Nüfus artışını kaldırabilecek fiziksel mekânları, fiziksel altyapıları aynı hızla ve düzenle büyütemeyen kentler için doğa ile bütünleşmenin kaybolduğu ve toplumsal yaşam biçimlendirme birlikteliğinin koptuğu plansız, kimliksiz, estetikten uzak, yaşanabilirliği zayıf mekânlara dönüşmek, kaçınılmazdır. Bu değişim kendini en çarpıcı biçimde insankent ilişkisinde göstermektedir. İnsanlar kolay anlaşılır, kimlikli, okunabilir kentler yerine çarpık yapılaşmanın olduğu kalitesiz çevrelerde yaşamlarını sürdürmek zorunda bırakılmaktadır. Özellikle kentler için en önemli kimlik öğelerinden biri olan nirengilerin çarpık kentleşme sonucu yoğun yapılaşmanın içerisinde kısmen algılanan ya da hiç algılanmayan öğelere dönüşmesi kentin algılanabilirlik ve okunabilirliğini de zayıflatmaktadır. Oysa düzenli kentsel mekânların oluşumunda, kaliteli ve kimlikli kentlerin yaratılmasında nirengi noktaları önemli rol üstlendiği unutulmamalıdır. Bu bağlamda ülkemizde son yıllarda çarpık kentleşmeye karşı somut çözümler olarak önerilen kentsel dönüşüm projeleri, bir kentin tarihi dokusundaki nirengi noktalarının bütüncül bir yaklaşımla ele alınabileceği önemli fırsatlar olarak değerlendirilmelidir. Coğrafi ve stratejik konumu itibariyle Doğu Karadeniz Bölgesi’nin önemli kentlerinden olan Trabzon kenti, birçok uygarlığa ev sahipliği yapması nedeniyle de manastır, kilise, bedesten, han ve sivil mimari örnekleriyle bakımından zengin tarihi geçmişini yansıtan bir mimariye sahiptir. Kentin tarihi geçmişinde farklı dönemlere tanıklık etmiş olan Hagia Sophia kilisesi, günümüzdeki adıyla Ayasofya müzesi, kıyı çizgisindeki stratejik konumu nedeniyle kent siluetinde dolayısıyla kent kimliğinde önemli bir yere sahiptir. Özellikle 1960’lardan sonra gittikçe hızlanan yapılaşma ve altyapı işleri kilisenin kent imajı ve kent siluetindeki nirengi olma etkisini olumsuz yönde etkilemiştir. Geçmişte kentin yapılaşma sınırının dışında, deniz kenarında ve etrafı kırsal tarım alanlarıyla çevrelenmiş bir konumda yer alan Hagia Sophia, günümüzde yoğun yapılaşmanın içerisinde sıkışıp kalmış durumdadır. 1964’de tamamlanan 1. sahil yolu ve ardından yapılan Samsun-Sarp duble Karadeniz sahil yolu dolgu alanlarıyla birlikte Hagia Sophia kilisesi kuzey yönde de yoğun bir ulaşım aksıyla çevrelenerek kıyı çizgisinden giderek uzaklaşmıştır. Bu durum plansız ve yoğun bir yapılaşma içerisinde sıkışıp kalsa bile kilisenin görülebilirliğini arttıran yeni güzergâh olanakları sağlamakta ve bu olanakların Hagia Sophia ve yakın çevresini ele alacak bir kentsel dönüşüm projesinde veri olarak kullanılabilmesi için araştırılmasının gerekliliğini ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çalışmada kentin değişen fiziksel yapısı içinde Hagia Sophia’nın farklı yaya ulaşım aksları boyunca algılanabilirliği seri (ardışık) görünümler bağlamında tanımlanmaya ve görünebilirliğin maksimum olduğu nokta ve aralıklar belirlenmeye çalışılmıştır. Bu bağlamda yaya aksı boyunca belirli aralıklarla çekilen seri görünüm fotoğrafları, soyutlama yöntemi kullanılarak analiz edilmiş ve nasıl bir seri görünüm dizisi oluştuğu Autocad çizim programı kullanılarak grafik hale dönüştürülmüştür. Daha sonra bu seri görünüm dizisi içerisinde baskın olan görülebilirlik nokta veya aralıkları belirlenmiştir. Sonuçlar ‘yakın mesafe (A Grubu)’, ‘yakın mesafe yükselen ve alçalan (B Grubu)’, ‘uzak mesafe (C Grubu)’, ‘uzak mesafe yükselen ve alçalan (D Grubu)’ olmak üzere dört grup üzerinden değerlendirilmiştir. Uzak mesafe güzergâhlarının kesintisiz ve etkili siluetler sunduğu kilise, yakın mesafe güzergâhlarında parçalı ve algılanabilirliği düşük görüntü kareleri ortaya koymaktadır. Bu bağlamda araştırma, Trabzon kentinin yaşadığı hızlı ve yoğun yapılaşmanın bir nirengi noktası olan Hagia Sophia’nın algılanabilirliği üzerindeki olumsuz etkisini net bir şekilde ortaya koyması bakımından önemlidir. Ayrıca elde edilen sonuçların, söz konusu alanda gerçekleştirilmesi düşünülen kentsel dönüşüm, yenileme ve iyileştirme projesine uzak ve yakın siluet analizi bağlamında planlama kararı verisi oluşturması araştırmanın önemini artırmaktadır.

