A model proposal for the exploration of urban interiors in the context of the identity of tekirdag historical city center

In addition to being a port city from the past to the present, Tekirdağ has developed a sense of identity through its history. Understanding the distinctive qualities that set towns apart from one another and preserving historical identity in terms of lost values are crucial in the current world. Preserving, highlighting, and passing on the Tekirdağ city center's historical identity to the future is the primary goal of the thesis. Urban interior spaces are crucial in communicating the city's historical character because they serve as distinct locales that emphasize historical "places," where citizens have formed a sense of belonging from the past to the present. In this context, the concept of urban interior has been addressed within the scope of landscape architecture, focusing on historical urban identity. The thesis's scope has been shaped by the open public spaces in the urban site situated in Tekirdağ's historical city center, which are the primary focus of the landscape architecture discipline. The thesis provides a theoretical inference and discusses the ideas of urban interior and historical city identity in connection to one another. Based on theoretical foundations and relationships, field studies have been conducted in the open public spaces of the historical city center of Tekirdağ using morphological methods and oral history interviews. Morphological methods have shown the current urban interiors in the historical city center and urban interiors from the past have been uncovered through oral history interviews. With the proposed model based on data synthesis, a foundation has been provided for investigating urban interiors formed in historical identity spaces across various structural and human dimensions. The model proposal developed for the exploration of urban interiors in the context of the identity of the historical city center of Tekirdağ offers a roadmap indicating the paths for exploring urban interiors in the historical city center. The model has made it possible to compare the current urban interiors in the historic city center with the urban interiors in memories, as well as to investigate continuous, transformed, and interrupted ones. Thus, the synthesis and conclusion sections have assessed the potential of urban interiors for maintaining, highlighting, and passing on historical identity to the future. By presenting urban interiors as a tool for the preservation and transmission of historical identity, the thesis primarily guides the context of Tekirdağ's historical urban identity studies, which in turn guide various cities, disciplines, urban studies, academic works, and practices that address historical urban identity.