Below, you can find the courses and their contents of the recent master’s program.
Course Code – Course Name – (Weekly Hours: Theoretical – Weekly Hours: Practical – Çankaya Credits)
COMPULSORY COURSES:
DSGN 601 Design Studio (303)
Design Studio challenges students to analyze, speculate, and forecast new design paradigms through the making of design artifacts in relation to the emerging collaborative consumption movement. It is designed to allow students to develop their individual skills, knowledge, and sensibility in design, and provides support for students to determine the direction of their own education through their personal choice of project. With long and short term projects which address real-life design situations and requires competence in solving design problems. Project work will be done both individually and in teams. Design studio will encourage students to develop a framework for understanding the role of design systems, tools, and objects as cultural artifacts and their reflection on social diversity. In particular, students will focus on the cultural experience of collaborative consumption as it is fostered through design.
DSGN 602 Advanced Research Techniques (303)
It introduces quantitative and qualitative research techniques for students. The course covers the basics of research design, qualitative and quantitative measurement and sampling, basic quantitative and qualitative research methods and data analysis techniques. The Problem: where it lies; what be its ‘parts’; how best describe it. Information: sources, modes, types and cost(s). Objectives: formulation and realization. Data: measures of location and dispersion; reliability and consistency; interpretation and inference. Data: frequency and other distributions. Probability: dependent and independent events; the random experiment, observation and variables. The design of experiments: population and sample; parameters and statistics; systematic sampling and sampling distributions; the sample variance and confidence intervals. The Hypothesis: formulation, tests, errors and levels of significance. Quantitative and qualitative methodologies.
DSGN 690 Seminar (Non-credit)
Providing an opportunity for the students to discuss the development of their thesis subject. Conducted in the form of seminars presented by all students. This course can be given after the first semester. The grade will be S(satisfactory) or U (unsatisfactory). Students cannot complete their thesis before successfully complete this course.
DSGN 696 PhD Qualification Studies and Exam (Non-credit)
It includes PhD qualification studies and exam.
DSGN 699 PhD Dissertation (000)
PhD Dissertation is a comprehensive work, consists of a scientific research, reaching the knowledge, evaluating and interpreting it, and documenting the study in a complete high level academic manuscript.
ELECTIVE COURSES:
DSGN 603 Getting Along On Planet Earth, Universal Design (303)
Perception of the environment; thermal regulation in the human body; mechanisms of thermal exchange with environment; essentials of climatic data; geometry of apparent solar movement; geometry of shade and shadow; air and its movements. Design optimization for new and existing buildings.
DSGN 604 Environment And Man: Cause And Effect (303)
Environment, as Nature: What goes on there (the manifestations of physical, chemical and bio-genetic events and phenomena); why, how and when. Where it begins and where it ends. How its goings-on affect us; why. Who we actually are: A bio-entity. Our attributes and capabilities. How we get along with others; with Environment. How we maintain our physical and social existance: The concept and manifestations of “Shelter”. The generation and attributes of the built environment: What makes us keep going (the urge to ‘see over the hill’). How we and the world around us keeps changing and what to do about it: The need for “Information”; how to use it and where.
DSGN 605 In Search Of Existential Self (303)
This course aims to search about the creative stage of one’s self development. With the acceptance of creative act as an existential phenomenon, the course considers creative process as the genuine expression that has been actualized during one’s search of his/her existence. In this course, an artist’s existential being and his work will be analyzed to understand artists unique and authentic being and how one’s unique and authentic being had an effect on what he has done in return. To explore the search of existential self of an “unique, genuine, authentic”, work of art or a personality, main headings such as ; “personality”, “being new”, “contextuality”, “spontaneousness”, “humanizing”, and “meaning (poetic realism) which have been developed from the existential concepts of existential thinkers, an artist’s existential personality and creative act will be discussed by looking at what she/he has done and said by means those headings.
DSGN 606 Design Thinking In Education (303)
It is possible that passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. This course offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers. The power of design thinking comes from practicing and gaining confidence in a variety of different types of thinking, which includes both mindsets and specific techniques that foster creative and critical thinking. In this course, it is aimed to discuss the benefits of design-thinking education.
DSGN 607 Building Programming (303)
Setting the context for project domains: User concerns (bio-physiological, socio-psychological and bio-metric) and project concerns (identity, configuration and labeling). Events and/or activities (temporal aspects, sequences and ranking); participants (as number, attributes and ranking). Conditional requirements of and conditions generated by events/activities. Response items, boundary conditions and dimensions required by events/activities. How all these come together: Generating a meaningful building program.
