Academic Research International Vol. 5(3) May 2014 _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Copyright © 2014 SAVAP International ISSN: 2223-9944, eISSN: 2223-9553 www.savap.org.pk 1 www.journals.savap.org.pk An Analytical Approach on Material Selection for Increasing Design Performance in Interior Architecture Projects Deniz Ayşe Yazıcıoğlu Department of Interior Architecture, Istanbul Technical University, TURKEY. yazicioglude@itu.edu.tr, denizayseyazicioglu@gmail.com ABSTRACT One of the most significant decisions having effect on the kitchen design performance is the selection of materials. As such, in the first phase of the study, a literature research was carried out to determine whether a scientific method that would help the designer to give the right decisions in selection of materials existed in the projecting process thereof for the kitchen. However ,inasmuch as there are numerous material alternatives incident to kitchen design the purview of this research was kept limited only to research of the scientific methods employed in selecting kitchen countertop materials with an eye to obtain more accurate results. No scientific methods were obtained in the literature researches conducted in this context. Factors that affect the selection of kitchen countertop materials were firstly identified with a view to remedy this lack and they were found to be 31. A long-term study is required for the creation of scientific data that will help the designers germane to all these factors. Therefore the purview and purpose of the present study has been determined as obtaining the statistical data which describes the mathematical relationship between the type of kitchen layout and selection of the kitchen countertop materials which is one of the most important of said factors and conversion of such data into an analysis table. A literature search has been conducted to determine all the kitchen layouts in the first stage within this defined scope and aim as the methodology of the study. Subsequently, 1.309 actual kitchen projects have been examined in order to obtain statistical data showing the relationship between the all kitchen layouts and kitchen countertop materials and the results of these examinations have been described in the form of a data analysis table. The designer will be able to perform the kitchen countertop material selection thereof in a more appropriate way in accordance with the kitchen layout through employment of said data analysis table. And this will enable higher levels of performance for the kitchen countertop functionally and aesthetically in almost all activities such as washing, preparation and cooking. Furthermore, it will be revealed which kitchen countertop materials are more preferable by the user thanks to this data analysis table. This information will especially help wholesaler kitchenware manufacturers and supplies companies in determining the inventory amount of materials in a more accurate way. Keywords: Interior architecture, Countertop material selection, Kitchen design, Performance based design INTRODUCTION Increase in specialization in the field of interior design and application, an increase of competition in line with same consequently, as a result, has rendered "performance" one of the key concepts and caused rethinking of the whole process within the context of "performance-based design" in an inevitable way. Performance is a measurable phenomenon. Level of performance and criteria in the achievement of a target is the important issue (Arslan and Kanoğlu, 2010). Kitchen is the