The impact of controlled access to design studios on place attachment and territoriality

The present study focused on to explore the relationship between place attachment and territoriality of students towards their design studios. For this purpose, we examined place attachment and territoriality in design studios by comparing design studios with open doors, which belongs to Interior Architecture and Environmental Design (IAED) Department; and key-card entry, which belong to Architecture (ARCH) department. Additionally, students’ evaluation of their own design studios was also considered in the study. The questionnaire of the study included items of place attachment, which were adapted from Workplace Attachment Scale of Rioux (2006); territoriality, adapted from Brown (2009) and general evaluation items towards interiors, adapted from Imamoglu (1981). This questionnaire was administered to 2nd and 3rd year students from two departments at I.D. Bilkent University. One hundred and fifty students (110 women, 40 men) responded to the questionnaire in their own design studios. The results indicate that place attachment had positive relationships with both territoriality and general evaluation of the studios. It is also found that there is a positive relationship between place attachment and general evaluation. However, no certain relationship emerged between territoriality and general evaluation.