Kamusal alan için tasarım: Yerel yönetimlerle işbirliği içinde yürütülen disiplinlerarası tasarım projeleri

This study starts from the hypothesis that besides social and economic factors, the public should have right to participate in the designing process of products for public spaces, as they are the main users of these products. In Turkey, interdisciplinary design services for the public space are becoming widespread and innovative units are being formed in accordance with this development. However, it is important to involve relevant discourses of this progressive understanding of design for public space, within the legally binding design standards, supervisory institutions and bureaucratic culture. In this respect, the main purpose of this study is to identify and analyze the current positive developments and defective facilities of the active mechanisms of decision-making in this field, from the perspective of designers. To identify the stakeholders who run these mechanisms, their methods and also to reveal the operations of relevant existing institutions; are some propounded implications of this study. Considering the participatory democratic culture in cities, I discuss the position of the state and other actors as service providers for public space, their ways of operation and the effectiveness of designers in decision-making processes. With this purpose in mind, I have interviewed some of the designers who take part in various processes of different design projects developed for the public space in collaboration with local governments. In this context, design services for public spaces are associated with the theoretical arguments based on personal experiences of designers. Due to their roles in various stages of the design system developed for public space, the designers I have interviewed are exemplary of the positions through which designers may get involved in this system. By referring to the personal assessments of the designers and evaluating subsidiary actors and various working models suggested by interviewees, this study discusses (1) the dominant design vision operating in bureaucratic processes depending upon the administrator and his/her profession, (2) the positioning of the designer as the design advisor in the current system, (3) the projects and operations regarding public participation, (4) the working forms of collaborative institutions in the current system, (5) the effect of tendering regulations and of the development and production methods of projects on their realization. Key Words: Design for Public Space, Design Participation, Transdisciplinary Design