Introducing built environment to children: Learning through the recent practices of architecture organizations in Turkey

Abstract

This academic study investigates the varying approaches for introducing built environment to children through the practices of architecture organizations in Turkey, namely the studies of built environment education. The practices of built environment education are novel and improving field of inquiry for Turkey which have influence for varying disciplines and also for the built environment itself. The purpose of the thesis is first to identify and examine the notions belongs to both built environment and built environment education. This theoretical attempt is to understand and learn from the documented practices of built environment education for the children in international and national scale. Secondly, the thesis focuses on and criticizes the selected cases from Ankara and İzmir in order to construct the implementation mapping to compare each selected educational practices. Besides, the study offers and implements an alternative case analysis in Turunç town / Muğla in the context of built environment education as a result of the examinations and observations of the previous studies held in local and international level. This special case is examined and evaluated as a part of the workshop series of “Turunç Mud Brick Preschool Workshops†. This analysis is to pursuit the ways of establishing an interactive learning and collaborating platform with the children, the local people, the volunteers and the professionals worked in Turunç within the same collective purpose for the awareness of built environment. Key words: architecture organizations, built environment, built environment education, children and architecture.