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Questioning the Compatibility of the Infill Architecture in Historic Environment, Case Study: Walled City of Nicosia

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Questioning the Compatibility of the Infill Architecture in Historic Environment, Case Study: Walled City of Nicosia Questioning the Compatibility of the Infill Architecture in Historic Environment, Case Study: Walled City of Nicosia Leila Soosani Submitted to the Institute of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Urban Design Eastern Mediterranean University July 2013 Gazimağusa, North Cyprus Approval of the Institute of Graduate Studies and Research Prof. Dr. Elvan Yılmaz Director I certify that this thesis satisfies the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science in Urban Design. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Dinçyürek Chair, Department of Architecture We certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a thesis for the degree of Master of Science in Urban Design. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Beser Oktay Vehbi Supervisor Examining Committee 1. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mukaddas Faslɪ 2. Assist. Prof. Dr.Rafooneh M.Sani 3. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Beser Oktay Vehbi ABSTRACT Historic environments are the mirror of cities‟ social, economic, cultural, physical and architectural history. Historic environments start to have changes according to the change in lifestyle, socio-economic standards and technology; therefore, new buildings in historic environment are one aspect of these changes. These new buildings sometimes may constructed in line with the characteristics of the context but sometimes they are constructed without respecting the visual and spatial characters of the context. Therefore, there are some important issues such as the relationship between the new buildings and the existing setting and the quality of them to achieve compatible/contextual design in historic setting and to protect from its identity and values. Walled City of Nicosia in Northern Cyprus has been through the socio-economic devaluation and physical deterioration decline that caused to decay of the architectural quality and loss of population of the historic center. Nevertheless, there are some newly constructed infill projects. Consequently, the aim of this study is to assess the compatibility of the new building in historic context and discuss about their design approaches. Based on the aim this study will have four chapters. Initially, introduction of the study will be given in the first chapter. Then in second chapter, definition of historic environment from different resources, importance and values of historic areas and its visual and spatial characteristics of will be explained. Thus, the criteria for compatible design and new iii building design approaches will be presented. Also some cases from different European contexts will be analyzed to test these criteria and design approaches. According to the information that gathered from Antiquities Department there are only four infill buildings which are constructed during the last 10 years in Walled City of Nicosia and they will be analyzed. Regarding to the design criteria such as massing, scale, setback, orientation, proportion, rhythm, material, color, sitting and height and accordingly their design approaches and compatibility will be achieved. The methodology of this research includes qualitative research that is based on analysis, literature survey and field studies. Literature survey, about the subject of the study involves: historic environments, conservation, and sense of place, visual and spatial characters. Filed study will be done on the newly constructed architecture in Nicosia. It will consist of observation and photographs and analyzing them according to the mentioned criteria. Based on analysis that conducted in Walled City of Nicosia, out of four new buildings, three of them have compatible/contextual design approaches. However, one of the buildings has free design approach which means designer did not consider visual and spatial characters of the context. Keywords: Historic Environment, Infill Building, Contextual Design, Walled City of Nicosia. iv ÖZ Tarihi çevreler, geçmiĢte yaĢamıĢ farklı kültürlerin soyal, ekonomik ve kültürel izlerini taĢırlar. DeğiĢen yaĢam koĢulları, sosyo-ekonomik koĢullar ve teknoloji nedeni ile tarihi çevreler değiĢmeye baĢlamıtır. Bu alanlardaki yeni yapılaĢmalar da bu değiĢimin bir parçasıdırlar. Bu uygulamalar bazen nitelikli ve bilinçli, bazen de bulundukları çevreye saygı göstermeyen, görsel açıdan bu çevrelere yakıĢmayan tasarımlar olmaktan ileriye gidememiĢtir. Bundan dolayı, yeni binaların kalitesi ve bağlama uygun tasarımları bu alanların kimliğini ve mevcut değerlerinin korunması için önem taĢımaktadır. Bu