İstanbul Kadıköy ilçesindeki çocuk oyun alanlarının nitel ve nicel açıdan değerlendirilmesi
Qualitative and quantitave evaluation of children playground in Kadikoy Istanbul
Yazar: DOĞA DİNEMİS KUŞULUOĞLU
Danışman: DOÇ. DR. GÜLŞEN AYTAÇ
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü / Peyzaj Mimarlığı Ana Bilim Dalı
Derece: Yüksek Lisans, 2013
Konu: Peyzaj Mimarlığı = Landscape Architecture

Özet:
Çocuğun gelişiminde, çocuğun kişisel özellikleri, davranış kalıpları ve etrafında bulunduğu kişilerin özelliklerinin yanı sıra, içerisinde bulunduğu mekanların da önemi büyüktür. Çocuk oyun alanları, çocuğun sosyal, fiziksel ve bilişsel davranışlarının gelişmesinde önemli bir yere sahiptir. Bunun nedeni, yeni öğrenme evresinde olan çocuğun fiziksel çevre verilerinden hızlıca etkileniyor olmasıdır. Bu nedenle çocukların gelişme dönemlerinde oyun alanlarında yeterli seviyede zaman geçirmeleri gerekmektedir. Ancak sürekli yoğunlaşan kent ortamlarında yeterli açık alan sağlanamamakta, çocuk oyun alanları da giderek azalmaktadır. Bu durumdan çocuklar daha fazla etkilenmektedir. 
Çocukların kent ortamında sağlıklı gelişim gösterebilmeleri için, merkezi ve yerel yönetimlerin çocuk oyun alanları tahsisine önem vermeleri gerekmektedir. Dünya nüfusunun gittikçe artan bir yüzde ile kentlerde yaşamaya başlaması ve bu nüfusun ihtiyacını karşılayacak konut ihtiyacı ile birlikte yerleşik alanlarda yaşanan artış ve kamusal açık alan anlayışının yerini alışveriş merkezleri gibi yarı kamusal iç mekanlara bırakması;  kamusal açık alanların sayıca azalmasına neden olmaktadır. Kamusal açık alanlarda yaşanan bu kayıp; kentsel açık alan tiplerinden, özellikle, çocukların eğitim ve rekreasyon gereksinimlerini karşılayan çocuk oyun alanlarının da göz ardı edilmesine neden olmaktadır. 
Tezin çalışma alanı İstanbul?un Kadıköy İlçesidir. Kadıköy ilçesi, İstanbul?un en kalabalık altıncı ilçesi olup, en önemli konut yerleşkelerinden biridir. Konut alanlarının çoğunluklu olması, çocuk alanlarına daha çok ihtiyaç olması anlamına gelmektedir. Bu çalışmada, Kadıköy İlçesi?nde bulunan 62 adet kamusal çocuk oyun alanları nitel ve nicel açıdan incelenmiştir. 
Çalışma sonucunda Kadıköy İlçesi?nde bulunan kamusal oyun alanlarının harita üzerinde işaretlenmesi ve etki alanlarının hesaplanması sonucunda, çocuk oyun alanı eksikliği bulunan mahalleler saptanmıştır. Çocuk başına düşen oyun alanının hesaplanmasının sonucunda, alansal büyüklük olarak çok yetersiz kalan kamusal çocuk oyun alanlarının büyüklüklerinin ve sayılarının artırılması gerektiği sonucuna varılmıştır.
Bu çalışma ile Kadıköy İlçesi?nde bulunan kamusal çocuk oyun alanlarının nitel ve nicel açıdan değerlendirilmesi yapılmış, bir oyun alanı envanteri oluşturulmuştur. Kadıköy için oluşturulmuş olan bu envanter İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediyesi için de bir örnek rehber teşkil edebilir; çok sayıda altyapı ve dönüşüm projelerinin devam ettiği İstanbul kentinde; kentsel yeşil alan tiplerinden biri olan çocuk oyun alanlarının envanterinin çıkması; çocuklar için yaratılacak yeni altyapıya bir veri tabanı oluşturabilecektir.

Abstract:
Today, most of the population lives in urban areas. Considering the urban migration, it is not hard to say that majority of the children in the world will live in urban areas in the near future. Regarding the children?s physical, mental and social development in cities, urban spaces and playgrounds play a major role. 
Children stand in the center of environmental sustainability. They create the future of the society. Today?s unhealthy children means tomorrow?s unhealthy adults. Avoiding the existence of children in urban society endanger the future of public health. It should be considered in physical environment design that children are also user of urban space and their spatial perception is different than other users. A child becomes a healthy member of society after interaction with socio-economic, cultural and physical environment effects.
