Kentsel mekan üretiminde katılımcı yaklaşımlar
Participative approaches for urban space production
Yazar: ÖZGE ÇAĞLAR
Danışman: DOÇ. DR. PELİN DURSUN ÇEBİ
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü / Mimarlık Ana Bilim Dalı / Mimari Tasarım Bilim Dalı
Derece: Yüksek Lisans, 2017
Konu: Mimarlık = Architecture ; Şehircilik ve Bölge Planlama = Urban and Regional Planning

Özet:
Kentli, kent yaşamı içerisinde en çok kentsel mekan ile etkileşim kurmaktadır. Kentsel mekan gündelik hayata sahne olmakta, sosyal olgulara ve süreçlere tanıklık etmektedir. Kentsel mekan ve kullanıcısı olan kentli arasındaki etkileşimin ve söz konusu mekanlara yüklenen anlamın kentlinin kentsel yaşamındaki yeri büyüktür. Bu çalışma, kentsel mekanın üretimi sürecinde kentlinin aktif rol alarak, kentsel mekanların üretim sürecine planlama ve tasarım kararları anlamında katılım sağlamasının potansiyellerini tartışmaktadır. Tez çalışması içerisinde öncelikle katılımcılık kavramının anlamı ve tanımı üzerinde durulmuştur. Nasıl ortaya çıktığı, düzeyleri, yöntemleri ve hangi düşüncelerle geliştiği literatür çerçevesinde incelenmiştir. Kentsel mekanın üretiminde, kentlinin katılımcı olabildiği pratikler ve örgütlenme modelleri incelenmiştir. Katılımcı yaklaşımların uygulanabilmesi için kurgulanan örgütlenme modelinin, kentlinin aktif veya pasif rol almasında belirleyici olduğu görülmüş, çalışmada iki türlü örnekler de incelenmiş ancak ağırlıklı olarak kentlinin aktif olduğu pratikler üzerinde durulmuştur. Katılımcı yaklaşımı benimseyen güncel kentsel hareketler ile onların pratikleri üzerinden, kentli için 'katılımcı yaklaşımlı bir yol haritası' oluşturmayı hedeflemektedir. Bu çalışma, kentlinin yönetimsel bir destek olmadan, 'kentsel mekan üretim sürecine ne gibi katkılar sağlayabileceği sorusu' üzerinde durmuştur. Yönetim destekli ve desteksiz kentlinin kentsel mekan üretim sürecine katlımını destekleyen kentsel hareketler ve bu hareketler dahilinde gerçekleşen pratikler bu amaçla incelenmiştir. Bu anlamda katılımcı yaklaşımlar benimseyen ve özellikle bireylerin kendi taleplerini yansıtan kentsel hareketlerin, kentsel mekan üretiminde daha sürdürülebilir bir planlama aracı olarak kullanılabileceği öngörülmüştür. Katılımcı yaklaşım doğası gereği bireyi ön plana çıkarmaktadır. Bu anlayış ile birey, toplum ve kentsel mekan arasındaki bağlar önem kazanmaktadır. Bireyin ön planda tutulduğu katılımcı yaklaşımların, mekansal dönüşüm yaratabilme gücüne sahip olduğu görülmüştür. Bireyin toplumu, toplumun mekanı ve mekanın bireyi döngüsel biçimlerde etkilediği anlayışından yola çıkılarak katılımcılığın toplumsal boyutu anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır. Bireysel ve toplumsal ilişkilerin, dönemin ekonomik sisteminden fazlası ile etkilendiği göz önüne alınarak, kentsel mekanın üretiminde bireyin ve toplumun gücü açığa çıkarılmaya çalışılmıştır. Kentsel mekan üretiminin, kentlinin talepleri ve ihtiyaçları doğrultusunda şekillenmesi değerli bulunmuştur. Aynı zamanda 'katılımcılık' kavramının 1960'larda ortaya çıkmasına rağmen yaklaşık son 20 yıllık bir periyotta yükselişe geçen, kentsel politikalarda adı geçen, seminerlere konu olan, dergi gündemlerinde yer edinen bir kavrama dönüşmesi ve bu dönüşümün gerçekleşmesine neden olan toplumsal, ekonomik, bireysel ve çağa özgün koşullar anlaşılmaya çalışılmıştır. Günümüzün sosyolojik, ekonomik ve toplumsal değerleri göz önüne alınarak son dönemlerde ortaya çıkmış katılımcı yaklaşımları benimseyen kentsel hareketlerin anlaşılması hedeflenmiştir. Söz konusu kentsel hareketler, güncel sosyo-ekonomik değerler ile etkileşim içerisindedir ve toplumun taleplerini ve eğilimlerini yansıtmaktadır. Kentsel mekanların, bireylerin daha mutlu bir kent yaşantısı yaşayabilmesi için güçlü araçlar olduğu düşünülmektedir. Kentsel mekanın üretiminde kentlinin katılımı konusu, katılımcı yaklaşımlı kentsel hareketler ve bu hareketler kapsamındaki kentsel pratikler karşılaştırmalı olarak incelenerek, nitelikli ve sürdürülebilir kentsel mekanlar yaratmadaki potansiyelleri açığa çıkarılmaya çalışılmıştır.

Anahtar kelimeler: Tasarımda katılımcılık, katılımcı planlama, katılımcı kentsel mekan üretimi

Abstract:
