Search

This paper analyses the high streets of Istanbul within the context of high street management through four dimensions of location and movement, physical fabric, real estate & land use and exchange, and suggests a comprehensive approach to manage these commercial axes. While analysing the chosen study areas of Istiklal Street, Bagdat Street and Nisantasi District under the given topics, this paper makes use of analyses regarding transportation network, footfall, commercial and non-commercial use, prime rental values, besides a literature review to have an understanding towards the nature of each case study area. The results imply that despite their differences, all three study areas face certain issues that point out the lack of comprehensive strategic approaches to their management. Towards the high streets of Istanbul, this paper proposes a management approach embracing three main goals: (1) to constitute a brand image, (2) to decrease the vulnerability against macroeconomic factors and (3) to maintain vitality and viability of these axes. To overcome the complexities regarding management issues, this paper suggests an organizational and institutional approach, dedicated to considering the interests of all users on high streets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply has been a chronic challenge in Istanbul since its foundation. Authorities have sought alternative methods since the Roman and Byzantine periods. Cisterns, channels and wells surveyed in urban heritage sites in Istanbul provide evidence of rainwater harvesting (RWH) as a working solution in the past. However, RWH systems have only been utilized in contemporary plans and policies very recently, particularly since the climate change crisis entered the political agenda in Turkey. Taking this as a point of departure, this paper investigates the challenges of widespread implementation of RWH systems in Istanbul through a participatory inquiry with water management actors. Challenges and needs are explored through a set of in-depth interviews and participatory workshops with representatives from water management institutions. The findings reveal that current challenges are related to planning and development, legislation and governance, financing, society, infrastructure, installation and operation of systems. The potential solution is the establishment of a governance mechanism that enables collective action among relevant actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the social function of historical public space in Turkey that has been transformed with rise of modernism. Before that, it functioned as a suburban recreational area. The increasing demand for urban lands has been led to its transformation and its function as an urban component. The historical pattern of urban space can be conserved to protect and strengthen social interactions as the key issue of urban social sustainability. With a focus on the urban design through literature review, the aim is to identify the role of social interactions on social sustainability of historical urban street in Turkey. A field survey study was conducted to observe and in-depth interviews to locally evaluate the socio-spatial design principles in Bagdat street, as a research case. Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) and Cognitive Spatial Map (CSM) were used to investigate the spatial experiences of the respondents. Results indicated that the historical continuity of socio-spatial activities through the time in respect to the socio-cultural values and user satisfaction has led to enhance the sense of belongings for citizens. As a conclusion, all data were integrated to propose a socio-spatial framework for designing and developing of Turkish public street, to enhance the urban social sustainability in future communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, it is claimed that the dynamics that enabled the emergence of city regions as new places of globalization brought about significant changes and restructuring in these areas in the early years of neo-liberal policies. Subsequently, from the 1990s onwards a new neo-liberalist agenda, in reply to the problems of the early period of globalization, defined new relations and new dynamics for city regions. The aim of this paper, with the help of earlier Istanbul case studies, is to discuss the changes taking place in city regions, including the outcomes of the neo-liberal policies induced by the competitiveness of the 1980s, especially those related to the distribution of welfare and social cohesion, which forced the nation state to reconfigure its neo-liberal project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the film cluster in Turkey's cultural capital, Istanbul, is examined with the ultimate purpose of contributing towards a better understanding of the dynamics shaping the resilience and vulnerability of clusters. The paper seeks to shed light on the issue of how and why, in the face of a similar set of threats, Hollywood has proved so resilient but Istanbul's film cluster so vulnerable. Scrutinizing the emergence and the subsequent lock-in of the particular path followed by the Istanbul cluster and investigating the attributes of the proximate business environment that have been shaped along the way reveal that sustainability of a cluster seems to depend on three interrelated factors: how the cluster participants strategically respond to the upcoming threats, the structural capacity of the cluster to overcome such threats, and finally, the macro-socio-economic conditions (both at the national and global levels) against which the challenges occur and which mitigate or exacerbate them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is an attempt to understand the changing characteristics of urban poverty in Turkey since 1980. First, it analyses how the urban poor in Turkey had adopted aggressive survival strategies by strengthening their solidarity networks on religious, ethnic and cultural bases until the 2000s. Then it sheds light on how those networks have dissolved later on thanks to a set of internal and external factors and concludes that Turkey now faces deepening poverty levels and engendering new forms and dynamics of poverty. This paper is based on the Sultanbeyli district of Istanbul, a district almost entirely composed of unauthorized houses whose population grew at an unprecedented rate after 1980; and it is a perfect case for the study of issues relating to migration, urbanization and poverty in Turkish cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores some deeply embedded differences between urban development processes. These are revealed in a Turkish case study by systematically analysing exogenous contingent events and trajectories. The study tests the concept of path dependence as a framework for analysing urban transformation. It examines the hybrid neo-liberal urban transformation along the Levent–Maslak axis, the extension of Istanbul's CBD (central business district). Commercial property development along the Levent–Maslak axis started in the late 1960s and, since the 1990s, the axis has become the financial heart of the city (even of the country). