Determining post-earthquake priority design decisions the case of residential architecture in Kayapınar Diyarbakır

This thesis aims to determine the priority architectural design decisions in the reconstruction process following the February 6, 2023 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, based on expert opinions and the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The study seeks to identify the shifts in design priorities after the earthquake and to integrate them systematically into the decision-making process. The study area is the Kayapınar district of Diyarbakır, where multi-story residential buildings constructed in the 2000s were severely damaged and demolished during the earthquake. The research evaluates design decisions concerning ground, structure, material, planning, roof, and façade in the new housing to be built in the vacant plots left behind. The district's rapid reconstruction process and the resulting structural changes in the urban silhouette have made the investigation of this area necessary. The conceptual framework of the study is based on national and international literature addressing post-disaster architectural design decisions. In line with the data obtained from the literature, semi-structured interviews were conducted with architects and engineers with at least five years of professional experience in the region, to determine how design criteria were reshaped after the disaster. The data collected from the experts were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods. In prioritizing post-earthquake design criteria, the AHP method was employed to conduct a multi-criteria decision-making analysis. By allowing the relative importance of the criteria to be determined numerically, AHP provided an objective and systematic contribution to the decision-making process. The combined use of AHP and interview forms enabled the development of applicable recommendations for a specific building group through an interdisciplinary approach. The design decisions were compared with the surrounding built environment and the principles of modern architectural design, while the DALL·E artificial intelligence tool was utilized as a support instrument in visual analyses. These analyses revealed that priority design factors significantly influenced architectural design, underscoring the importance of the study. The findings show that post-earthquake design priorities should not be limited to durability but must also include multi-dimensional criteria such as evacuation safety, environmental compatibility, sustainability, material accessibility, flexible planning, and integration with the local context. In this regard, the study provides architects with the means to make more informed, contextual, and scientific decisions in reconstruction processes.