Growing in mega city streets: Assessment on child-friendly street transformation in Zümrütevler, Istanbul

Abstract

The first moment children step out of their homes, they encounter streets, which are important building blocks that provide transportation and access in the city. In other words, streets, which are dominated by vehicles today and require pedestrians to walk carefully every day, both when they park and when they speed, are the first public areas where children experience the city. Children were significantly affected by rapid increase in urbanization and the decrease in the rate of open spaces and the right to play, one of the fundamental rights of children was taken away from them over time to experience this on the streets. The gradual decrease in the opportunity to play on the streets is also a reason why the concept of "child-friendly city" has recently started to gain importance. In addition to academic discourses and symposiums, the production of solutions that prioritize children's needs in cities and public spaces, which are also included in the policies, actions and promises of local and central governments, also reflects the importance and need of the issue. Although studies are conducted in different fields such as management, law and health on this issue, the subject of child-friendly cities will be addressed under the title of urban planning and urban design within the scope of the thesis. In this context, the relationship between children and play, which has an important role in child development, and public spaces was investigated. Then, the concept of "child-friendly cities" and its relations, as well as the child-friendly street transformation, which has significant visibility in the city, were investigated in the context of this concept. Street transformations, which are an effective step towards making cities child-friendly, are included in the literature as an important and visible action that supports children's independent mobility. The fact that children can be freely on the streets again or can carry out their own transportation from one place to another on foot is beneficial for them to learn their risk assessment capacity with play and to develop it by experiencing the streets in the city. Initiating transformation in streets, which are public spaces dominated by vehicles and where children's visibility is reduced, is an action that will increase not only children's but also the general pedestrian accessibility and pedestrian visibility of the area, and therefore encourage pedestrian transportation and direct them to environmentally friendly transportation alternatives. There are two different methods for child-focused street transformations. The first one, temporary street transformations provide safe play opportunities for children in the vicinity of their homes by closing the street to traffic for a certain period of time, such as a day or a few hours. This movement started with the Play Streets events in London and has become a type of street transformation that has spread worldwide in order to create activity and socialization opportunities around the home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Another child-focused street transformation alternative is included in the literature as permanent. When looking at child-friendly permanent street transformations, it is common to use the tactical urbanism method as a tool. This method allows the area to be tested with low-cost materials and design before making irreversible decisions and moving on to permanent implementation. This method, which can also be called a two-phased street transformation, supports the applicability of revisions according to user reactions during the rehearsal phase; furthermore, it helps reduce the margin of error, strengthens the attractiveness of the area with the use of vibrant colors, flexible and creative urban furniture. This situation reminds that vehicle users should also be careful while passing through the area. It is important not only to provide attractiveness with colors, but also to meet the needs of children and their caregivers in every detail or relationship with the environment in the area, since the primary focus in these street transformations is children. In this sense, there are design guides prepared by states and some institutions regarding the upper-scale perspectives and child-friendly design details that need to be provided to create child-friendly environments. In order to ensure that these changes are accepted by city residents while creating child-friendly areas and to continue to progress the design details in the transformations to be made according to a child-focused perspective, comprehensive strategies and realistic action plans for their implementation need to be developed. In this context, strategic plans and design guides prepared with a child focus are important pathfinder in transformation processes. Within the scope of the thesis, child-focused design guides, which constitute a part of the research method, were also compiled as a guide to investigate the answers to the thesis research questions, and the evaluation scale was determined from this compilation according to the parameters that will guide the thesis study area from here. This thesis examines whether environments resulting from two-stage child-friendly street transformations maintain their child-centered character following permanent implementation. The thesis aim is structured around two interrelated components to provide a more systematic framework. The first component seeks to determine whether spaces that have undergone a two-phase design process can truly be considered child-friendly. The second component questions the long-term sustainability of the child-friendly identity in the permanent phase of these transformations. In this context, the thesis aims to identify the criteria that must be considered during both the decision-making and implementation processes of child-friendly street transformations, and to understand the potential obstacles that may hinder the fulfillment of these criteria. The child-friendly street transformation implemented in Zümrütevler neighborhood, which is the fourth most densely populated neighborhood in Istanbul, is the first child-friendly street transformation implemented in a metropolitan city like Istanbul. The implementation here was completed in two phases as a rehearsal implementation and permanent implementation. This implementation, which is located in the north of the E-5 corridor, which is an important threshold of Istanbul and has the fourth most densely populated neighborhood, was determined as the study area in the thesis research because it is the first child-friendly street transformation in Istanbul and the first application that includes a rehearsal implementation. The process of the street transformation completed in Zümrütevler neighborhood and the sustainability of its child-friendly character after the permanent implementation are discussed in the study. Five research questions have been defined that will point to the purpose and components of the thesis and form the skeleton of the research method: (1) What methods can be used to measure the child-friendliness of two-stage street transformations, and how do they vary across urban scales? (2) What criteria must be met for public open spaces to be considered child-friendly, and how do these criteria vary across different urban scales? (3) How do planning decisions made at different urban scales influence the spatial use of child-friendly street transformation projects? (4) To what extent do permanently implemented, phased child-friendly transformations maintain their child-friendliness when assessed through user behavior and established criteria? (5) How can the long-term sustainability of spaces transformed through a child-friendly design approach be ensured within the framework of child-friendly urbanism? The objectives of the thesis have been determined as follows within the scope of the research questions: (1) Define criteria and methods for each transformation phase. (2) Analyze how decisions affect spatial use and child-friendliness. (3) Investigate the effectiveness and adaptability of the phased design approach. (4) Examine how user behaviors reflect the success or limitations. (5) Propose strategic recommendations. An original evaluation scale has been prepared by bringing together and blending the parameters in the design guides compiled in the literature review within the scope of the study methodology. A separate study has been conducted on which criteria should be considered regarding how the prepared evaluation scale will be used for the study area, and which areas require what kind of measurements. In this context, the necessary analyses were conducted to evaluate the street transformation process, neighbourhood scale and design details of the Zümrütevler Square, which is the study area, at three different scales. Likewise, user behaviors and pedestrian movements were observed in order to analyze the use of the area together with the results to be obtained from the evaluation scale and to obtain more meaningful results. The study results reveal that the parameters emphasized in the design guides, in some cases, do not significantly affect the functionality or usage style of the area, depending on the need and character of the area. Although the parameters in the evaluation scale are designed with a focus on children, it has been determined as a result of the observations that the area has become very useful especially for older individuals. This determination also leads to the conclusion that design for children is design for everyone. In some cases, which were evaluated according to the parameters and found not to meet the criteria, it has been determined that pedestrians act according to the ideal in the design criteria. In addition, it has been observed that the use of public space in the parts where the criteria are met is realized as planned. This study, together with the literature review, research method and the obtained results, has discussed in detail the final results of the application taken for the purpose of child-friendly street transformation. It has reinforced the objective evaluation method with observations made in the field by re-evaluating the outputs based on design criteria and the usage and movement patterns in the area.