Thinking with Universal Design in Historical Environment

Abstract

Historical environment is a unique and irreplaceable resource whichreflects the social, cultural and economic characteristics of the pastsocieties (Donely, 2011). It is an integral part of local, regional andnational cultural idendity. The environment especially consists ofhistorical environment and buildings are significant because of theiruses as place where people’s daily life activities. Moreover, meeting ofsocial and cultural assets which societies have been figuring from thepast with daily life turns into a resource for a sustainable future.However, it is generally impossible that those buildings which have beenconstructed in their own terms can satisfy the needs of today. In Turkeywhere the balance of protecting-using is on behalf of the first one, theprotection policies and protection regulations exceedingly limit theintervention to the natural environments. Wishing that historicalbuildings are actualized into daily life on one hand and clamping downon accessing, visiting and using those buildings on the other hand leadsto a serious discrepancy. However, the prominent examples whichoversee the balance of protecting-using show that historicalenvironments can be intervened through designing which will create oradd values without compromising on protection. All sorts ofinterventions to be conducted consider the potential needs of the userswithout giving any harms to the originality of the building. Thus, it isexpected that everyone can access the buildup area including thehistorical buildings, products and services and information equally andunder equitable conditions. For that reason, making the built-upenvironment accessible, visitable and usable through universal design isone of the fundamental rights for the people who expand their dailyliving environment through accessibility and universal design.In this study, accessibility, visitability and usability of BedestenHistorical Site in the city of Konya are discussed through the theme of“Thinking through Universal design” and suggestions of designing aregiven in various scales (urban scale, street scale and building scale).