Women's sense of safety in high-rise mass housing estates: the case of Kusunlar Toki in Ankara, Turkey

2022-9-2
Temurer, Sena
Designing and building high-rise housing estates have been a worldwide phenomenon in recent years. A review of the literature shows that there are various advantages and disadvantages of living in such settings. Most of the discussions focus on the impact of these environments on the health and psychological wellbeing of residents. Less is known about how high-rise environments affect individuals’ use of public spaces related to their sense of safety, especially for women who live in high-rise mass housing estates. This thesis asks: To what extent do the women residents of high-rise mass housing estates perceive their public spaces safe? (2) Which physical environmental factors affect women residents' sense of safety in the public spaces of high-rise mass housing estates? The most fundamental motivation for this study is to understand the relationship between high-rise housing environments and sense of safety. It needs further analysis in the context of Turkey, a country where the number of high-rise developments is dramatically increasing so that better places that promote the sense of safety and higher use of place of their residents can be designed. To answer the above-stated research questions, the author used face-to-face questionnaire survey and follow-up in-depth interviews (integrated with a mapping activity) with 45 women. Findings show that the sense of safety of women change depending on their age, occupied floor level and the age of their children. Socio-environmental factors such as social disorders, familiriarity outweigh the physical-environmental factors in terms of their effect on the sense of safety.

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Citation Formats
S. Temurer, “Women’s sense of safety in high-rise mass housing estates: the case of Kusunlar Toki in Ankara, Turkey,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2022.