Kentsel mekanda ritmin anlatısı
The narrative of the rhythm in urban space
Yazar: GİZEM ALATAŞ TEMEL
Danışman: DOÇ. PELİN DURSUN ÇEBİ
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü / Mimarlık Ana Bilim Dalı / Mimari Tasarım Bilim Dalı
Derece: Yüksek Lisans, 2019
Konu: Mimarlık = Architecture

Özet:
Kentsel mekanda gündelik hayat pratiklerinin fiziksel mekanı beden vasıtasıyla her gün yeniden yorumladığını görmek mümkündür. Beden, kentsel mekanı eylemleri boyunca sekanslara böler ve diğer bedenlerle birlikte kendi hareket akışında duyuları da içine alan ritmik bir kompozisyon üretir. Kentsel mekanda her gün yeniden düzenlenen bu kompozisyon sözü edilen mekanın ritmini tanımladığından, kentsel ritimlere zamansal-mekansal koreograflardır diyebiliriz. Bu tez, merkezine bedeni alan bir çerçeve tanımlayarak kentsel mekanda ritmin anlatısını deşifre etmek üzerine eğilir. Kentsel mekan toplumsal hayatı içinde barındıran; bedensel ihtiyaç ve isteklere göre farklı edimler, oluşlar, akışlar ve zamansallıklar içeren; en geniş çerçevede beden, mekan ve zaman katmanlarından meydana gelen dinamik ve sosyal bir yapıdır. Bu sebeple kentsel mekanı yalnızca çeşitli sınırlayıcı, tanımlayıcı ve bağlayıcı elemanlarla kurgulanmış fiziksel bir yapı olarak ele almak yerine, üzerinde gerçekleşen sosyal etkileşimleri de göz önünde bulundurmak; diğer bir deyişle kentsel mekanı oluşturan canlı cansız tüm aktörleri bütün ilişkileriyle ele almak, kentsel ritmin anlatısını keşfetmek için etkili bir yaklaşım olarak görülür. 
Çalışmada yöntem olarak, genel çerçevesini Lefebvre'nin tanımladığı ritimanalizden yararlanılmıştır. Bir yöntem olarak ritimanaliz, çıkış noktası, değindiği kavramlar, sosyal hayata dair ürettiği zamansal ve bedensel yaklaşımlar ile birlikte ele alınarak incelenmiştir. Ancak bu çalışmada kullanılan yöntemin çerçevesi, Lefebvre'nin ritimanaliz için çizdiği sınırların dışına çıkarak kentsel ritmi bir ağ yapısı olarak ele almak üzerine kurulmuştur. Bu sayede kentsel mekanın pek çok alternatif oluşu içinde barındıran, bu nedenle çeşitli mekansal programlar doğrultusunda bedeni sınırlandırmayan aksine eylem potansiyelleri ile özgürleştiren, değişken, dinamik ve çok aktörlü yapısını ortaya koymak amaçlanmıştır. Bu tezin odağı kentsel ritme etkiyen mekansal, bedensel ve zamansal yapıları deşifre etmeye çalışmaktır. Bu nedenle kentsel mekanda çizilen çerçeve doğrultusunda yürütülen ritimanaliz ile birlikte, ritmin ağ benzeri yapısını oluşturan aktörlerin mekansal-zamansal ilişkilerini incelemek için Latour'un Aktör-Ağ Teorisi'ni içeren çoklu bir bakış açısı tanımlamak esas alınmıştır. 
Tez kapsamında kentsel ritim araştırmalarında kullanılan yöntemler ve edinilen bulgular süzülerek, beden, mekan ve zaman diyalektiğinde ortak bir izlek tanımlanmıştır. İzmir Bostanlı-Karşıyaka semtleri arasında seçilen rotada Latour-Lefebvre çoklu bakış açısına sahip bu izlek üzerinden yürütülen ritimanaliz çalışması, sözü edilen kentsel mekanın aktörleri ile arasındaki ritmik ilişkileri çözümlemek ve ritmin mekansal, bedensel ve zamansal anlatısını deşifre etmek için bir yöntem olarak önerilmiştir.

Abstract:
This study suggests a tool interlinking the physical aspects of architecture and urban life with the temporal continuum of everyday life. The investigation of the dissertation departed in as a personal espial of interpreting the perception of temporariness of space. Evaluating architecture and urban space as an atemporal being without the contribution of daily activities which attach and detach to, damage and reconstruct the spatial boundaries and qualities in time, is seem as a deficient attempt to fully understand the urban life through the eyes of an architect.  Conducting a site research and rendering the urban life have often been reduced to timeless categories and pre-defined representations: site plans, perspectives, sections, analysis that all showing static situations and frozen frames of an urban space, neglecting temporal processes of its users or passersby. Architecture is omnipresent in communal and social life and this presence in urban space brings about some rules and options as affordances within itself. People act and behave appropriately or disappropriately for these affordances for certain processes and this is how everyday life shapes in urban spaces as I believe. This is why I find it worth  endeavouring to propose new ways of conceptualizing and representing these interactive relations in urban life among space, time and bodily actions.
