Urban design

Urban design, or kentsel tasarım in Turkish, sits between city planning and architecture. Rather than a single building, it deals with the fabric that buildings create together: the scale of streets, how squares will be used, where people will walk, and where green space and street furniture belong. It turns planning decisions into the three-dimensional places people actually experience.

How it differs from a zoning plan

A zoning plan sets land use and building conditions, but it does not always describe what someone walking down the street will see. Urban design projects fill that gap. They look at how facades meet the street, how ground floors are used, changes in level, tree planting, lighting and materials as one whole. In Turkey, on large regeneration sites or new development areas, urban design decisions can be made binding through plan notes.

The role of visualization

Ideas at urban scale are hard to convey; a site plan alone rarely captures the feel of a place. Eye-level images, aerial perspectives and animations help decision makers and residents alike understand a scheme. We touched on the place of green space in city life in green spaces and architecture.