Urban morphology within architecture and urban planning curricula: the case of educational programs in Turkey and Northern Cyprus

Cities are the settlements where the physical, social and natural structures that make up their formal diversity come together. Urban patterns created by the combination of urban areas (streets, squares), parcels and buildings, which are the basic physical components of the city, form the shapes of the cities. Urban morphology can be defined as the study of urban form in the most general sense. According to the definition of Whitehand (2001), urban morphology forms a basis for generating ideas to produce urban form in the future, while examining the cyclical nature of urban growth, adaptation, and redevelopment processes in the production of urban forms and the effects of different actors. The main basis of this study is that urban morphological studies will provide important inputs to the design and planning processes for architects, urban designers, and urban planners, who are the leading actors in the shaping of urban spaces. In this context, the main purpose of this study is to reveal and explore the scope and methodologies of teaching/learning urban morphology within the architecture and urban planning programs in Turkey and Cyprus, both at undergraduate and graduate levels. For this purpose, the curricula of architecture and urban planning undergraduate and graduate programs in Turkey and Northern Cyprus will be analyzed separately, to locate the position of "urban morphology" within the whole program layout. Additionally, a survey will be conducted with scholars who teach urban morphology in relevant programs. With the findings to be obtained at the end of the study, it is expected to make predictions about the context in which urban morphological studies are handled in architecture and urban planning education and how this will be reflected in architecture and planning practices.