Spatial delineation of Haliç waterfront through walking: The case of Tersane Istanbul

This study investigates the relationship between walking and spatial experience along the fragmented northern waterfront of Haliç in Istanbul. Walking is employed as both a method and representational tool to examine how urban edges, particularly where land meets water, are perceived, documented, and analysed through eye-level movement. As vital thresholds between land and water, waterfronts hold a significant role in urban life and public space. Yet in Haliç, this relationship is often disrupted by privatization and infrastructural barriers. Although waterfronts are often conceived as continuous systems, this thesis approaches Haliç waterfront as a series of segments shaped by infrastructural gaps, private developments, and shifting public access. The shoreline is divided into four segments, defined by the changing conditions of walking between two significant anchor points, Galataport and Tersane İstanbul. Each segment is analysed through three interrelated layers: continuity and access, spatial experience, and experiential spatial vocabulary. Multi-scalar observation is applied at macro and meso scales across all segments, while the micro scale is reserved exclusively for the case study area, Tersane İstanbul. Findings indicate that walking reveals discontinuities and rhythms of the waterfront that remain invisible in top-down urban representations. The study demonstrates that the act of walking not only uncovers thresholds, interruptions, and transitions, but also produces a situated understanding of how water, land, and built form intersect. The thesis concludes by proposing a spatial vocabulary derived from walking, which frames pedestrian experience as a critical lens for waterfront studies. This vocabulary suggests that walking can serve as a methodological and design tool for reconnecting fragmented urban edges with public life.