Research Information System
in: Contemporary Issues in Architecture and Urban Planning: Development, Memory, Environment, Yıldız Aksoy,Efe Duyan, Editor, DAKAM Books, İstanbul, pp.6-15, 2021
The landscape is a medium that contains tangible and intangible values inside. They provide a habitat for plants,
animals, and other livelihoods on earth. They shape the surface with morphology, water, vegetation, soil and
change with time. Rural landscapes are basically a production space whether it is natural or designed, while its
basic idea is based on ecosystem services. Urban landscapes are designed to provide more natural images in
built areas, help to urban ecosystem, keep biodiversity, and create recreational spaces for humans. The
enthusiasm for urban landscapes comes from the naturalness of the rural or pastoral images of the landscapes.
Landscapes are also a threshold not only in the meaning of concrete borders but also unseen worlds, senses,
dreams, or memories. The landscape defines the place which is a socially constructed space. It is created by
personal and collective memories besides the natural phenomenon of the landscape itself. The memories in a
place collect over and over as a palimpsest and become the layers of place memory. Mnemonic devices in
landscapes are the reminder elements of place memory. They can be used to remembering the past, an event,
a person, or more deep inside our subconscious. The main object of the research is understanding how
contemporary urban landscapes can evoke the rural memories of visitors. The research is conducted on a closed
and open questionnaire. The general images of urban landscapes and rural landscapes, landscape design
materials, and design approaches are used to understand the power of evoking rural landscape memories. The
outcomes of the survey show that there is a strong connection between the main design elements used in urban
and rural landscape designs. On the other hand, the use of design materials strongly affects the power of
reminding the rural landscapes. Despite the fact that naturalness becomes a strong keyword for the rural
landscape memories, every urban landscape does not perceive as a pastoral image even if the natural materials
inside. The participants emphasize that the places in urban landscapes give positive feelings when they have
more rural landscape images.