Post-occupancy Evaluation of a Built Environment: The Case of Konak Square (İzmir, Turkey)

Abstract

Konak Square and its environs in the city of İzmir have a diversity of users and activities. The area was studied to establish how much such a public open space meets user expectations. Taking environmental factors into account and investigating user dissatisfaction will help in the design of similar public open spaces in the future. Some 271 public users and 56 specialists were consulted for their opinions through questionnaires. At the same time bioclimatic comfort conditions were calculated using the Olgyay method so that we could investigate the relationship between user satisfaction and these conditions. The central tendency (average) of general user satisfaction was calculated as 4.5 using the seven-step Likert attitude scale while the average for general satisfaction of specialist consultants was 4.1. Of the 271 questionnaires received 179 were completed on days when bioclimatic comfort conditions were not reached and, surprisingly, users indicated that they were more satisfied on these days. Konak Square was built in 2003 at a cost of 3,600,000. The companies involved reported that bureaucracy and application costs were sometimes restricting factors during the design and construction stages.