In urban life, the citizen mostly interacts with urban space. Urban space is the scene of everyday life, witnessing social events and processes. The meaning of the interaction between the urban space and the user, the citizen along with the meaning attributed to the places in question are great. This study discusses the potentials of participation by taking an active role in urbanization in the process of urban space production.  When urban space production is made just by decision makers, professionals, city planners or politicians, it has been observed that the users of the urban space are not satisfied with the results. The world becomes more communicative, therefore people all over the world claim for a more democratic and participatory ways to produce urban spaces. Participatory approaches with its communicative nature, let every individual's voice to be heard. Local citizens have their own knowledge of the problems in their portion urban spaces they live in. In the process of taking decisions about producing urban spaces, local citizens' knowledge should be used by letting them to participate the process. It is claimed that producing urban space with a participatory approach results in the production of higher quality and more sustainable spaces. In the thesis, firstly the meaning and definition of the concept of participation is studied. How it emerged, its levels, its methods, and how it was developed with thought has been examined. In a very basic way, participation has the meaning to let an individual be a part of decision making process. Participation is related with delegation of power with citizens and decentralization of power from an authority circle to citizens and nonprofit institutions as well as civil community organizations. The concept of urban participation started to be known in 1960's in Nordic countries, England, America and Holland. The concept is mostly related with the areas of the science where social issues are discussed: social sciences, politics, design, architecture and urban planning. By its nature the main subject of the concept of participation is the individual. In design, participatory processes emerged and evolved in stages. First there was 'designer focused design'. It than evolved to 'design for users' and at the last stage it transformed into 'design with users'. In this study, the last stage 'design with users' approach is emphasized. By this approach individuals are actively involved in the design process. In this thesis 'design' is defined by 'causing any change in the environment'. 'Production of urban space' is defined by 'causing transformation' including both physical and mental production. One of the other reasons to study 'participatory approaches to produce urban space" is to understand the increased popularity regarding 'participation concept'. Although participation concept emerged in 1960's, it became popular in city planning policies, conferences, architectural and urban based magazine articles especially during the last twenty years. Transformations of social, economic and individual conditions of this age were found valuable and in this study. It was tried to understand how 'the concept of participation' became a major subject in the last twenty years. In the production of urban space, the practices and organizational models that the citizen can participate in have been examined. To apply participatory approaches, it has been found that the model of organization which is fictionalized is determinative of the active or passive role of urbanism. Two main organization types are defined for participatory approaches: One is top-down organizations in which decisions are made by top and convey to the lower levels. Top-down approach usually begins with administration policy. The target group is defined by the topic. In this organization model the structure of relations is vertical. Second one is bottom-up organization model. In bottom-up approaches, organization begins with civil society organizations or committed individuals. While bottom-up organization's topics evolve from everyday life, top-down organizations set their topic through policy planning. Bottom-up organization models structure of relations are horizontal. In this study, two examples have been examined but the practices which are predominantly active and bottom-up in urbanism have been emphasized. Organization models determine the participatory approach for urban space: whether with the support of governance or without the support of governance they operate. In this study, both types are tried to be understood by examples from the world however mostly examples of organization models 'without governance' are investigated. The reason to choose this kind of examples is to seek the answer to the following