Rural settlements represent the earliest form of human transition to settled life. Although this form evolved into villages, towns, and cities in subsequent years, the factors underlying the motivation for site selection and site formation have persisted to the present day. The transformation of a simple settlement form into more complex forms over time has generated significant curiosity about the components and factors that underpin human site formation practices. This curiosity involves an effort to understand the landscape of the past. Rural settlements are local landscapes that contain clues to the landscape of the past (clues to the ways humans lived and built places in the past). Attempting to define local landscapes solely on the basis of what is visible and fixed is inconsistent with the scope and representation of the concept of landscape. Therefore, the European Landscape Convention (2000) broadened the content of the concept of landscape. This Convention defines landscape as an area formed by the combination of natural factors and cultural actions, nourished by human perception and possessing a conceptual quality. The concept of landscape character, which developed alongside this definition, is the uniqueness or originality that the landscape, formed by natural and cultural interactions, acquires in human perception. In other words, the meanings attributed to the landscape by humans form its character, and the landscape can be recognized and understood through the components of its character. The boundaries of the aforementioned components may be unclear. However, what is expected of specialists focused on landscape planning and landscape design is that they develop the ability to identify landscape character components in the local landscape. In this book, prepared in an effort to respond to this expectation, the components of landscape character are defined as “codes.” The codes referred to here are similar to signs in semiotics. Landscape character, as a form created by the mediation of nature and culture under the influence of human pragmatism, provides the opportunity to build bridges not only between nature and culture, but also between the past, present, and future. In our country, which contains many diverse examples of local landscapes, understanding the possibilities of producing landscapes from the synthesis of nature and culture is important for building bridges. Based on the premise that understanding the past is necessary to better plan for the future, it is essential to adapt the characteristic codes of the local landscape to our country's planning and conservation legislation and to implement them. In particular, knowledge of the components of the character of local landscapes that have transitioned administratively from village status to neighborhood status and integrated with cities is an important planning and design tool for managing this change. Additionally, different approaches must be evaluated together to develop local landscape planning and design tools. In this book, landscape character and place-making approaches are hybridized, questioning how the invisible can become visible through the local landscape of Malatya. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the residents of Onar and Ormansırtı, who shared their life practices and place issues, to the graduate and undergraduate students who participated in the fieldwork, and to the Arapgir Municipality for their support.