Evaluation of potentials of urban open spaces in energy efficient design: The case of Besiktas 4. Levent

With the environmental movement starting from the mid-20th century, sustainability approaches that have entered our agenda have found themselves in almost every area in the 21st century. When urban design approaches that evolve from the second half of the 20th century are considered together with the developments in the world, it is seen that environmental problems have started to come to international agenda at the same dates. Global environmental problems (deforestation, desertification, climate change, acid rain, ozone depletion, loss of biological diversity, pollution in the oceans), industrialization, uncontrolled use of resources, population accumulation and social and economic differentiation among these masses, that have led to debates on sustainability and sustainable development has become visible through urbanization and the search for solutions to these problems at international conferences has been debated on a global scale. One of the goals that are focused on sustainability and sustainable development at international conferences is urban sustainability. Urbanization, which is one of the sources of these problems, has become a part of the goals set in order to reach the goal of sustainable development and solutions of problems over time. Cities are also closely related to sustainability and sustainable development expressed by global variables and indicators due to their close relationship with environment, social structure, institutional structure and economy. For this reason, cities are one of the most important problems or potential areas in this context. In 2050 the proportion of the world's urban population is expected to be 66%. This situation means that the energy requirements of the urban areas will increase gradually. In this direction, scientists from different disciplines are looking for solutions to the emerging problems and developing different methods. According to Choguill (2008) a city alone can not be sustainable, because it is part of the global system that any city influences at least to some degree. Nevertheless, if their component parts are not sustainable, a single city can not contribute to overall sustainability. At this point, the neighborhood sustainability assessment tools stand out. Various neighbourhood sustainability assessment tools approach sustainability in different ways. In general, there are different evaluation methods that are structured with different themes and criteria, with different levels of indicators about the dimensions of sustainability. Urban sustainability indicators or indices are important parts of the roadmap set to achieve commitments and objectives expected to be met by international agreements on an urban scale. It is very important to the planning of new settlements considering energy efficient design criteria and the existing settlements are tried to be improved in this direction. Studies with classical land-use approaches and single-function zoning are insufficient to provide solutions to today's problems and future problems. At this point, urban open spaces emerge as an evaluation area where planning is inadequate to provide solutions. Urban design is an important application tool for discovering the benefits of urban open spaces, evaluating their potential and offering new solutions. Urban open spaces as part of the city are very important in terms of social and economic aspects. At the same time, it also includes the institutional dimension with the features of coming together and communicating. For the sustainable development of our cities, the existence, use, utilization and design of these urban open spaces is of great importance. Since the classification of urban open spaces has different meanings for different disciplines, different classifications have been made on the basis of form, function, size, mode of use and effect area. There are many sources that classify the components of the city. Urban open space classification with a broad perspective and a multidimensional approach is important in terms of urban design. Indicator-based sustainability assessment tools seek to describe energy efficiency through the built environment, with very little resources on open spaces, one of the city's major morphological components. This study investigated the role and potentials of urban open spaces in energy efficient design by evaluating urban design and energy efficient design approaches, neighborhood sustainability assessment tools and urban open spaces and their classification concepts. Although a lot of work has been done on urban sustainability, it is still the subject of many research. The research and applications on sustainability cover all scales from building material scale to interior space, building and urban integrity. While efforts to achieve sustainability goals continued on global, national and local scales, efforts to improve the quality of life continued in urban planning and design literature. The development of urban design literature and the efforts to achieve sustainability goals have coincided with the development of sustainable indicators / certification systems. Although the indicator-based approaches are quite common assessment tools, they receive criticism that a complex structure such as urban space cannot be expressed only by numbers and cannot be explained by the whole system. The fact that these voluntary vehicles are not obligatory and that they are also sold for a fee are obstacles for public institutions.During the design and implementation phase, it is difficult for public institutions to find resources to allocate to these assessment tools. In the design and implementation phase of urban open spaces, it is possible to transfer the applicable indicators in the neighbourhood sustainability assessment tools as objectives to public decision-making processes. Urban design is the most basic implementation tool that public institutions can transfer and use this information. In this way, the maximum benefit can be obtained from urban open spaces with limited resources of the public. Criteria in different neighborhood sustainability assessment tools have been reorganized with a systematic approach and become the application-oriented targets that the public institutions can use in the design and implementation phases. In the introduction part of the thesis, the purpose of the study, hypothesis and methods are discussed. In the second chapter, the concept of sustainability and its measurability, urban sustainability and the neighborhood sustainability assessment tools of international green certification systems are examined through the historical development of sustainability. In the third chapter of the thesis, urban design and energy efficient design approaches are explained and the fourth chapter focuses on urban open spaces and their classification criteria. The evaluation of the sample area in line with the conceptual framework created was made in the fifth chapter. In the evaluation and conclusion part, energy-based design framework was proposed to make the use of energy efficient design criteria in urban open spaces more effective. Within the scope of the thesis, an approach to energy efficiency that can be integrated into decision making and implementation processes on urban design scale was introduced with the proposed framework and thus a systematic method for implementation from concept has been put forward.