DSGN 608 Gis Applications : Project Development (303)
GIS is an effective tool of spatial analyses and many government agencies and municipalities use GIS in planning activities and organizing their geographic data. Therefore, learning project development in GIS environment is essential for planners who deal with spatial data and data analyses.This course is a project-based course where students are expected to employ their GIS skills and knowledge to define, propose, design, and implement their own projects using GIS software. The course aims to develop students’ spatial thinking and problem definition by providing means of spatial data analysis.
DSGN 609 City And Behavior, Everyday Life, Politics And Space (303)
The course introduces key theories on everyday life and power relations in the city. It explains the relation of everyday life with the emergence of different cultures; with art, literature and technologies. It presents primary methods of observation for everyday life It gives examples from daily practices of the urban inhabitant, which turns into strategies and tactics of living in the city.
DSGN 610 Performance Assessment of Buildings (303)
DSGN 611 Housing, Reinvestment, And Household Behavior (303)
Reinvestment in existing housing stock and urban environments is a necessity to prevent depreciation and to preserve housing and neighbourhood quality. Households are the main decision makers of reinvestment processes. Understanding reinvestment processes and household behaviour is a crucial issue for urban decision makers, planners, and interior architects. The course presents students an understanding of reinvestment decisions in housing and their macro level implications. Within this context; nature of housing, reinvestment as an economic decision, macro implications of household reinvestment behaviour, existing policy approaches to reinvestment processes, elements of households’ reinvestment decisions, and households’ reinvestment behaviour in the Turkish case are the topics covered in this course.The course aims to emphasize macro level implications of a micro level event – household reinvestment behaviour-, and significance of reinvestment processes for housing supply and maintenance policies.
DSGN 612 Development Agencies And Contemporary Changes In Regional Development Policy (303)
This course is prepared to inform the students about the contemporary changes in regional development policy and newly established development agencies in Turkey. Development agencies become a major actor in the regional development of Turkey with their different development tools and policies. They are trying to develop their regions with both policy and financial tools. They have an important role in the participation of local actors in planning and regional development in Turkey. The course covers descriptive information about development agencies and regional development policy in European countries and mainly in Turkey. The role of development agencies in European countries and how regional development policy has changed since 1970s and with the EU membership are discussed. The recent developments in Turkey and the role of newly established development agencies in Turkey are also explained with the help of case studies both from the European countries and Turkey. The main objective of the course is to give information about regional development policy and development agencies. As important local actors, development agencies and their role in the development of their regions have become fundamental. Explaining the role of development agencies in the development of their regions is also the aim of the course. This aim is achieved by exploring the different case studies especially from European countries and Turkey. One of development agencies important task is preparing regional plans for their regions. Therefore, planners need to be informed on the subject.
DSGN 613 Design Talks (303)
This course has been prepared to discuss about the latest understandings in Design world. Speakers from different fields of design the designers, architects, artists and critics actively influencing design discourse and production will talk about their design approaches to create this venture through a process of participatory innovation. We can only understand the future as a possibility. But it is one that implicates designers deeply. They are the makers, strategists, visualizers, dream weavers and communicators whose work is essential to envisioning the material and immaterial forms of a more humane world. The aim is to engage our students effectively and responsibly in a knowledge domain fraught with complexity and uncertainty. Today, for art and design education, to enact new forms of knowledge, and directly engage with future-oriented forms of teaching, learning and practice is the most important issue. The Talks offer insight into what drives creative output, criticism and the market.
DSGN 614 Creativity In Design (303)
This course will lead students through the major phases of the creative problem solving process, within the context of human and its environment and enable them to be more innovative through various methods in variety of disciplines, such as architecture, interiors, and even in engineering and business.
DSGN 615 Environmental Aesthetics (303)
This course proposes an introduction to the aesthetic appreciation of nature, built environments and everyday life. The expressions of nature appreciation in different cultures through history, the role of knowledge, culture, emotions, and imagination in our aesthetic experience of environment, the ethical value of appreciating nature aesthetically and its relation to environmentalism will be explored.
DSGN 616 Science Communication (303)
Students get an overview over the basics in science communications and the public understanding of science.
DSGN 617 Energy Efficient Building Design Strategies (303)
The course covers studies related to introduce the basic concepts of energy efficiency in buildings, provide practical information of energy efficient technologies, and explain the common methods for building energy analysis.
DSGN 618 Introduction To Multi Criteria Decision Making Methods In Design (303)
The design process is complex, considering its content, context, stakeholders, ill-defined problems, and moreover, their multifaceted interactions which depends on problem solving and decisions making. This course offers to analyze possible usage areas of multi criteria decision making methods for better decision making in design to cope with the complexity. This course covers content and context of general principles of multi criteria decision making methods to be used in design processes for better decision making.
