Abstract

The concept of participation has come into prominence in urban planning and urban design since the mid- 1970’s as consciousness of local identity increased. There is a significant body of research on participation related to urban design. Various participation methods, models, and processes have been proposed each based on specific experiences. This article presents a participation method and process for the urban design study of Yozgat Cumhuriyet square. This method is useful for defining a new approach in participative urban design based on intense and sincere communication between designers and users. The study was conducted entirely as an academic workshop. First, questionnaires were used to ensure participation, then it was expected that the participants, who accepted to take part in the later stages of design would directly contribute to urban design process. However, the final urban design project could not be prepared as the process failed at the stage of active participation of the citizens. Although, it failed, the process could be evaluated as a new approach/model for the participative urban design. This article explains the method and process and discusses the reasons for the failure in the case study.

Key words: Participation, user-designer interaction, urban design, urban square, participatory urban design