Scholarly Publications - Urban Design and Landscape Architecture

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11693/115621

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Open Access
Adaptability of everyday planning in urban design practices: self-organization and spontaneous action analysis of Galataport, Istanbul
(Springer Link, 2023-10-03) Korkut, C.; Nalbantoğlu, Oktan
Cities are information systems by its social and physical components. The data of these components create a wider picture in urban texture than it was designed by planners and designer in urban practices. The idea of collecting the data and composing models of spontaneous actions in urban simulations can add different dimensions to planning ideas in social terms and spatial texture. The issue is to find out how these components can be better related with each other to let citizens be urban planners as well up to some level, and what level that would be. The aim of the project is to bring back the social impact of the whole city as linking the hubs of Karaköy and Kabataş through the waterfront, also reawakening the collective memory of the port, by preserving the texture of warehouses form Ottoman Empire. The final outcome would be understanding how effectively project would be able to create the dynamics that have been proposed, and whether there have been other spontaneous actions thought the designed area.
Open Access
Adaptability of everyday planning in urban design practices: self‑organization and spontaneous action analysis of Galataport, Istanbul
(Springer, 2023-10-03) Korkut, C.; Nalbantoğlu, Oktan
Cities are information systems by its social and physical components. The data of these components create a wider picture in urban texture than it was designed by planners and designer in urban practices. The idea of collecting the data and composing models of spontaneous actions in urban simulations can add different dimensions to planning ideas in social terms and spatial texture. The issue is to find out how these components can be better related with each other to let citizens be urban planners as well up to some level, and what level that would be. The aim of the project is to bring back the social impact of the whole city as linking the hubs of Karaköy and Kabataş through the waterfront, also reawakening the collective memory of the port, by preserving the texture of warehouses form Ottoman Empire. The final outcome would be understanding how effectively project would be able to create the dynamics that have been proposed, and whether there have been other spontaneous actions thought the designed area.
Open Access
Claiming the Neo-Ottoman mosque: Islamism, gender, architecture
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2023) Batuman, Bülent; Raudvere, Catharina; Petek, Onur
This chapter focuses on the gender politics of mosque architecture within the current context of Turkey in which the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has encouraged the neo-Ottoman idiom. This particular idiom produced distinct ideological meanings within different political contexts. Currently, it serves the absorption of nationalism and the remoulding of the nation-state by the AKP’s Islamism and the making of the Islamic nation—millet. The AKP has also been promoting the mosque as a social space. A significant aspect of this process has been the gradual increase in women’s involvement as users and designers of space, demanding to have a say in the spatial organization of women’s sections in the mosques. The overlap between women’s demands and the governments agenda to endorse mosques also played role in the promotion of neo-Ottoman mosque architecture. The chapter discusses the instrumentalisation of gender politics to legitimise the government’s approach to mosque architecture. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
Metadata only
The archaeology of Hittite landscapes: A view from the southwestern borderlands
(Penn State University Press, 2022-03-30) Harmanşah, Ömür; Johnson, Peri; Durusu-Tanrıöver, Müge; Marsh, Ben
This article layers material, physical, and textual landscapes of the Hittite Empire in a compact borderland region. We argue that a real strength of landscape archaeology is in understanding and articulating medium-scale landscapes through archaeological survey methods and critical study of physical geography. Medium-scale landscapes are a milieu of daily human experience, movement, and visuality that spawn a densely textured countryside involving settlements, sacred places, quarries, roads, transhumance routes, and water infrastructures. Using the data and the experience from eight field seasons by the Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project team since 2010, we offer accounts of three specific landscapes: The Ilgın Plain, the Bulasan River valley near the Hittite fortress of Kale Tepesi, and the pastoral uplands of Yalburt Yaylası. For each, we demonstrate different sets of relationships and landscape dynamics during the Late Bronze Age, with specific emphasis on movement, settlement, taskscapes, land use, and human experience. © 2022 The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA.