Studies on perceived quality of environments, especially urban environments, look for ways of establishing harmonious relationship between people and the world outside. Disorientation is one of the problems destroying this harmony. A solution for preventing disorientation is achieving a distinctive and legible environment which not only offers security but also heightens the potential depth and intensity of human experience. As Lynch (1960) puts it, although life is far from impossible in the visual chaos of the modern city, the same daily action could take a new meaning if carried out in a more vivid setting. As a result of rapid urbanization caused by uncontrolled population, random and unplanned formations far from aesthetic decisions are constructed and this constitutes one of the biggest problems of our country. In recent years, urban renewal projects are used to solve this problem by rehabilitating economical, social, physical and environmental conditions. Since even the smallest intervention to the city has its effects on the city life, it is important that urban renewal projects should be considered from multiple perspectives. From this point of view, specific qualities of planning should be carefully evaluated. These qualities can be both physical and social and also need to be analyzed in a different study area which includes motion perception. Nowadays, city dwellers perceive and interpret the city in motion along the transportation routes as a result of intensive infrastructure. In this context, in the planning of landmark areas of a city silhouette, a comprehensive silhouette analysis should also be included in addition to plans, sections, facades and photos taken in certain view points. This brings up the question of ‘Whether it is enough to evaluate a landmark which is effective in the city silhouette from a single view point?’ Aferi and Triantafillou (2005) state that the way of seeing an urban environment in different means of the movement (walking, cycling,driving, etc.) offer an opportunity to capture the uniqueness of places by depicting the elements of urban form, such as edge, node and landmarks. In random urban routes, environment provides a lot of visual cues for the observer but if we think about the whole visibility opportunities of a landmark from various directions, what happens? This may raise a few more questions; • What kind of a sequential visual data set, can be obtained about a landmark as an important component of the city silhouette, while approaching or moving away from it? • Are there any specific points in these serial visions (sequential visual data set) at which the landmark is most clearly visible? The serial (sequential) vision mentioned in this study reflects the possible visual experience of passersby and was captured by sequential photo images while approaching or moving away from Hagia Sophia (as its Turkish name Ayasofya) along the existing roads. From this point of view, the present paper is a serial vision analysis of Hagia Sophia church (used as a museum at present) which is situated at a strategic position on the coastline of Trabzon, and is an important landmark in the city silhouette, perceived along different routes. As being a visual analysis, serial vision analysis aims to obtain the most visible single point or interval of points of the landmark from the selected serial visions. Hagia Sophia which sustains an original and rich value in the identity of Trabzon city was in a rural area in the past, whereas today it is surrounded by intensely used transportation and pedestrian axes. Irregular urbanization and new transport networks which have recently surrounded the church’s close environment cause both a deformation in the city silhouette and a negative effect in the perception of the landmark. As a solution produced to enhance this landmark, visibility of the church from a perspective in motion should be taken into account. This paper calls importance for this kind of future planning attempts, since it aims at determining the most visible single, or interval of points for Hagia Sophia, and at providing important data for planning decisions for renewal projects regarding the Hagia Sophia. URBAN EXPERIENCE AS A SEQUENTIAL PROCESS For a city experienced by a moving observer, the cumulative effect of a sequence of views will be critical (Cullen, 1961; Lynch, 1971). Lynch defines ‘imageability’ of an object by a quality which has a strong evocative mental image in any given observer. Thus, perceiving an environment also means creating a visual hypothesis and building an organized mental image (Lynch, 1960, 1971). Visual aspects of the urban environment carry a prominent position for its inhabitants in visualization, conceptualization, and eventually perception a city. In her study about making sense of the knowledge base necessary to practice urban design, Moudon (2007) classifies the studies which focus on the perception of urban environment in two groups: picturesque studies and image studies. Referring to Cullen’s work, Moudon defines picturesque study as a professional observers’ trail in order to identify and describe both verbally and graphically what they think are ‘good’ environments. In contrast to the picturesque tradition, he distinguishes between the picturesque tradition and image studies since the latter is intrinsically emic and subject-oriented as they are people’s image of