The rememberability of religious buildings: the case of tanjant road

Abstract

Memorability has been handled in different disciplines such as psy-chology, philosophy, architecture, and planning. In architecture and planning, memorability has been approached through spatial per-ceptibility and collective memory, while in psychology, it has been addressed through the process of perception. The study is original in terms of synthesizing different disciplines' approaches to memo-rability. It has handled memorability both through the process and spatial perceptibility. Furthermore, the subject of study, Tanjant Road, is significant due to its role as one of the main horizontal axes that connects the eastern and western parts of the city of Trabzon, serving as a heavily used route for both vehicles and pe-destrians within the city center. The aim of this study is to explain the rememberability of the religious buildings on Tanjant Road that establish a spatial or visual relationship with the road together with the processes of 'focus' and 'persistence', two of the image forma-tion stages. In line with the purpose of the study, physical analyses of the Tanjant Road and identified religious buildings along the road were conducted at the stage of focus, a rememberability analysis was conducted at the stage of persistence; and analyses about whether or not the users remembered these buildings and their locations were made at the stage of 'being remembered. The study identified the religious buildings related Tanjant Road that stand out at the stages of 'focus', 'persistence' and 'being remembered', which are among the image formation processes. The study gives informa-tion about the design decisions that should be taken to reveal the religious buildings with strong rememberability, and to protect or strengthen the marks left by these religious buildings in memory. Discussing the remember process and the movement where per-ception is the strongest and for this purpose, the examination of a horizontal axis of Trabzon, which contains many historical and protected religious buildings, constitutes the originality of the study.