Environmental Evaluation of Istanbul’s Galata Square as an Urban open space

Galata Square was discussed as a city square that is located inside the life and has potentials within the context of Re-invention of city center .The history of Galata Region starts with a town called as Sykai in Ancient Ages. The settlement grew with the construction of a new city on the other side of İstanbul by Konstantin the Emperor of Byzantium in 300’s BC. In 12th century, Galata had its brightest days with Genoese settlement then surrendered to the Ottomans by the conquest of İstanbul. Galata, which was dominated by various nations and religions, continues to live in the center of İstanbul and life with its layers that were carried from its history.The tradition of commerce that was created by workshops and establishments that have an important role in the business life with the existence of Galata Port, still keeps the business life alive. Besides its touristic importance because of its history, tradition of commerce provides the continuity of active daily life. Observations which made on different days of a week and different times in a day, show the fact that changing profile of the visitors make it an active and living place.There are some religious centers among the contributions made by the people from various nations and religions. Inhabitants like Latinas, Venetians, Greeks, Genoeses, Armenian communities, Jews, Assyrians, Gypsies, Levantines and Muslims that are from different sects brought character to the region with buildings that are reflecting their identities and suitable for living their own religions.Among the prominent reasons, being located in the center of the city is the primary one for Galata to be a living square. Existence of Galata Tower makes this region and especially Galata Square an attractive center for the city. It attracts attention with its historical values and has visitors in any time in a year. Besides being supported by tourism, active commercial life is an important criterion for local people to maintain their lives in the area. Schools and hospitals that are located in the region are among the supporting facilities for the daily life.Galata Square and its region continue to be an attraction center for tourists and maintain its feature of being a living place by day and night. This practice contains an assessment made by using video, voice record, photograph, image analyze, observation and interview methods for understanding the space and providing sustainability of livability. By using different days in aweek and also different hours in a day, the observation results are presented in numeric data. Findings prove that Galata Square was used intensively by people from different ethnic groups and tourists, was a center that lives from early hours of the day to late hours of the night and the hours of usage depended on user profiles. This practice is not important only for its results, it is also important for its analytical method that can be applied for the other urban areas.

کلیدواژه ها:

Galata ، Galata Square ، square ، stratification ، urban open pace ، social sustainability