Balancing conservation and change: a morphological approach

Balancing conservation and change: a morphological approach

Project: Balancing conservation and change: a morphological approach

Team: Muzaffer Ali Arat, John Pendlebury

The project is being developed at Newcastle University with financial support from The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)

Objectives of the project

1. First, this research aims to strengthen the applicability of the systematized method of ‘morphological regionalization’, (firstly developed by M.R.G. Conzen, then systematized by Muzaffer Ali Arat) by aiming to apply it to the English context, where the method was born.
2. Second, while the systematized method is applied to identify conservation areas, it is aimed to further develop the method within the framework of conservation priorities.
3. The third is to provide a scientific basis to establish the balance between conservation and change.

Expected impacts

• This research has a strong potential to create substantial academic impacts in the field of knowledge, and non-academic impacts for planning practice. These are as follows:
  Presenting a scientific approach to the continuity of built heritage and effective urban conservation.
• Enabling a strong link between urban morphological analyses and conservation area delimitation.
• Identification of the physical form of cities through the method of morphological regionalization can be the basis for producing a map of planning zones as a key tool for urban landscape management, enabling the definition of regulations for the design of new forms with a strong relationship with extant urban forms. Each zone in the zoning map should then be addressed in terms of what must be conserved, what can be transformed, and how this transformation can occur. This process for the definition of specific transformation rules can be supported by lower-order regions.
• The method application into different levels, identifying progressive orders of morphological regions, offers a detailed description and explanation of the urban landscape that can also be used for the prescription of planning practice, such as urban conservation
• This research will provide a scientific basis for the spatial change that has occurred intensively in Turkey recently.
• A strong reference framework will be created to balance emerging changes and built heritage.
• Considering that conservation areas are determined in a superficial way in Turkey, this research will provide a scientific basis for the designation of conservation areas in Turkey.
• It will present a framework for a more sensitive designation of conservation area and management.
• The research will enable a basis for character preservation and enhancement
• It will contribute to the continuity of local history, cultural tradition, and identity in the management of urban landscape forms
• It will demonstrate how an understanding of urban areas as historico-geographical entities can strengthen the theoretical basis of conservation and change
• The research will achieve urban spatial continuity and integrity of new structures with surroundings