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are considered to be the major drivers of the global economy for many reasons, including their creative and innovative potential in generating sustainable economic growth. Istanbul is one of the global cities searching for a long-term growth strategy. This paper starts with a modest effort of composing an index to be used in the evaluation of the creative potential of cities. Our proposed index, “global creative index”, consists of five main criteria: (1) creativeness, (2) innovativeness, (3) intellectual development, (4) global network connectivity and (5) world cityness emphasizing multinational corporate economy, international division of labour and high intensity of producer and financial services. The use of the index is illustrated through the comparison of nine cities: Hong Kong, Istanbul, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, New York, Shanghai, Singapore and Toronto. The analysis of these nine cities shows that Istanbul is building an innovation environment, but it still lacks research and development infrastructure, technical support and investment in higher education. This comparison offers guidelines for policy-makers to sketch the growth of Istanbul along the lines of creativity and innovativeness. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The aim of this study was to measure the effect of spatial characteristics on housing prices and to integrate an interpolation and regression model in terms of spatially predicting housing price values. In this paper, housing price is investigated by taking into consideration distance to city centre, transportation arteries and coasts, in addition to housing and neighbourhood characteristics as control variables. This investigation is conducted in two stages: firstly by the utilization of multiple regression analysis, and then by an interpolation technique which is generated to predict the spatial pattern of housing price on a continuous surface in order to test the reliability and consistency of the regression model. The results reveal that housing prices are significantly affected by spatial determinants referred to as the distance variables. By conducting a residual analysis from the regression model, housing price values are analysed and visualized in a continuous map which is globally consistent with the housing markets in Istanbul. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Regional innovation system (RIS) requires that two subsystems co-exist in a region: The first subsystem is the knowledge exploitation structure of the industrial base (symbolic, synthetic and analytic knowledge bases) [Moodysson, J., Coenen, L. & Asheim, B. (2008) Explaining spatial patterns of innovation: Analytical and synthetic modes of knowledge creation in the Medicon Valley life science cluster, Environment and Planning A, 40(5), pp. 1040-1056]. The second subsystem is the regional supportive infrastructure or knowledge-generating subsystem which consists of firms, educational institutions, knowledge organizations and other similar infrastructural bases in the region. The objective of the paper is to compare two textile-related clusters in Turkey with respect to the strengths and weaknesses of the RIS. The first region is Istanbul with a textile and fashion design cluster, the second region is Denizli which is an example of a traditional export-oriented centre for bathrobe and home textiles. Results of the empirical findings prove that the two regions having different knowledge bases and RISs have different deficiencies in innovative performance even if they are the subsectors of the same sector (textiles). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide variety of health-care systems, ranging from the traditional private medical practice to medical care services, is organized by the government in Turkey. In the 1990s, as a result of privatization movement at the international level, the Turkish Government took the decision to financially support the establishment of new private health-care facilities in order to answer the increasing health-care needs of people and, at the same time, to create a competitive market to improve the quality of health care. This paper investigates, first, the growth pattern of the number of private hospitals beds versus public hospital beds and their spatial distribution in Istanbul; then, the relationships between the number of public and private hospital beds and the characteristics of the districts, such as population, income and education by using regression analysis. According to the results, while income and education are the most important factors to affect the number of private hospital beds, no relationship is found between the number of public hospital beds and the characteristics of the districts. Thus, most of the private hospitals are concentrated in the higher income neighborhoods. More efforts should be spent for balanced distribution of public and private hospital beds with respect to health-care needs of people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 1980s, the major cities of Turkey have experienced urban transformation process following the changes in the international trade policy and the impact of globalization. Istanbul took the highest amount of share from these transformation processes as being the most important economic, cultural and tourism centre and the most integrated centre to the world economy of the country. This paper describes Istanbul's historical development, investigates demographic profile and spatial distribution of employment and illustrates multi-centre development of the city. Decentralization of population and jobs illustrate the multi-centre development. Multi-centre development contributes to sustainable urban development which provides efficient energy use and prevents pollution. Istanbul having a long history, large population and being in a very strategic location between Asia and Europe greatly effected from globalization which is reflected in its transformation of urban structure and increased land values and thus offered great opportunities for the real estate investors. The role of Istanbul within the world hierarchy of cities is suggested for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although accessibility has become one of the major concerns in both urban design and architecture, many urban facilities are still non-compliant with accessibility standards. This paper aims to assess designers' attitudes towards disabled people in Istanbul and to test their responses by determining the compliance with access standards for Istanbul's public open places. The study used the United Nations implementation checklist on accessibility, which covers 19 items of 4 main groups. Data were collected at four crowded public squares of old and new centres of Istanbul chosen randomly. The highest compliance was found in Kadikoy square (39%), whereas the lowest was found in Besiktas (26.3%). To assess designers' knowledge of disabled people's needs, a questionnaire was presented to 114 architects and contractors. Data showed that the majority of them did not learn about disabled people's needs in the physical environment during their professional education and that in their projects today, they provide accessible environments only for wheelchair users. In short, due to gaps in the system that educates professional designers and the absence of enforcement, the examined open public squares in Istanbul have accomplished very little in terms of