A children playground is a special designed space for children to realize the activity of ?play? and plays a major role in child?s development process. Playgrounds offer children a free environment to discover their capabilities and create an imaginary world. These spaces help children to develop their cognitive, social and motor skills. Children playgrounds play a major role in the child's physical and cognitive development, allow them to recognize themselves and their environment, help to develop their concentration, sense of responsibility and social relationships in the community. In today's large cities, children are excluded from urban spaces because of dangerous conditions; whereat special places like playgrounds have great importance.Playgrounds offer children a safe environment and play a significant role in children?s physical and social behavior because children are highly effected by physical environment in their new learning phase. This is why children spend sufficient time in playground is very important in their physical, cognitive and social development period.  However, the uncontrolled population growth have bad influence in Kadikoy?s urban characteristic and built environment increase while green areas decrease which effects children more than others. 
Central and local governments should consider important to provide playgrounds to ensure healthy development of children in urban environment. Growing percentage of the world population live in the urban area causes an increase of housing supply and semi-public shopping centers. As a result of the increase in built-up areas, number of public open spaces decrease. As an urban open space type, in particular, playgrounds, where children supply recreational and educational activities, are ignored with this loss in public open spaces. 
When most of the industry position in Istanbul, after 1950s, intense internal migration causes the uncontrolled urban expanse. Increased population causes increasing built environment. Parallel to the increasing population, urban green areas, including public playgrounds, transform with different use and lose their characteristics. 
The field work of this thesis is Kadıköy district in İstanbul. Kadıköy locates in Anatolian Part and mostly consists of residential urban type; where playgrounds are more needed in this part, which is the main reason why the district is chosen for this study. It has important residential areas in the city with its location in coast of the Sea of Marmara, topographical opportunities and demographical past. However, the uncontrolled population growth have bad influence in Kadikoy?s urban characteristic and built environment increase while green areas decrease. Playgrounds, one of the urban green areas, are significant to achieve the sustainability of the children?s health and Istanbul?s environmental quality. 
Kadıköy is the 6th most crowded districts in Istanbul and locates in Anatolian Part. The district mostly consists of residential urban type; where playgrounds are more needed in this part, which is the main reason why the district is chosen for this study. This study aims to create an inventory of children playground in Kadıköy district by evaluating them qualitative and quantitative way, by observing and evaluating the spaces with numerical findings according to their size, location and equipments. An inventory is made which list the physical features and user preferences, and the domains are calculated.  
The main aim of this thesis is to mention the importance of the concept of public playgrounds and to examine the qualitative and quantitative conditions of public playgrounds in Kadıköy where the density of green areas is decreasing over time as a result of the high population density.
This study contains literature review and a field work. The field work of this study is Kadıköy district in Istanbul. 
Firstly, the biologic, psychological and sociologic characteristics of the child are classified and the needs are determined. Maslow?s hierarchy of needs is adapted to child?s needs and the development periods of the child in different age ranges are defined. 
Secondly, the relation between child and game, the effects of the game on child?s development, the relation between space and child, and the the effect of space on child?s perception is described.
Thirdly, the definitions of playground worldwide, classifications, design criterias and example current projects are examined. 
In the last chapter, the physical and social datas of Kadıköy district are studied and qualitative and quantitative conditions of public playgrounds are evaluated to generate an inventory. The examination of public playground are done by observation, photography and numerical datas from Kadıköy Municipality and Turkey Statistics Institute. 
At this stage of the thesis, the implementory development plan of Kadıköy district, prepared by Kadıköy Municipality, is examined and locations and numerical datas of public playgrounds are determined. Then current physical status and user status are noted by visiting every public playground in situ. The domain areas of public playgrounds are calculated to find out the areas without any playgrounds. 
As a result of this study, the areal size of 62 public playgrounds are calculated. It helps to calculate the play area per child in the district. After calculating the total playground m² in Kadıköy district, the result is very below the standarts. The total size of the playgrounds are very insufficent and the number and size of the playgrounds must be increased. 
The majority of the playgrounds have traditional play equipments. However these elements are inefficient for children?s physical and mental developments rather than contemporary playgrounds. In this instance, contemporary playgrounds should be increased numerically. Therewithal, there are not any playgrounds or playing equipments for disabled childrens. 
According to the map of playgrounds, there are three neighborhoods without any playgrounds in their boundaries. After drawing the domain areas, the need of public playgrounds can be clearly seen in some neighbourhoods. 
Considering the current situation, some streets can be closed to traffic and be repurposes as public playground in the neighbourhoods which are not in the domain of any playground. Deficient playground amounts can be tolerated in existing parks and nonfunctional empty public spaces. As the children rate in population is high in Kadıköy, dense use of playgrounds may harm the equipment, this is why the materials should be enduring to use and natural conditions.
With this study, public playgrounds in Kadıköy are evaluated according to the design criteria stated in the thesis. The public playgrounds are marked on Kadıköy map, and the domain areas are drawn to determine the deficient spaces. Calculating the play area per child allow to identify the missing m² according to the green area standards. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation of public playgrounds composes an inventory for Kadıköy district. This inventory can stand as a sample for Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. 
When considering the user density in Kadıkoy, it can be said that more public playgrounds are needed according to the minority of equipments. Most of the playgrounds in Kadıköy have traditional; which means that they only contribute on child?s physical development and are very insufficient for cognitive and social needs. More creative playgrounds must be designed by taking into account the changing needs of the 21st century?s modern children.