The effect of built space on wayfinding in urban environments: a study of the historical peninsula in İstanbul

This paper reconsiders the question of how the built environment, in terms of the spatial configuration of urban layout and land‐use patterns, affects wayfinding performance. In an attempt to develop physical design solutions, first‐time visitors’ directed search patterns within a 2x2km area in the historical peninsula of Sultanahmet, İstanbul, are recorded. The recorded data are analyzed to determine the extent to which street connectivity, measured by metric and directional reach, and visibility patterns, measured by visual integration, visual connectivity and visual clustering coefficient, are related to spatial learning –path selection for exploratory movement. This study enhances previous findings using space syntax by better controlling for the effects of land‐use as compared to the effects of spatial configuration of urban networks. Asserting the independent role of configurational design is important given that urban morphology acts as the long term framework within which land‐uses change over time. The findings imply that the overall spatial configuration of urban layouts –both at the local and global level– may prove to be an important variable for the description and modulation of human spatial behavior in urban environments.