accessibility for disabled people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this research is to review different perceptions on the possible future role and impact of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) 2010 Istanbul in enabling conservation to contribute to regeneration. The paper attempts to understand the vicious relationship between conservation and regeneration and it analyses the ways in which the ECoC event can resolve potential contradictions enabling conservation to contribute to regeneration by constructing an empirical study based on interviews and documentary research. It concludes with specific remarks in the name of attaining more effective and sustainable outcomes from the process both for Istanbul and Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sprawling urban development is one of the major issues that mainly refer to the extent of urbanization. Less urban sprawl and more compact residential development have been viewed as important components of the environmental agenda. In the major cities of developing countries like Istanbul, where the population is over 12 millions, urban sprawl threatens the natural resources through large-scale land consumption. Thus, many policy-makers are starting to look for ways to control sprawl through smart growth policies before it becomes unmanageable. Urban planners require information related to the rate of growth, pattern and extent of sprawl to provide basic measurements for planning strategies. The aim of this research is to provide a sprawl measurement methodology that contributes to the understanding of sprawl dynamics. Using geographic information systems and spatial data, it is possible to identify the pattern of urban sprawl. This paper presents the extent of urban sprawl in Istanbul over six periods from 1975 to 2005. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the spatial distribution of shopping malls with respect to population and analyses the factors which effect the shopping mall location. According to the results, while the shopping mall space ratio is higher than population ratio in the intermediate zone, the reverse is true in the periphery. The relationships between the shopping mall space and income, population and distance to the central business district (CBD) of the locations are investigated by the use of regression analysis. The results reveal that income is the only factor affecting the location of shopping malls among those considered. In addition, three shopping malls from the inner and peripheral zones of Istanbul were analysed with respect to frequency to shopping centres and characteristics of trade areas. According to the results, the size of the catchment area of the shopping mall from the inner zone is larger then the peripheral ones due to higher accessibility with alternative transportation systems and supporting functions in its surrounding areas. The results fall within the concept of central place theory. Further research is suggested by expending the study to the other areas of the city with different characteristics to calculate their retail potential and their spatial implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past several decades, the rapid growth of Istanbul has resulted in a tremendous gap between the need and provision of social facilities. Growing societal and community needs in the information age and the desire to become a member of the European Union (EU) have stimulated public officials to upgrade the existing libraries and to increase their numbers so as to reach European standards. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the spatial distribution of existing libraries and to propose new ones where they are needed. Volume is the most important and the population of the districts is the second important factor to affect library use. Thus, it is crucial to support library construction, especially in the periphery of the city for future development, and to improve the level of service of the existing libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine the spatial distribution of housing prices at the metropolitan and at the district level of Istanbul. At the metropolitan level, the most important factors which affect housing prices are sub-market, floor area and sea view. At the district level, housing prices vary from district to district according to locational, socio-economic and property characteristics. High-income sub-markets have higher coefficient of determinations and more significant variables than low-income sub-markets. Furthermore, the results suggest that planned districts have higher housing prices; thus, restructuring squatter areas and revitalizing inner city areas provide not only benefits to individuals but also higher tax revenues to the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent studies on urban safety, close relationships between physical and demographic characteristics have been found in crime levels in cities. In many countries social, political and economic turmoil have been the main reasons for the increase in urban crime and violence in the last 50 years. In physically deprived environments, the most important factors that increase urban crime are socially isolated communities, economic discrimination and lack of equality in political citizenship rights. In developing countries, it is difficult to obtain data about crime and safety. For this reason, there are very few studies on crime compared to developed countries. In the research in this paper, the similarities and differences of crime ratios against property and persons in Istanbul are compared with those in other countries. For this purpose, the spatial distribution of crimes committed were analysed on a comparative basis between 1998-2002 in 32 districts displaying different characteristics in terms of distance to the centre, use of land, value of land, physical and demographic features. The research revealed that the crime rates in Istanbul against property and persons were in parallel with developed countries. The districts which have mixed use (residential and commercial, residential and industrial), high population increase, high number of households, high density and high land value, property and personal crime levels are high; when date of becoming a district is recent and the size of the district is large, property and personal crime levels are low. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is firstly, to determine the types of manufacturing activities which are at present active in the Istanbul Historical Core and secondly, to establish the daily commuting pattern of industrial employment. With this information to hand, it is then possible to assess the impact of the transportation pattern on the historical core and the metropolitan area as a whole. The results show that industrial employees commuting to work in the historical core face more difficulties, by way of duration-distance-change, than the average value observed in the metropolitan area. Moving manufacturing activities away from the historical core will not only decrease the difficulties faced by industrial employees in this area, but will also relieve this 2400 year old area from the burden of traffic congestion, environmental and noise pollution, and create usable building capacity . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]