School buildings are one of the first public spaces where children feel safe, well-being and fulfil their social needs. In this context, secondary school buildings, currently used in our country, have been discussed qualitatively for many years. Therefore, the focus point of this study is about the relationship between the buildings of education and their place in children’ perception. The study's purpose is as follows: What is the effect of school buildings’ physical conditions on children perception? Within this scope, the İstanbul Kagithane region was selected as a case study and secondary school buildings in different typologies were examined. The first one of these typologies is the schools that the Ministry of National Education built with the same characteristics. The other is the schools that Uygur Architecture designed. These schools were planned to be prepared for the possible earthquake of Istanbul and to be reconstructed in the context of the “Istanbul Seismic Risk Reduction and Emergency Preparedness Project”. As a sample, the Secondary School of Cengizhan was selected for the first typology and also the Secondary School of Ahmet Cuhadaroglu was selected for the second typology. Selected schools were evaluated in terms of practice, user satisfaction and user perception. The questionnaire and mapping techniques were applied as the method, and the obtained data were interpreted over the selected evaluation criteria. The questionnaire and cognitive mapping study was conducted at the secondary schools with 206 students aged 9 to 13 years. Cognitive maps were evaluated with projective, metric and imaginative space parameters. As a result, it is supported by cognitive mapping studies that spatial perceptions of students are directly related to the exterior and interior of the building. Therefore, it is considered that the evaluation criteria and the obtained data from this study may support further research.