An Assessment of Spatial Quality in Public Space: A Case Study

Abstract Public spaces play an essential role in the formation of cities, and they combine all kinds of social classes and cultural groups and individuals with different features. In these public domains, individuals have the chance to go out of their own internal worlds and perceive the presence of different and new thoughts than theirs. From this perspective, the importance of spatial quality in public domain come along. The basic purpose of this study is to examine the social and physical structures of cities and to evaluate whether they fulfil the spatial quality criteria so that urban spaces can be formed and whether the users are in interaction with the space. The study field is the Beyazıt Square, İstanbul University and its surrounding. This space was probably the biggest area of the city during the Byzantium period and a palace area during the Ottoman period while it is one of the elements that constitute the image of the city. The area was perceptually evaluated with the observations and surveys conducted in the study field and it was observed that the urban design works around the Beyazıt Square and İstanbul University haven’t given any result so far that would sufficiently satisfy the users.