studied in two groups which are utilisation in time and utilisation in space. Utilisation in space is the functioning of the urban space. The existence of different functions in a particular space helps to improve the continuity where it also contributes to socialisation. Utilisation in time involves the continuity / discontinuity of human activities at the same space at different times. With the functional zoning policies, land use patterns and the development of the transportation systems, working and living places became dispersed. People work in the city center and they move back to their homes which are in the suburbs or on the outskirts of the city. The downtown area which is used extensively during the day, becomes deserted at night. This creates a kind of functional discontinuity in time. Continuity / discontinuity of urban space plays an important role on person- environment relationship. The most important factor that determines the person- environment relations is the needs and desires of the people. Therefore, the urban environment must be designed according to the variety of needs of the users in order to function well. One of the human needs in the urban environment is the psychological safety, which means being in control of the situations. This involves having control over the environment both by knowing where one is in space and time, and by not being socially or physically lost. Two factors are important for the feeling of safety in urban space: one is to be able to construct a clear mental map about that particular space, the other one is orientation in space and time. A clear mental map is crucial for a feeling of safety. People store information about their environment in simplified form, relating it to other information they already have. This information is coded in a structure which people carry around their heads, and it corresponds to the environment just like a map or a model of the environment. Recognition, prediction, evaluation and action are the four basic information processing categories of knowledge which must be included in one's mental map. Continuity in space, time and use plays a very important role in the establishment of these processes and in the construction of a clear mental map. Xll Orientation is knowing where one is at any time, and how to reach any other part. It is the self-location in space, time and society which is crucial for the establishment of a feeling of safety. While the physical continuity in urban space helps orientation within the space, the fragmentary and confused environment creates disorientation. The feeling of safety is also related with the sociality of the person. People need to have a sense of belonging, community, and relatedness. They need to receive affection and approval from other people. The continuity of the activities in the urban space plays an important role in socialisation and a sense of belonging. As a result; the continuity of the urban space helps to the formation of a feeling of safety, while the discontinuity of the urban space has negative effects to it. The discontinuity creates dispersed environments, scattered in space and time and resulting a sense of being lost. The factors that determine the continuity / discontinuity of urban space and the effects of these factors are brought together in the table below: CONTINUITY DISCONTINUITY SPACE the continuity of physical components of space the discontinuity of physical components of space urban spaces, voids. a chain of sequential spaces. the integration of all the urban texture. spaces unrelated with each other. no integration in the urban texture space defining elements, solids. solids forming a wall or an edge. clear and well defined urban space. a sense of closure. solids isolated and scattered. undefined urban space. no sense of closure surfaces. forming a certain rhythmical sequence. order. having no rhythmical sequence. disorder, chaos. clearly defined urban spaces having a rhythmical order and a sense of closure ill-defined urban spaces having no rhythm or an order. a continuous and uninterrupted development. a scattered and dispersed development Xlll TIME the continuity of the physical and semantic properties of urban space in time the discontinuity of the physical and semantic properties of urban space in time historical development (linear time) architectural style. permanence. accumulation. growth by adding and protection of the existing. architectural design considering the city as the setting. continuity in context \. temporality. change. cycles of construction - destruction - reconstruction. architectural design independent from the context of the city. random assemblage of different contexts I formation and preservation of. short-span or fragmented collective memory memories culture . fashion USE the continuity of human activities in space and time the discontinuity of human activities in space and time utilisation in time (cyclic time) utilisation in space URBAN LIFE Social effects the utilisation of the same. space at different times the utilisation of the urban. space with all its functions (such as gathering, socialisation, communication, transportation, shopping etc.) different functions taking part. at the urban space the utilisation of urban space only at a particular time the limited utilisation of the space (only the transportation) dispersion of the functions * i XIV In order to investigate the concepts of continuity / discontinuity and their effects on the feeling of safety through observations and users' opinions about a particular urban space, a case study is held. The subject of the case study is one part of the Cumhuriyet Street in Harbiye, Istanbul. This street was chosen for the case study for a number of reasons. Most importantly, the street has various different physical characteristics which would help searching a number of different continuities / discontinuities within the same space. Another reason was the familiarity of the space to many people which would help the reader to easily grasp and argue. The street is divided into three different parts as a result of the observations made on the site. These parts had different spatial and functional qualities which allowed a more extensive research. Thirty people were given a questionnaire and were asked to draw their mental maps plotting the remembered buildings and shops. The aim was to find out how the characteristics of this space affect the users' feelings and attitudes towards it in the context of continuity / discontinuity in space and use. The safety feeling is assumed to be composed of two factors which are constructing a clear mental map and orientation in space. Even though the people gave a wide range of answers about the use of the space and their preferences, some conclusions were reached. The case study brought some important conclusions. The first result was the about the ways of achieving a perceptual continuity. The answers of the users pointed out that, while a physical continuity is very important in perception, a dull physical continuity is not enough for a perceptual continuity. Rhythm and scale are the major factors in order to reach a perceptual continuity. The discontinuity in the functions of the space, dull-functioning nodes creates a difficulty in orientation and ambiguities in the mental map. As a result this study points out that, meeting the psychological safety need in the urban space must be considered as an important design problem. The continuity of urban space is related with the feeling of safety. The perceptions about continuity / discontinuity of a space and the safety feeling resulting from the continuity of the space shows variation among the users. This study is composed of six chapters. The first chapter is the introduction part where the purpose of the study is explained with the methodology and the restrictions. The second chapter is devoted to the concepts of 'human-environment relationship' and 'urban space' in order to create a conceptual framework for the study. The continuity and discontinuity of the urban space in space, time and use is described in detail and the reasons for the transformation of the continuity to a discontinuity are explained in the third chapter. The fourth chapter is where the relation between the need for psychological safety and the continuity / discontinuity of the urban space is explained. Chapter five describes the case study conducted. The results of the study are explained in the last chapter.