Semra Arslan Selçuk

This study examines the thematic structure of architectural and urban research to identify current trends and gaps in scholarship at the intersection of immigration, the urban, and conviviality. Focusing on 2010–2025, it maps a large corpus of Scopus-indexed publications to reveal dominant themes and conceptual clusters in a systematic and reproducible way. We employ science mapping, particularly co-word (keyword co-occurrence) analysis, to identify the concepts that organise migration-related work within architectural scholarship and to assess the position and level of representation of conviviality within this network. The findings show that migration research is primarily concentrated in the social sciences, while architecture is only marginally represented in this broader literature. When the dataset is restricted to an urban focus, studies cluster around gentrification, urban transformation, housing production, and spatial conflict. By contrast, conviviality appears only sporadically and is almost entirely absent, especially at the intersection of migration and public space. Overall, the results suggest that architectural scholarship tends to approach migration through problem-driven frames centred on physical transformation. We argue for integrating conviviality more robustly as a spatial and relational analytical tool in architecture and urban design, and we outline directions for future research.

In recent times, with changing climate conditions, rising environmental awareness, and advancing technology, “environmentally friendly structures” have gained unprecedented importance. Technological progress enables a better understanding and application of nature’s principles in design, fostering eco-friendly strategies to address environmental challenges. Particularly in warm climates, thermoregulatory designs are vital for creating resilient urban environments. Rising temperatures affect the energy efficiency and comfort of buildings, prompting architects to explore solutions such as kinetic facades. These innovative systems, inspired by nature, adapt to external factors such as sunlight and temperature, enhancing the harmony between built environments and nature. This study presents a kinetic facade model designed for thermal balance and daylight optimization. Drawing inspiration from AskNature’s database, it mimics biological strategies, such as the Saharan silver ant’s micro-hair structure for effective heat reflection, the movement mechanism of Spanish moss, and the geometric form of the honeycomb. By integrating this feature, the proposed kinetic facade offers a sustainable solution for thermoregulation in modern architectural shells.

The increasing number of vehicles in cities reduces the efficiency of parking infrastructure and increases traffic congestion, making it challenging to achieve sustainable transportation goals. This situation necessitates a re-evaluation of urban mobility systems in conjunction with spatial organization and digital technologies. This article examines smart parking systems as “data-oriented spaces”, analyzing their impact on urban mobility, energy efficiency and spatial organization from a multidimensional perspective. The research adopts a qualitative, multi-level approach, structured through a comprehensive literature review, a comparative analysis of five international case studies and a conceptual synthesis of the findings. The data obtained were evaluated using criteria such as technological infrastructure, spatial structure, sustainability performance and user interaction. The findings reveal that smart parking systems not only serve as vehicle storage but can also function as digital–spatial interfaces that direct urban data flows. This study presents a conceptual framework that treats smart parking systems as data-oriented architectural spaces, offering a holistic approach to the design of sustainable urban mobility infrastructures. This perspective allows for redesigning parking structures as adaptable, data-oriented architectural systems that optimize circulation patterns, reduce search-related emissions, increase spatial efficiency and support sustainable urban mobility networks.

Climate change threatens the sustainability of historic buildings with increasing extreme weather events, making energy resilience critical. However, studies on energy resilience often lack forward-looking, holistic approaches. This study aims to develop a conceptual framework that includes how Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies can support energy resilience in historical buildings with data-driven prediction and analysis to increase energy resilience against climate change. This study applied a methodology with four-stage qualitative research techniques, including a systematic literature review (PRISMA method), content analysis, AI integration, and conceptual framework development processes, in the intersections of historical building, energy resilience, and climate change. The findings reveal a significant research gap in the predictive analysis of the resilience of historic buildings and the integration of AI-based tools in the context of climate change. The proposed framework outlines a multi-layered system that includes data collection, performance analysis, scenario-based prediction, and AI-assisted decision-making, aiming to enhance the resilience of the building (including building envelope, thermal, and lifecycle analysis). Consequently, this study provides a theoretical and methodological perspective and proposes a scientifically based and applicable roadmap. It also highlights the potential of AI as a bridge between energy resilience and historical buildings in the face of a rapidly changing climate.

The structure of cities changes over time with various interactions. Urban regeneration strategies have an important place among these factors. This significantly affects the transformation process seen in many cities around the world. It changes the morphological structure of cities and substantially affects their socio-economic and cultural structure and climatic characteristics. This article aims to provide a comprehensive evaluation for future studies in this field while seeking answers to the question, "How does urban transformation affect urban morphology?". In this context, the study first addresses relevant definitions and historical background of urban regeneration and discusses the main approaches to urban morphology. Studies on the effects of urban regeneration on urban morphology in social, cultural, environmental, and climatic terms are analyzed with a bibliometric method. From the Scopus database, 4213 studies in the "urban morphology" field were identified, and 519 studies were reached by narrowing down the words urban regeneration, urban renewal, urban transformation, and urban redevelopment. The data obtained from Scopus were analyzed using the VOS Viewer program for keywords, citations, country, journal activity, and co-occurrence. The results revealed that urban morphology is a field that offers various approaches and valuable methods that examine the physical, environmental, and social aspects of urban transformation that can be used in multidisciplinary research.

In today’s world, where digital technologies are being used more and more every day, architectural education is one of the fields experiencing radical changes. Although many studies in the literature investigate digitalization in architectural education or sustainable architectural education, there are few studies on the digitalization of architectural education to ensure sustainability. This research aims to identify the scientific production on digitalization in education for a sustainable architecture indexed in the international databases Scopus and Web of Science and to determine the maturity of the research on this subject. The results consist of 100 articles published between 2007 and 2024. The data obtained in the study were visualized and analysed with Biblioshiny, VOSviewer, and SankeyMatic programs. The articles obtained were categorized and evaluated to determine which keywords indicated which research topics. In the study results, various research areas such as BIM, simulation, digital fabrication, AR-VR technology, and artificial intelligence from digital technologies have been prominent topics in recent years. The results of this review emphasize the need for more research on the subject and the importance of multidisciplinary studies.

