Aural turn in urban morphology: A cartophony proposal - The Sonus-Loci Map of Çubuk Stream, Ankara

Date

2025-6-10

Author

Biçer, Nehir Bera

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Urban morphology identifies the compositional relationships between urban elements, examines the long-term spatiotemporality of urban form, and analyzes the role of the actors and processes involved. Critically, the analysis of urban form tends to follow the modalities of visual culture. Sound, however, is a truly inseparable and associative urban entity that has a spatially vague and temporarily ephemeral unique character. Therefore, the phenomenon of sound creates an invisible, boundless, atmospheric, and short-term spatio-temporality that makes it challenging to grasp and represent through conventional methods of urban morphology. It has the potential to enrich and expand the representational repertoire of cartography and thicken up the study of urban form. However, the potentials of the sonic spatiotemporality have remained underexposed in urban research and the conventional maps opt for a cartographic silence. The dissertation refers to the concept of soundscape and claims that there is potentially a reciprocal relationship between morphological configuration and soundscape dynamics, expressed in this study as morphosonic urban phenomenon. In order to explore the manifold relationalities of urban form and soundscape, the dissertation aims to develop a sonically comprehensive mapping methodology, cartophony. The theoretical background of cartophony is based on urban morphology, rhythmanalysis (Lefebvre, 2004), and sonic effect approach (CRESSON, 1995). This dissertation has two main contributions. First and foremost, it proposes an alternative methodological framework for urban research. Second, cartophony is applied along Çubuk Stream, highlighting the intrinsic but disregarded value of the stream in Ankara's urban identity and geomorphological structure, not only visually but also sonically. All in all, this dissertation claims that mapping the morphosonic relationalities is essential for the development of sonically inclusive strategies and approaches in urban research, planning, and design.

Subject Keywords

Urban morphology, Soundscape, Mapping, Morphosonic urban phenomenon, Cartophony

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/115143

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Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis