Thinking with Universal Design in Historical Environment

Abstract

Historical environment is a unique and irreplaceable resource which reflects the social, cultural and economic characteristics of the past societies (Donely, 2011). It is an integral part of local, regional and national cultural idendity. The environment especially consists of historical environment and buildings are significant because of their uses as place where people’s daily life activities. Moreover, meeting of social and cultural assets which societies have been figuring from the past with daily life turns into a resource for a sustainable future. However, it is generally impossible that those buildings which have been constructed in their own terms can satisfy the needs of today. In Turkey where the balance of protecting-using is on behalf of the first one, the protection policies and protection regulations exceedingly limit the intervention to the natural environments. Wishing that historical buildings are actualized into daily life on one hand and clamping down on accessing, visiting and using those buildings on the other hand leads to a serious discrepancy. However, the prominent examples which oversee the balance of protecting-using show that historical environments can be intervened through designing which will create or add values without compromising on protection. All sorts of interventions to be conducted consider the potential needs of the users without giving any harms to the originality of the building. Thus, it is expected that everyone can access the buildup area including the historical buildings, products and services and information equally and under equitable conditions. For that reason, making the built-upenvironment accessible, visitable and usable through universal design is one of the fundamental rights for the people who expand their daily living environment through accessibility and universal design. In this study, accessibility, visitability and usability of Bedesten Historical Site in the city of Konya are discussed through the theme of “Thinking through Universal design” and suggestions of designing are given in various scales (urban scale, street scale and building scale).