Investigation of streets as ‘learning landscapes’ for children: the cases of Ankara

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2019
Kalkanlı, Duygu
Environmental impact on the physical and social development of children is significant enough to be underestimated. At the same time, children represent a large group within the urban population. However, especially in the cities of developing countries such as Turkey, physical space is designed by primarily considering the interests of adults. Besides, unhealthy and insecure conditions in the cities severely restrict the children's freedom of individual movement in the open space and even the use of the street in front of their homes. However, from the time the child communicates with the outside world and the perception of space begins to emerge, especially the streets can be considered as an area that affects the development of children; and where children can practice social and cognitive learning. This study aims to investigate the effects of streets on the development and learning of children and to investigate which characteristics of the street contribute to the learning activity of the children. In this study, streetscapes from different areas of Ankara were examined. Details of the streetscapes were investigated which may relate to the children's learning behaviors. The results were analyzed with respect to existing studies in the literature. After a literature review process, an evaluation tool was tested in various streetscapes. The example areas were taken from different neighborhoods of Ankara; A street from a historical neighborhood, a street from a traditional neighborhood, a street from a mass housing estate, and a street from a neighborhood with the new trends in urbanism in Turkey which also has 'play street' qualification. The study discusses the physical qualities of these streets regarding their contribution to the learning of children.

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Citation Formats
D. Kalkanlı, “Investigation of streets as ‘learning landscapes’ for children: the cases of Ankara,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2019.