The Temporal Dimension

The Temporal Dimension

The temporal dimension is unevitably the major fact of the design process. Since things changes in time, nothing left as it was thought at first. The environment is changing by seasons, day and nights, and we, as the living population on earth making rhythmical activities; wake, eat, work, sleep.
This rhythyms are the keys to the design process as an input to analyse the concentration of the uses related by the spaces.
The uses of the designed spaces must be importantly considered for that place to be used efficiently and safely by all individuals within all time and all conditions. The “soft” quality of the space should be provided for the activities, events and programmes, and also for the infrastructure and structure issues. The effect of time on physical environment, forces the designers to think about the future conditions, possibilities and the opportunities that should be aware of to develop effeiciency in design.
The elements that are used to define the effects of time on environment, are “resilience and robustness”. The former is the ability to resist change, while the latter is the ability to adapt the change. These elemets are highly used both to conserve a place or re –organize a place for a new use. The transformation of a housing block to a hospital or a streetscape that has been left in an urban center can be the examples for these concepts.
In conservation act, the structures and places are organied and protected. This is a way of resisting the change in time. The need of this act can be caused by many reasons but importantly, a place can resist change in time, not only with its physcial structure but also, the functions that it carried provided a continuity for it to stand in present time.
The designer’s role in an environment with independent force of time and physical structures, social relations; is to overact a design process that endures long time, adapt new uses or occasions with flexibility.

Murat Çevikayak
152002001