Urban morphology & culture: Comparative analyses from Anatolian and Italian towns

This study aims to explain effects of cultural composition of civilizations have, on spatial structure by urban morphology and space syntax method. The underlying point of this research is the urban fabric in Anatolian towns, built on similarities with settlements in Italian Peninsula during Roman Empire, has changed with the arrival of different cultures from Anatolian Turks to Ottomans under Islamic influence. On the other hand, Roman and Medieval periods continued to maintain their spatial structure on the historical towns of Italy. Interrelation between morphological study, based on historical maps of selected cities and illustrations that shows their structure, and quantitative values obtained through space syntax, forms the methodology of this study. Antalya – Genoa, Antakya – Verona, İznik – Lucca, Bursa – Ravenna are the examples selected through this study and the study areas are based on walls during Roman Empire. The pairing between these cities is based on the time they established and specific elements like, their location and importance in their region and their status in the state they were belong to. At first, urban block and axial maps created by ArcGIS were examined with the historical maps and historical buildings that reflects the identity of civilization in the terms of urban morphology. The axial maps were converted into segment lines with UCL DepthMap and quantitative values explaining integration, choice, intelligibility and synergy values were obtained.