Public Interiority Through Urban Mobility: Design Approaches for Railway Stations In Istanbul_M.Arts Thesis by Gizem Akdemir, Supv. Assoc.Prof.Dr. Emine Gorgul (2019) ITU Institute of Social Sciences, IMIAD- International Master of Interior Architectural Design Graduate Program (original) (raw)

The starting point of the study is the importance of interior architectural design discipline as a force that can positively affect the urban wellbeing in metropolitan cities. The notion of publicness or being public and the public spaces that have an essential and inevitable part in the daily urban life, defines the potentials that interior architectural design in terms of enhancing the urban wellbeing. In this context, the concept of urban interior and urban interior practices which also includes the characteristics of public and interior spaces, are considered an efficient tool for improving the urban environment. In this thesis, it is suggested that transportation nodes, which are accepted as the intersections of everyday urban life, as well as urban mobilities and public life, are also urban and public interiors. Based on the hypothesis that transportation nodes accepted as urban and public interiors, public transport structures have been specified due to their direct relation with the concept of urban wellbeing. On this purpose, railway stations which are parts of urban setting from the initial phase of the transformation process of metropolitan cities are selected as the main areas of the study. The aim of the study is to compare the existing conditions of urban and public interiors among selected transportation nodes and then discuss design approaches to improve them. The study offers a relatively experimental approach on evaluating the quality of urban and public interiors. Also, it is intended that the developed method would be beneficial for further studies about urban and interior spaces. The thesis begins with a descriptic cross reading on the structural and sociological evolution of public space in metropolis. The first part consists of examinations on transformation of metropolitan cities as the determinant factor in the evolution of public spaces. The first topic of the thesis also related to the notion of urban mobility and its role in the expansion of the cities. Together with the transition of urban public life and public spaces, the urban wellbeing concept and the quality of public spaces are discussed to define the current position of public spaces. The notion of interiority in the urban context and the current urban interior practices are also explained within the first part of the thesis. In the second part of the thesis, the notion of urban mobility reconsidered as a form of interiority in metropolitan cities. The interconnection of these notions is especially distinctive in the public transportation structures. Thus, suggestions on the interiority of urban mobility and public transportation structures is developed. Amongst transportation structures, railway stations have been distinguished due to arguments in regard to recognizing railway stations as community hubs as well as transportation hubs in the city. In the thesis, it is suggested that railway stations that are urban and public interiors and community hubs, are also posing important potential for enhancing the urban wellbeing. The urban interior practices that are also discussed in the thesis, can be efficient tool to improve the current conditions of these spaces. In the third part of the thesis, the study method, which is evaluating the quality level of urban and public is introduced. In order to compare and improve the existing conditions of selected public interiors that have different urban environments, an empirical method was developed that evaluates the quality of the space according to components of good urban and public interiors. The method consists of a two-phased field study, observing and conducting a comprehensive survey, respectively. On Gebze-Halkalı Marmaray railway transport line, Sirkeci and Bakirkoy railway stations in Istanbul are selected as the case studies, while background information about the railway stations and causality of each railway station are also discussed. After the analysis of the evaluations, the field study ends with statistical data acquisitions. Comparisons between the two railway stations are performed in terms of the positive and negative aspects of the assesments. As a result, depending on the analysis and findouts of behalf of design approaches recommended for each space improving the existing qualities. In conclusion, it is stated that transportation nodes, in this case, the railway stations as urban and public interior spaces, carry important potentials to enhance urban wellbeing. Thus, by developing a relatively original evaluation system, analyzing the spaces accordingly and then discussing the possible design approaches for each space, it was possible to experiment with a method that could be beneficial for further studies related to urban and public interiors.