EXPLORING PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF URBAN IDENTITY: THE CASE OF ANKARA, TURKEY

Urban spaces play an important role in the processes of formation, change and reproduction of urban identity. Under present day conditions where the identities of cities are rapidly deteriorating and vanishing, the importance of urban design which is a means of designing the urban spaces and their physical and social aspects is ever growing. The aims of this research are to find out the elements constituting urban identity by determining with what elements the inhabitants of Ankara Kecioren define the city in which they live and particularly their own living environment; to show the changes in urban identity and its elements in the course of time and to investigate the role of urban design in these changes. In this study, it has been concluded that urban design is one of the most important factors effecting urban identity both physically and socially; that urban design must be taken up with an approach where public interest dominates so that it can have positive effects on urban identity and that one of the most important reasons of the change in the identity of Kecioren is the urban design made there.