Evaluation of Biophilic Approach in the Design of Residential Sites; Case of Sinpaş Altınoran, Ankara/Turkey

ABSTRACT Translated as the “love of life”, the biophilic design is a novel and popular trend within the scope of sustainable building design. As a human-oriented approach, the Biophilic Design aims at enhancing our connection with the natüre, along with the natural processes within the buildings where we work and live. This enhanced connection can contribute our welfare by means of minimizing the stress, improving the rejuvenation, thus assisting as to reduce the costs and enhancing the outcomes within the built environment. The mass housing projects of the recent years aim at improving the environmental quality, presenting designs that meet the requirements of the natüre, as well as creating a habitable environment that is sustainable in terms of economic, ecological and social aspects, while meeting the needs of society. In this study, we analyzed the designing process of Sinpaş Altınoran Residential Site, which is the largest housing Project of Ankara, in accordance with the principles of biophilic approach. Within the scope of this study, it is aimed at whether the area can be categorized under biophilic design approach based on our inspection on the locational selection, natural factors, the used structural and plantal materials and sustainability, as well as identifying the deficiencies. What we aim with this research is to explore and comprehend the meaning of biophilia and biophilic components within the design of residental sites in order to enhance the environmental and life quality, in addition to the beneifts that we are able to obtain in terms of the experience of users, as well as the enhancement within the quality of built environment. Within the section named as “Results”, the Sinpaş Project was analyzed within the scope of biophilic design criteria, as well as creating the evaluation tables. As per the results obtained, the need fort he incorporation of Biophilia is emphasized in terms of enhancing the objectives of sustainability, along with the quality of builty environment and the outlook of further researches in terms of the same matter.