Inquiry for Sustaining Socio-Cultural Quality in Existing Housing Environment: The Case of Kumsal District, Nicosia, North Cyprus

ABSTRACT: Residential areas change through the time due to various transformations (uses, users, built environment). If all the required aspects regard to preserve environmental, economic and social quality are not considered, the residential districts will face crucial problems in context of environmental, economic and social concerns, which all are in a strong relation with each other and any disturbance cause decline in existing residential areas. What is significant through transformations is interaction of existing setting and new developments in residential areas that create a vulnerability state. If through this transition the area could not achieve sustainability, it will lose its quality. Therefore, the health and livability of a residential area are depended to the proper legislative, administrative and planning aspects also are depended on the policies for sustaining quality of area through impacts of transformations. However this research consider the socio-cultural impacts of transformations. Kumsal is one of the important districts in Nicosia including neighborhoods with certain physical and socio-cultural quality with its long-term inhabited residential structure. It is a residential area with middle and high-income residents, which at the present time is under influences of changing dynamics of the area. This research is seeking for factors and problems, which cause the area loses the socio-cultural quality through interaction of existing setting, new uses or transformations, and offer some suggestions to keep the locals and area characteristics or make it more livable. This research at first give a theoretical review from the quality of residential areas, socio cultural quality and impacts of transformations on the socio-cultural quality; then it focuses on Kumsal residential area to define directions of developments and interventions for detecting dynamics of transformation; afterwards it suggests some policies for sustaining socio-cultural quality of neighborhood. Keywords: Residential Area, Sustaining Quality of Area, Socio-cultural Quality, Area Transformations, Residential Developments, Neighborhood Characteristics. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………