Visual landscape quality assessment in historical environments: The case of Istanbul/Karakoy

Historical environments carry various traces in social, cultural, and spatial terms by being a reference from the past to the present. While these traces clue about the past, they also guide the future. These historical environments play a role in strengthening the urban image by creating spatial, visual, and sensorial differences on these values. Hence, the assessment of the visual landscape will constitute primary resource values in the planning studies to be carried out for historical environments. Within this framework, the study aims to assess the visual landscape quality of Karaköy neighbourhood, located in Beyoğlu District of Istanbul, and having a historical identity with many cultural reference points. For this purpose, a total of 100 participants, consisting of experts (25 people) and user groups (75 people), provided their perceptual assessment of Karaköy in terms of the visual landscape. Participants assessed 25 photographs taken from various points of Karaköy, using a Likert scale based on 9 parameters (naturalness, excitement, harmony, readability, care, arrangement, movement, density, landscape beauty). The survey results were analysed according to descriptive statistics. The analysis was both at the level of the expert and user groups, and at the level of all participants. The highest and lowest scores of each parameter for each image were presented in the form of tables for the analysis, and they were interpreted. Accordingly, the findings show that the photographs in which the water element was dominant and the historical texture showed harmonious integrity received high scores. On the other hand, the photographs with the lowest score were those in which the construction was intense and the viewing angle was narrowed. As a result of the study, the visually attractive areas have been determined. The results of the study will be the primary resource value for the planning and design studies to be made with the assessment of the visual landscape in Karaköy.