çalıĢmada örnek çalıĢma alanı olarak seçilen LefkoĢa Suriçi bölgesi, süregelen fizisel eskime, sosyal ve ekomik çöküntü ve buna bağlı mimari ve fiziksel çevresi eskimesi ve nüfus kaybi gibi problemlerle karĢı karĢıyadır. Bununla birlikte, bu alanda yeni yapılaĢmalar da bulunmaktadır. Bu bağlamda, bu çalıĢmanın amacı tarihi çevredeki yeni tasarımların ve bu tasarımlar yapılırken uygulanan yötemleri irdelemektir. Bu amaca bağlı olarak, çalıĢma dört bölümden oluĢmaktadır. Ġlk bölümde giriĢ kısmı verilirken, ikinci bölüm tezin kavramsal ve kuramsal kısmını oluĢturmaktadır. Bu bölüm içerisinde tarihi çevre kavramı üzerinde durulmuĢ ve tarihi çevrenin mimari değerlerinin saptanması, görsel ve mekansal özelliklerin önemi üzerinde durulmuĢtur. Bunun yanında; “infill” kavramı, yeni yapılaĢmalarla ilgili uluslararası tüzüklerde bulunan prensipler; yeni binalardaki çeĢitli tasarım yaklaĢımları ve bu tasarımların irdelenmesine temel oluĢturacak kriterler ele alınmıĢtır. Belirlenen bu kriterler v çerçevesinde farklı Avrupa kentlerinde uygulanmıĢ yeni bina tasarımları incelenmiĢtir. Tezin dördüncü bölümünde çalıĢma alanı olarak seçilen LefkoĢa suriçinde son 10 yılda yapılmıĢ yeni yapılar incelenmiĢtir. Kuramsal çerçeveden elde edilen kütle, ölçek, geriye çekilme, yönlenme, oran, ritim, malzeme, renk, pozisyon/konum ve yükseklik tasarım kriterleri araĢtırılmıĢ ve bu binaların tarihi çevreye uyumu ile tasarım yaklaĢımları ortaya konmuĢtur. Tezin dördüncü bölümünde ise elde edilen sonuçlar ve görüĢler verilmiĢtir. ÇalıĢmanın amacına bağlı olarak, konu ile ilgili literature taraması ve saha çalıĢması yapılmıĢtır. Yapılan analizler sonunda, LefkoĢa suriçi bölgesinde son 10 yılda yapılan dört adet yeni bina tespit edilmiĢ ve bu binaların üç tanesi bulundukları çevre ile uyumlu tasarımlara sahip oldukları saptanmıĢtır. Diğer bina ise çevrenin göresel ve mekansal özellikleri dikkate alınmadan yapıldığından, bu çevreyi hiçe sayan özgür bir tasarıma sahip olduğu saptanmıĢtır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Tarihi Çevre, Mekansal Özellikler, Venedik Tüzüğü, Yeni Bina, Bağlama Uyumlu Tasarımlar, LefkoĢa Suriçi. vi DEDICATION To My Family viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my advisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Beser Oktay Vehbi for her patience, guidance, encouragements and useful comments that helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis. Beside my advisor, I must acknowledge my committee members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mukaddas Faslɪ, Assist. Prof. Dr.Rafooneh M.Sani, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ceren Bagac for their encouragement and insightful comments. Last but not the least, I would like to special thank my parents and my gorgeous sister (Marjan) for the support they provided me through my entire life and in particular, I must acknowledge my best friends Abolfazl, Nina, Shirin, Samaneh and amir for their unlimited supports and encouragement. ix TABLE OF CONTENTES ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................ iii ÖZ ................................................................................................................................ v DEDICATION .......................................................................................................... viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................................................................... ix TABLE OF CONTENTES .......................................................................................... x LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... xiii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................. xiv 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Introductory Section ............................................................................................ 1 1.2 Problem Statement............................................................................................... 2 1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study......................................................................... 3 1.4 The Methodology of the Study ............................................................................ 5 1.5 Limitation ............................................................................................................ 6 2 LITERATURE REVIEW: Concept of Historic Environment .................................. 8 2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Definition of Historic Environment..................................................................... 8 2.3 Values of Historic Environment ........................................................................ 10 2.3.1 Socio-Cultural Values .................................................................................. 11 2.3.2 Socio-Economic
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