Open Access
Designing a smart, livable, and sustainable historical city center
(American Society of Civil Engineers, 2022-06-23) Dizdaroğlu, Didem
This study presents a design proposal based on the concept of developing a smart, livable, and sustainable historical city center for Ulus District in Ankara. In recent years, Ulus district has been subjected to a quite radical and irreversible transformation process involving a lot of demolition, reconstruction, and refunction activities. Urban development with such high density has created several problems for the environment, in addition to causing the area to lose its distinctive physical and functional aspects. A holistic approach, accompanied by the support of advanced technologies and their modern applications, appears to be a necessity for achieving the long-term goals of urban sustainability. To this end, this study provides significant insights into ruling local political practices and strategies in order to support policymakers in achieving their local aims on smart city initiatives.
Open Access
Dis-placed: space, settlement, and agency
(Intellect Ltd., 2021-07-01) Batuman, Bülent
This article introduces the special issue ‘Dis-placed’. Questioning the term ‘refugee’ as an identity marker and pointing at the problematic connotations it embodies, the article explores the spatial forms of refugee experience. The knowledge of space, as produced within disciplines such as geography, urban planning, and architecture, is deployed by states to limit the movements of forced migrants across and within national borders. In response, the article calls for social/spatial justice, arguing that this can only be achieved through the blurring of the boundaries between host and refugee identities. The contributions in this special issue present investigations on different facets of the spatiality of forced migration through various disciplinary approaches and methodologies. Taken together, they underline the importance of the link between space and refugee agency in tackling forced migration.
Open Access
Measuring residential sustainability performance: an indexing approach
(Inderscience Publishers, 2019) Dizdaroğlu, Didem
This research investigates the environmental impacts of urban development by developing a parcel-level sustainability assessment tool to guide sustainable urban development. The paper introduces a GIS-based model called the ‘micro-level urban-ecosystem sustainability index (MUSIX)’, which has been designed as a policy-making support tool to highlight key environmental issues at a micro-level, concentrating specifically on residential developments. The model has been tested in a comparative study of Angora Evleri (Angora Houses, Turkey) and East Killara (Australia). Despite certain limitations in its implementation, the results of the study demonstrate that a parcel-based spatial analysis can be used as a tool to identify problems in current local policies and to suggest ways to improve their efficiency. As a future research direction, MUSIX could be combined with a new module for the evaluation of alternative development scenarios. By producing accessible, accurate and easily combined parcel-level data, planners, governments and other actors could benefit from the model outputs in many ways during the decision-making process.
Open Access
Resilience of a contested high street: The changing image of Tunali Hilmi Street in Ankara, Turkey
(Taylor and Francis, 2020) Erkip, Feyzan
Globally designed shopping spaces constitute a threat to on-street retail, which provides citizens a mix of activity patterns, including shopping, leisure and socializing. Consumers seem to prefer controlled mall environments due to problems in urban centers such as heavy traffic, limited parking, crowding, density and security concerns. The Turkish situation, however, indicates a different trend, with lively inner-city streets coexisting with highly acclaimed shopping malls. This paper addresses changing retail patterns on Tunali Hilmi Street, the first high street in Ankara, which reflects socio-economic and cultural dynamics of the last two decades in urban Turkey. This is a result of organic changes in the street’s historical and demographic features as well as in Turkey’s broader political and cultural environment. Since the millennium, the street has lost its distinctive quality as well as much of its upper-class clientele. The new visitor profile has been perceived by previous users as an invasion and threat to modern urban life. Recently, immigrants and refugees are starting to be seen on the street due to a nearby immigration office, which has caused further reaction. The paper’s extended timespace analysis of Tunali Hilmi Street reflects an overall shift in urban life in Turkey