question: 'Even if the administrations do not support participatory approaches, how could citizens do their own contributions for urban space production by themselves?' Participation is a complex concept and multi-layered structure. To understand the concept of participation, five main layers are discussed in this study. These layers are:  1- 'Participation process and its scale layer',  2- 'Participation process and its time layer',  3- 'Participation process and its communication layer',  4- 'Participation process and its space layer',  5- 'Participation process and its economic and social layer'  In this thesis study, the links between layers and the concept of participation are established. The conceptual frame of the concept is structured accordingly. It has been found valuable to shape the production of urban space in line with the demands and needs of the city. Participative approach brings the individual to the forefront. With this understanding, the links between the individual, society and urban space gain importance. Participatory approaches, where the individual is held on the frontline, are seen to have the power to create spatial transformation. The social dimension of participation has been tried to be understood by starting from the understanding that the individual affects the society, space and space of the society in cyclical forms. By creating awareness that the urban space does not form spontaneously, the individual and the society have been tried to be exposed to their hidden power in the production of urban space. The goal is to create a roadmap through current practices and urban movements that adopt a participatory approach. Considering today's sociological, economic and social values, it is aimed to understand the urban movements that have adopted the participatory approaches that have emerged recently. The mentioned urban movements interact with current socio-economic values and reflect the demands and tendencies of the society. The participatory approaches are chosen from the ones which aimed to transform and reshape the urban spaces and contributes for the urban space production. In this study, the layered structure of the concept of participation is used for data collection. The defined criteria to analyze the participatory approach, urban practices are selected from the 'organization model', 'scale', 'time', 'communication', 'space' and 'economic and social' layers of the concept.  The organization model explains if the practice is with top-down or bottom-up approach. The scale and time explain if the practice is a small-scale intervention or a long-term planning. How does it start? Spontaneously or by a project? How long does it take? Is it creating instant change or is it a process itself?  In communication criteria the following questions are tried to be answered: How does participation happen? By individual commitments or civil organizations? Is the practice is sanctioned or unsanctioned? What is the participatory act tool? Entertainment? Sports? Arts? In economic and social part, the questions investigated are: Is this practice demands right to the city? Does this practice help to create an urban movement? Does this practice help to raise the social awareness about production of space and participation? What is the attitude of the practice? Is it standing out from the capitalist pressures? In social issues, does the practice help with social connections in a positive way, what is adding to social context of the community?  For each practice, a graphic with defined criteria is produced to help evaluate the matters in discussion. Participatory approach in urban movements are analyzed through the conceptual framework in a systematical way.  The understanding that the urban space and the focus of life should be human values has been adopted. This work aims to raise awareness about the potentials of the participation of the citizens in the production of urban space. It is aimed to create a road map for citizens, designers, architects, city planners to transform and produce the urban space by understanding the nature of participatory approaches. By investigating participatory approaches in urban movements, studying the urban practices in a comparative way, it is tried to be understood the roles and potentials of participatory approach for production of high quality and sustainable urban spaces. 
 
Key words: Participatory design, participatory planning, participatory urban space production