Preferences of University Academic Staff for Their Surrounding Environment: Uludag University as a Case Study

Sayan Atanur G,Zencirkiran M

doi:10.22158/uspa.v2n1p32

Abstract

As a result of the damage to natural areas, open and green spaces in cities shrink in area and even disappear. This has caused an increase in the number of studies concerned with human-nature relations in urban landscaping. Contrary to the fact that the major part of our lives is spent in our workplaces, there are not many studies that investigate human-nature relations in workspaces. However, workspaces cover big areas of the urban landscape, their arrangement is of major importance in both an ecological and economical sense. The present study aims to shed light on how the academic staffs working at the Uludag University campus perceive the nature that surrounds their workspace and what their expectations concerning their natural surroundings are. Although the employees wish to see arranged landscapes surrounding their workplace, they significantly prefer naturally arranged spaces. It is evident that the staffs are concerned about the surroundings of the buildings they work in and that they make correct assumptions about and descriptions of the surroundings of their buildings.

Highlights

The change in the relationship between human and nature throughout time has continually affected the ways of designing physical environments
Abu-Gazzeh (1996) stated that quality of the natural environment is important in the design of open spaces and that the most desired view of outside spaces is that of natural vegetation and trees
It has been stated that trees are the most preferred plant group for the vegetation that surrounds roads and housing areas, and flowers are the other element that is widely preferred under the trees (Todorova et al, 2004)

Summary

Introduction

The change in the relationship between human and nature throughout time has continually affected the ways of designing physical environments. Vol 2, No 1, 2019 nature has moved towards first equality and superiority In the meantime, this change in human-nature relations has caused important impacts on the arrangement of the surrounding natural environment. A major point of focus of studies that investigate the relationships between humans and nature has been the perception of nature within cities. A major portion of the publications regarding human-nature relations in urban landscapes consider the perceptions of the natural environment that surrounds housing areas. Upon the comparison of all such studies, it is seen that there are not many studies concerning the perception of the natural environment that surrounds the work areas that cover wide spaces of urban areas and in which people spend most of their daily lives. Landscape aesthetic was judged from it’s formal quality such as line, color and form formerly

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Conclusion