This project at first but not least aims to conceptualize and represent architecture in everyday life situations in pursuit of spatiotemporal relations with their actors. Not relying on the assumption that urban architecture is rather a pre-defined, static material presence and suggesting only a fragment of everyday life situations, this research is about capturing and rendering discrete urban elements and relationships. The proposed way to experience and represent such relations is through the study of various rhythms of urban life. Because rhythms are seen as renderers of situations through spaces and time which repeated in their own flux showing tendencies of differences and repetitions.
This thesis aims to provide a research framework on how macro and micro rhythms experienced in urban space are related to space, time and physical experience processes. The curiosity of this research has been triggered by my interest in examining which spatial components rhythmically and with which actors bring together ordinary everyday activities such as eating, walking, shopping, playing, waiting, meeting. Which roles and forms do spatial features and temporal structures have in these rhythmic and ordinary series of events in everday life? Most importantly, how can these roles and relationships be examined, conceptualized and represented? One of the aims is to create a dynamic and micro-perceptual approach discussing these questions to be used through planning and design processes in urban space. The project is experimental in terms of conceptualizing, visualizing everyday life in urban space and defining it as a temporary and sequential phenomenon with a focus on short periods of time over a year.
This study aims to remain very close to the discipline of architecture in order to contribute to the discourse of architecture. This is why it is also important to represent how the rhythm in urban spaces, resulting from the repetitions of actions and situations, interweave the spatial attributes and program with the ways and processes of human use of this place, bringing about the everyday life.
In order to realize this discussion, I was inspired by recent theories and research on the rhythm and temporality of architecture. These include, for example, the work of architectural theorists who emphasize the relationship between use and architecture and refer to the concept of rhythm to explain this temporality; Stavrides (2010), Wunderlich (2008; 2013), Brighenti (2018), Kärrholm (2012; 2013) and Chen (2016). In order to establish an approach in the context of urban space, I examined Whyte (1980), Alexander (1977) and Tschumi's (1994) perspectives, which investigates the relationship between daily life and spatial use and evaluate architecture from a situational perspective. I referred to one of the important theoretical inspirations, Henri Lefebvre, to establish the theoretical framework for the debate and research on urban rhythm. Rhythm as discussed in the thesis refers to the definitions and relationalizations of Lefebvre (1992). When I tried to develop an analytical order for the complexity of the urban space, I realized that the complex and intertwined structure of the relationships I pursue, in fact constitute a kind of network. This exploratory moment led me to the Actor-Network Theory that a number of social scientists developed about network structures. This theory, created by the contributions of Latour (2005), Law (1994; 2002) and Mol (1994), helped me to conceptualize the relationships between space, time and bodily experiments.
In the first part of the thesis, the general framework and purpose of the thesis are discussed whereas in the second part, the concept of rhythm is introduced. In this section, where the definitions of Lefebvre on rhythm are examined, the notion of rhythm is exemplified by the various projects and researches. How this notion will be handled throughout the thesis and the manner of approach are described. In the following section, the rhythm analysis method, which is also described in the way described by Lefebvre, is exemplified by the ways it is conducted in urban space. At the end of this chapter, the rhythmanalytic study range is defined and the concept of body-space, which is thought to be an important concept for the thesis, is introduced.
In the fourth chapter, a research framework was formed in the light of the information filtered from the conceptual discussions. This section, which describes the spatial, temporal and bodily narrative of urban rhythm, is followed by case study. The case area chosen for the case study includes a route drawn in Karşıyaka district of İzmir, where the author has knowledge about daily life since  lived there for a long time. Also the area is known with its rich public life and activities, therefore hopefully with a great range of polyrhytmia and urban rhythms. The method included in situ observations and time-lapse photography sessions helded within a year, during a weekday and a weekend, in different seasons.By doing so, the study attempted to have a sequential structure, as underlining the seasonal and weekly shifts in urban polyrhtmia.
As a result of the case study conducted in line with the drawn frame in the fourth chapter; spatial characteristics, temporal structures, and bodily experiences seemed to create basal or transient urban rhythms as a result of relationships with each other and actors in fact play an active role in the formation of urban rhythm. The study also revealed how urban space appears to be relational rather than static or functional. It is hoped that the research framework formed by filtering among many spatial parameters can be diversified and used in other studies by changing those parameters according to the direction of the researchers' study focus. By that, rhythmanalytic approaches based on interrelations between space, time and physical experience may be expanded in the field of architectural studies in future.