Topluluk ve mahalle alışveriş merkezlerin perakende kentsel boşluklarına dönüşüm süreci: Ankara örneği.

Globalization has brought substantial changes and challenges to the cities. One of the most indisputable features of globalization is ‘the intensification of flows’ which has significantly affected peoples’ lifestyles and consumption patterns. During globalization, peoples’ preference towards retail increased, making the shopping centers significantly attractive. The shopping center has become an example of modern capitalist consumerism. Nowadays there exist different types of shopping centers where each tries to maximize its success rate. A decrease in the shopping centers’ success rate indicates an upcoming end in the life-span of that shopping center. This will result in an accelerated decline in occupancy rates at shopping centers, converting them into ’retail urban voids’. There are many factors responsible for the ‘death’ of a shopping center but in this study, it is assumed that dead and unprofitable shopping centers are an outcome of city-scale and building-scale factors related to accessibility, socio-economic structure, competition environment, and contemporary developments in the field of retail. Through an explanatory research, we target to evaluate the aforementioned factors for different types of shopping centers in different life stages in Ankara. It is observed that the above-mentioned factors have affected mostly the life span of community and neighborhood shopping centers. We studied the development of all the shopping centers in Ankara and analyzed in a detailed way the neighborhood and community shopping centers that were a void in the past; are a void at the present; or will become a void in the near future.Thesis (M.S.) -- Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. City and Regional Planning