Konya tarihi kent merkezinde bulunan konut dokusuna sahip olan Şükran Mahallesi; zamanla çöküntü bölgesine dönüşmesi sebebiyle, kentsel dönüşüm projesiyle tamamen yıkılarak ticaret merkezi olarak yeniden planlanmıştır. Bu nedenle yüzyıllar içerisinde oluşan Konya’ya özgü kentsel doku, yıkım ile kesintiye uğramıştır. Çalışma kapsamında Şükran Mahallesindeki kentsel dönüşümün ortaya çıkardığı fiziksel değişim morfolojik boyutta incelenerek, projenin kente etkisi irdelenmiştir. Bu amaçla tarihsel coğrafi yaklaşım, konfigürasyonel yaklaşım ve tipomorfolojik yaklaşım analizleri bir arada kullanılarak kapsamlı bir analiz yapılmış, yıkım öncesindeki kentsel doku ve yeni oluşan doku analiz edilmiştir. Yapılan analizler mahallenin çöküntü bölgesi durumuna gelme sürecinin anlaşılmasını sağlamakta ve sonrasında oluşan dokunun kente olumlu katkı yapacağını öngörmektedir. Ancak ortaya çıkan yeni dokuda fonksiyonun konuttan ticaret alanına dönüşümü ve yapı tipolojisindeki büyük değişim tartışmaya açıktır. Kenti oluşturan bu fiziki yapı yüzyıllar boyunca kentlinin kültürü ve yaşantısıyla ortaya çıkmakta ve kendine özgü bir yapı oluşturmaktadır. Bu sebeple tarihi kent merkezlerinde yapılacak uygulamalarda kentsel morfoloji analizleri hem geçmiş dokunun oluşumunun anlaşılmasında hem de yapılacak olan dönüşümün planlanmasında yol gösterici rol oynamaktadır.

Gamification has emerged as a valuable tool in addressing evolving demands within the ever-changing field of architecture education. This chapter explores its potential in higher education programs, focusing on how it complements traditional teaching. Through a literature review of studies indexed in the Web of Science, findings show that while gamification boosts motivation and learning outcomes, it also poses challenges like sustaining engagement and addressing diverse learners. Despite its benefits, such as enhanced problem-solving and hands-on learning, large-scale studies are needed to examine potential drawbacks, including oversimplification. If its effects are examined more, it will provide educators with enough material so that people can use this study to learn and apply it better. Ongoing research is crucial to fully harness gamification for developing creative, effective future architects.

Nature is a database that offers potential solutions to humanity’s many problems with its countless living species and their developed adaptations. As in engineering, medicine, agriculture, etc., innovative approaches are sought in the discipline of architecture with the solution proposals offered by nature. Designers looking for creative solutions, especially in producing the most effective constructions with the most materials, providing energy efficiency in built environments, designing ecologically and harvesting water and developing methods that imitate and learn from nature. One of the main actors in the global agenda on climate change and the clean water problem is built environments. In this context, water harvesting methods to be developed through architectural design also emerge as one of the current research topics. In this paper, research has been conducted on how the water harvesting knowledge in nature can be integrated into architecture; A biomimetic shell proposal has been developed to provide atmospheric water gain. Firstly, the concept of biomimetics is clarified through a literature review and examples of water balance strategies of living things in nature are presented. Then, architectural examples inspired by these strategies are analyzed. The selected living organisms were analyzed in the field study section and a design concept that can harvest water on the building facade was developed based on the biological information obtained. Inspired by the water harvesting principles of cactus and Bromeliaceae plants, this design is presented as an alternative for water harvesting with different usage possibilities in built environments.

Günümüzde üretimde benimsenen doğrusal ekonomi modeli sınırlı, yenilenemeyen ve geri dönüştürülemeyen kaynaklar nedeniyle ekolojik dengeyi bozmaktadır. Bu nedenle, son yıllarda sürdürülebilir kalkınma sorunlarına çözüm sunan bir araç olarak döngüsel biyoekonomi giderek önem kazanmaktadır. Döngüsel biyoekonomi, biyolojik ürünlerin enerji ve malzeme olarak kullanılmasına yönelik süreçlerin geliştirilmesi, üretilmesi ve kullanılması gibi ekonomik faaliyetleri içeren bir modeli ifade etmektedir. Doğal sistemlerin döngüselliğine öykünen bu modelin, doğadaki sistem, strateji ve süreçleri öğrenerek problem çözebilmenin bir yol göstericisi olan biyomimikri ile örtüşmesi kaçınılmazdır. Bu bağlamda bu makale kapsamında biyomimikri yaklaşımının döngüsel biyoekonomi kavramı ile olan ilişkisi ele alınmakta ve biyomimikri ilkeleri ve örnekleri, döngüsel biyoekonomi bağlamında değerlendirilmektedir. Ayrıca, biyomimikri yaklaşımının ilkeleri döngüsel biyoekonomi ilkeleri bağlamında değerlendirilerek, döngüsel biyoekonomi modeli içerisinde biyomimikri yaklaşımının gerekliliği ortaya konulmuştur. Elde edilen bilgiler ışığında, biyomimikrinin, sürdürülebilir tasarımlar, ürünler ve süreçler elde etmek için doğanın döngüselliğinin keşfedilmesine olanak sağlayan döngüsel ve sürdürülebilir bir çevrenin inşasını mümkün kılacağı açıktır.