DSGN 619 Design And Construction Management (303)
This course covers content and context of management principles of architectural design process, building/construction process and their interactions including stakeholders. The course also includes design management concepts and methods, project delivery systems, contracts, value engineering, risk management, design and construction planning, project organization and management of knowledge, time, cost, quality and risks both in design and construction processes.
DSGN 620 Introduction To Building Performance Simulations (303)
The course covers studies related to introduce the basic concepts of performance evaluation in buildings, provide practical information of performance simulations, and explain the common methods for building energy performance simulation from simplified methods to complex ones. Students will study the topics through readings, discussions, and simulation applications.
DSGN 621 Barrier-free Built Environment and Inclusive Design (303)
DSGN 622 Design Thinking and Innovation (303)
DSGN 623 Japanese Design Culture (303)
This course introduces the students to Japanese aesthetic ideas, values and practices. In a period ranging from ancient times to modern and contemporary, diverse aspects of Japanese design will be examined in architecture, landscape, interiors, art and everyday life.
DSGN 624 Environmental Psychology: Application To Design (303)
This course will address basic topics in Environmental Psychology, such as: perception and evaluation; cognition and legibility; ecological view of perception and the concept of affordances; personal space, territoriality, and crowding; restorative effects of interaction with natural environments; place attachment; social life of public spaces; gender and the built environment; and vernacular environments and architectural design.
DSGN 625 Analysing Design (303)
This course will provide an introduction to theories and practices in analysing design. It builds on theories and methods from different disciplines, such as Environmental Psychology and design-related studies to analyse and critique ‘design’. Design is seen as a process and ‘designers’ as creators of different processes, activities, and design outputs. We will ask “What are the social implications of buildings and artefacts?” in order to analyse different examples of design, such as residential and institutional settings. We will explore ways of understanding value, need and utility of design. The course aims to provide students with a preliminary “analytical framework” to critique and analyse design. The analytical framework consists in addressing the connection of buildings, spaces, and objects to people’s everyday routines and everyday practices.
DSGN 626 Everyday Life In Public Spaces: Theory And Practice (303)
Everyday life occurs in a social context and is localised in space. This course focuses on the practice of everyday life in public spaces. The course presents contemporary theories of the everyday (e.g., Situationists International) and methods of research used to study everyday patterns of activities (e.g., visual ethnography). The course also critically analyses the implications of everyday activities in public spaces to architecture and design.
DSGN 627 Sound Design For Interior Architecture (303)
The objective of the course ‘Sound Design for Interior Architecture’ is to deliver the methods of creating a contextual and experimental aural environment in order to enforce the sense of place and atmosphere in interior architecture. Fundamentals of aural perception, basic senses, modalities and its effects on holistic interior architectural design will be presented and discussed.
DSGN 629 Physical Environment and Contextual Experience (303)
The course focuses on the physical environment that surrounds the user in enclosed and open spaces, including lighting, acoustics, thermal and air quality. The most important elements of space as the physical environment, and other effecting visual and perceptual factors are also considered, in the scope of the contextual experience. Therefore, perception of the physical environment and its integration with the contextual experience of the user in case spaces will be studies and discussed. Furthermore, data collection and analysis methods on the physical environment is focused within the scope of the course by the use of Environment and Building Lab of the School of Architecture at Çankaya University. In addition, the course includes several different readings and a variety of evaluations on previous related studies and in depth analysis and evaluation by comparative studies. Students are expected to propose an exemplified research methodology with a through literature review.
DSGN 630 Sound and Perception (303)
The course concentrates on two important aspects of space through users’ point of view, which are sound and perception. The sonic aspect is handled in detail through exploring the physical, physiological and psychological dimensions. The overall sonic environment and how it acts as an important element of spatial design, emerging terminologies such as, aural architecture, soundscape, living scape, and indoor soundscape are among the key discussion points. Data collection methods regarding the physical dimensions of sound, and architectural surveying are covered within the scope of the course by the use of Environment and Building Lab of the School of Architecture at Çankaya University. Furthermore, perception as a crucial factor of spatial design is discussed and several related backbone readings are discussed. Survey and questionnaire design and analysis is integrated as one of the main part of this course. acoustical spaces, on the physical environment that surrounds the user in enclosed and open spaces, including lighting, acoustics, thermal and air quality. The most important elements of space as the physical environment, and other effecting visual and perceptual factors are also considered, in the scope of the contextual experience. Therefore, perception of the physical environment and its integration with the contextual experience of the user in case spaces will be studies and discussed. The course includes a variety of evaluations on previous related studies and in depth analysis and discussion by comparative studies. Students are expected to collate and prepare a publishable research paper at the end of the course.