Urban design proposal for public outdoor spaces: İlim street and its environs (Çekmeköy – Istanbul) case study

Recently, various urban design projects are implemented to increase the quality of urban life as a consequence of rapid urbanization. One of the projects around this scope is the urban design applications focusing particularly on pedestrianization. In this thesis, İlim Street within the Alemdağ neighborhood of Çekmeköy (İstanbul) district and together with its environs were chosen as the research area. In the research field, there is a variety of public spaces including the park, education and health units, and religious institutions etc. The research area is the recent urban development area of the region. In this context, the research area carries the characteristics of urban renewal depending on the gentrification practices. There for, İlim Street and its surroundings possess a primary importance in terms of urban design due to its urban dynamics. The main purpose of the thesis is to design and revitalize İlim Street and its surroundings (approximately 400 m long and cover 46.600 m²) which are defined as the research areas for the pedestrianized urban public space. Around this context; cultural landscape characteristics of the research area were determined and spatial analyzes were put forward. Under the light of the obtained data and analyzes, planning and design decisions associated with the proposed urban design project for İlim Street and its surroundings, were determined and the "Proposal Urban Design Project" was developed. In line with these studies, evaluations were also conducted for the traffic management, pedestrian areas, building transformations, building uses, ground floor usage and green areas, which are possibly to be developed after the urban design project. As a result, it was emphasized that the pedestrian and traffic safety based planning and design of İlim Street and its surroundings had a principal impact on the development of the street as a public space. In addition, the positive effects of urban renewal and pedestrian priority design works in urban spaces within the scope of the urban design project developed for İlim Street and its surroundings on the quality of urban life, as well as the contributions to the revitalization of the research area in terms of functional, aesthetic, ecological and economic aspects were revealed.