Preservation process of Akşehir Armenian church and it'scontribition on urban identiy

As a cultural heritage, monumental buildings have taken a special place in the multicultural structure of Anatolia. With the development rights granted ton on-Muslims after the imperial edict of reorganization and edict of reform, it is possible to come across civil and monumental works of Armenian masters in Akşehir.Akşehir Armenian Church, which has been idle for a long time in the urban conversation site, is one of these structures. It has become one of the important public spaces with the growth of conservationawareness and work in recent years. With the increased sensitivity to cultural and natural heritage, international protection concepts started to be adopted by everyone. The church subjected to the study in Akşehir, which is an example of the multi-layered structured cities of our country, is also the symbol of polyphony and tolerance in the city.This symbolic structure is important in terms of showing that diversity in a city is richness in architecture.In Akşehir, which hosts many archaeological and urban conversation sites, the increasing number of street sanitation works in recent years and the revival of the original housing fabric around the churchhave made this structure re-functional. Within the scope of the study, from travelogues to the present day, the physical, social and historical structure of Akşehir has been examined and evaluations have been made for the identity of the city. A research/survey study was carried out on the importance of the study structure to Akşehir City User by obtaining results based on the literature regarding the importance of the city identity and importance of the Akşehir Armenian Church.In addition, evaluations were made for the building materials whose identity was defined and similarly used in similar periods in the entire city. After these preliminary evaluations, the views and awareness of the users residing in Akşehir as a stakeholder for the refunctioning of the church structure were measured. After the survey study, in which general information about the historical building was given, the function proposal was investigated taking into account the location of the structure in the city, the size of the space, the building material, the geological characteristics of the building. As a result of the field analysis of the study, it was measured mainly that users living in Akşehir wanted to use the structure as a museum and exhibition hall. The results were obtained for the importance of ensuring user participation for the refunctioning of reference structures for the city in parallel with this result. Keywords: City / Urban ID, Refunctioning, Architectural Protection, User Participation