Urban transformation through property-led regeneration: A case of building renewals in Istanbul

Abstract

Urban transformation is a prominent topic within Istanbul's urban planning agenda. Transformation process of the city falls under the scope of academicians and the related authorities; and is a focus of debate from different perspectives in daily life. In this atmosphere, centralised policies promote construction facilities as the leading economic sector, and the legislation sets the legal framework facilitating transformation processes. This transformation in Istanbul occurs in two forms; as area-based regeneration projects and single building renewal processes. Area-based regeneration projects have long been examined due to their widespread effects, however single building renewal also leads to transformation over the long term. The motivation behind this paper is to examine the single building renewal process by means of a case study-Bakirkoy, which is one of the sub-centres of Istanbul. In this context, the paper aims to construct an analytical evaluation of the regeneration process in Bakirkoy and tries to evaluate the process linking it with critiques of property-led regeneration debates worldwide. This paper covers a periodical evaluation of this process by attempting to understand the urban transformation pattern by means of a descriptive spatial analysis, and a discussion of recent policies in Bakirkoy case.

How to unravel pathbreaking trajectories in the left‐behind areas of Istanbul?

“…Firstly, the planning regime was transformed into a project‐based approach within the events between 2002 and 2005. However, as of 2005 and afterward, this approach became overregulated by a bunch of laws and regulations that also created incredible flexibilities for piecemeal implementations (Koramaz et al, 2018). This overregulation ended up causing legal and institutional conflicts (Kuyucu, 2018; Tarakçı & Türk, 2021).…”

Three key issues of urban renewal: Approaches for Turkey

“…However, renewal on a single building scale has gained a significant momentum and its effects on urban development, planning and the housing market have increased. Istanbul has been the place where renewal on a single building scale was experienced intensively (Kısar Koramaz et al 2018). There are important differences between the renewal dynamics at the area scale and the renewal dynamics at the single parcel scale both in terms of actors and results.…”

The Great Failure: The Roles of Institutional Conflict and Social Movements in the Failure of Regeneration Initiatives in Istanbul

“…The second major axis is reducing the scale of regeneration initiatives from regional (block-based) levels to the scale of individual buildings (plotbased) (Koramaz et al 2018). With the Disaster Law, any building that receives a negative risk-report must either be rebuilt or reinforced to comply with new regulations.…”