environments.Kinaesthetic experience of moving through space is an important part of visual dimension of urban environments. In kinaesthetic motion, there is an experience of self movement and an experience of the external world at the same time. Gibson explains this period as the vision which obtains information about both the environment and the self. The motion in the world is related with a local change in the perspective structure while the locomotion of the self is a global change of the perspective structure of the ambient optic array (Gibson, 1986). Serial vision is a kind of sequential view analysis of the kinaesthetic experience in urban environments. The observer locates moving objects and spaces in a total structure, orienting himself with regard to the world around him. After an extended period of time, identifiable objects, motions, spaces, oriented structures, and meaning of the environment are organized at an even higher level as complex sequential views (Appleyard, Lynch and Myer, 1966). The most important study about urban sequential view analysis is Cullen’s townscape approach, focusing on the visual qualities and aesthetic experience of urban spaces which is a more personal and expressive response to urban environments and places (Carmona, Heath, Oc and Tiesdell, 2003). Cullen named the sequence of views seen during the experience in moving through towns as “serial vision” and tried to define each view (Cullen, 1961). The main aim in shaping the sequential form of urban views is to preserve continuity while developing embellishment and contrasting the material. Although linear structures such as roads have their own continuity, this must be supported by succession of space, motion, orientation, and meaning which seem to be parts of a connected whole (Appleyard, Lynch and Myer, 1966). On the other hand, public perceptions of townscapes developed by Lynch encompass issues of perception and sense of place. For Alexander, a city which allows for a rich diversity of cross connections between activities and places provides the designer with a usable but not predetermined series of relationships between activities and spaces (Carmona, Heath, Oc and Tiesdell, 2003). Lynch (1960) defines this as an environmental image which can be analyzed into three components: identity, structure and meaning. Therefore, according to him the environment is visibly organized and sharply identified, and then the citizens can inform it with its own meanings and connections. LANDMARK PERCEPTION STUDIES In recent years, visual perspectives of vehicle drivers, road traffic and pedestrians, and the role of landmarks in way finding and navigation studies are the most important two topics appearing as central concerns of urban studies related with visual experience of cities. The former group contains studies about aesthetic experience of road traffic, from the point of view of people both inside motor vehicles as drivers and passengers, and outside vehicles as pedestrian and cyclists (Zacharias, 2001; Taylor, 2003; Froment and Damon, 2006; Merriman, 2006; Foltête and Prombini, 2007; Robertson, 2007; Nikolov, 2008); the evaluation of city panoramas, street scenes and picturesque views of urban places (Çevik, 1991; Kalın, 2004; Cooper and Oskrochi, 2008; Jansson and Lagerkvist, 2009; Bernasconi, Straper, Maskey and Hasenmyer, 2009). The latter group has a number of studies investigating the nature of landmark from various points of view such as the knowledge creating extensive spatial ability in way finding (Cornell, Heth and Skoczylas, 1999; Rosanno, West, Robertson, Wayne and Chase, 1999; Cubukcu and Nasar, 2005; Roger, Bonnardel and Bigot, 2009); the value in aiding visual orientation and navigation (Murrieta, Parra and Devy, 2002; May and Ross, 2006; Peebles, Davies and Mora, 2007); the visibility, legibility and the visual salience (Herzog and Leverich, 2003; Herzog and Kropscott, 2004; Klippel and Winter, 2005; Omer and Goldblatt, 2007; Caduff and Timpf, 2008). Spatial knowledge is said to be necessary to build a complete mental representation of an environment and visual landmarks are the most remembered, thus the most descriptive elements of this representation (Roger, Bonnardel and Bigot, 2009). This means that the salience of landmark in some sense (visually, auditory, olfactory, or semantic) (Caduff and Timpf, 2008) is accepted as the most important element for the visual image of the city (Lynch, 1960; Cullen, 1961) and the navigation of its inhabitants. Klippel and Winter define the structural salience of landmarks along routes in two steps; formalization of salience of objects, and conceptualization of their way-finding actions. It is true for formalization process but not enough as the salience or saliency denotes relatively distinct, prominent or obvious features compared to other features. The complexity of spatial layout in an urban landscape causes the most general requirement of landmark that it must be in contrast with the environment in order to have perceptual distinction (Klippel and Winter, 2005). Despite the vast number of studies, few attempts have been made to define the visibility of a landmark by sequential view process while approaching it. This paper attempts to define the continuous sequential view sets captured from different approaching routes and most visible single or interval of points as a visibility analysis methodology of a landmark.