Sitting Outdoors as a Resilient Practice
in a Transforming City

Every country, city, or neighbourhood has its own character in terms of the usage of its public spaces. Sitting outdoors is a social practice that has different meanings in different cultures. Even though this practice seems just like a daily life ritual, it has deeper meanings in the scale of social interaction.

Sitting outdoors is a public behavior that became a part of the social culture over time in Turkey, just like in many other Mediterranean countries. Such everyday life practices create an in-between space other than public or private. This research aims to study the practice of sitting outdoors by looking at its spatial, material, social, economic, and gender-related characteristics in Istanbul. Urban plans are never enough to understand a city, but looking at its multiple layers is essential: The histories, cultures, identities, disappearing or re-appearing urban practices, stories, acts, obedience, or disobediences construct the essence of cities.

As a step towards understanding these multiple layers, this study uses the practice of sitting outdoors as a pedagogical tool to look at today’s Istanbul. Five districts -under social and urban transformation- in Istanbul are studied to analyze the practice of sitting outdoors. The results of observational walking, documentation, and informal interviews are discussed in their own local contexts. The religious, cultural, and physical background of the city is discussed to understand how the practice of sitting outdoors is developed by removing the borders between body and space, public and private, constructed and autonomous.

Thesis advisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Didem Kılıçkıran