Open Access
Objects of hate? Architectural symbols of the rich in Turkey in the 1960s
(De Gruyter, 2020) Batuman, Bülent; Pekesen, Berna
It is unfortunately true that there is social injustice in our country. A fortunate class exploits housing potentials and acquires houses which would be considered luxurious even in rich countries; resources are seized to the disadvantage of other classes.This quotation is from the Chamber of Architects’ declaration published a few months after the military intervention in 1960. Although it did not attack the military regime, the text openly criticized the failure of the military to implement effective regulations regarding housing and urbanization. As the quotation reflects, the Chamber’s declaration represents the urgency of the housing question as well as the Chamber’s position with respect to it. Yet, it was none other than architects, who were designing the houses, which “would be considered luxurious even in rich countries.” The tension between the client-dependent nature of the architectural profession and the Chamber’s opposition to urbanization led by the private sector would prevail throughout the following decades. Nonetheless, this tension allows us to consider the multifaceted character of architecture which is simultaneously a service to be bought and a social product to be consumed. I would like to use this intrinsic conflict between the private ownership of buildings and their social use as a starting point for my discussion on the cultural politics of the housing question in Turkey in the 1960s. I will argue that a key mode of consuming architecture is through vision: the visual experience of the built environment establishes the foundation for the social meanings of architecture. Therefore, my aim here is to scrutinize the political role of architectural representations of home in popular culture in the 1960s. As scrutinized by the chapters in this collection, the period witnessed radical changes in almost all facets of social life. Urban life transformed under pressure of multiple factors and led to the emergence of new social practices. Social change encompassed all sorts of domains and cultural production was no exception. New trends and lifestyles displayed social distinction, which triggered conflicting visions regarding the city and its built environment. Within this framework, I will show how cultural representations were not merely reflections of wealth and poverty, but rather components in the making of the imaginations of the rich and the poor.
Open Access
Toplumcu bir belediyecilik modeli: "yeni belediyecilik hareketi" 1973–1977
(Mülkiyeliler Birliği Genel Merkezi, 2010) Batuman, Bülent
1973 ve 1980 yılları arasında CHP’nin yönetimi altında bulunan belediyelerde üretilen ve söz konusu dönemde “yeni”, “devrimci” veya “toplumcu” belediyecilik hareketi olarak isimlendirilen program karşı-hegemonik bir kentsel politika sürecinin bileşeni olarak ortaya çıkmış ve birkaç açıdan dikkate değer özgüllükler barındırmıştır. Her şeyden önce bu programın oluşumu çeşitli disiplinlere mensup kentleşme uzmanlarının katkısıyla ve emekçi sınıfların henüz formüle edilmemiş taleplerine karşılık olarak ortaya çıkmıştır. İkinci olarak, bu hareket Türkiye’de ilk kez yerel yönetimin özerkliği yönünde bir talebin ortaya çıkmasına sebep olmuştur. Üçüncü olarak ise, yeni belediyecilik hareketinin gündemine aldığı uygulamalar kentsel emekçi sınıfların toplumsal bir özne olarak ortaya çıkmasına katkıda bulunmuştur. Makale, Türkiye’deki yerel yönetim geleneğine kısa bir bakışın ardından, 1973–1977 döneminin belediyecilik pratiklerini incelemekte ve son olarak yeni belediyecilik hareketinin uygulamalarını bir üst ölçekte toplumcu bir belediyecilik modeli için geçerli olabilecek boyutlarıyla değerlendirmektedir.
Open Access
Kentsel politikada yeni biçim arayışları: 2009 yerel seçimleri ve Ankara’da “Belediye Yönetimlerinde Saltanata Son” kampanyası
(Dipnot Basın Yayın Pazarlama Ltd. Şti., 2010) Batuman, Bülent; Karakuş-Candan, T.
55 yıllık tarihi boyunca kentsel politika süreçlerinin önemli bir aktörü olmuş bulunan Mimarlar Odası’nın kentsel mücadele alanındaki etkinliği genel olarak kurumsal ve hukuki süreçler içinde tariflidir. Yerel yönetimlerin keyfi ve anti-demokratik uygulamalarının en yoğun deneylendiği kentlerden olan Ankara’da faaliyet gösteren Mimarlar Odası Ankara Şubesi, 2009 Yerel Seçimleri sürecinde mevcut etkinlik çerçevesinin dışına çıkan aktivist bir kentsel mücadele yöntemi arayışına girmiştir. Bu doğrultuda, Oda’nın çağrıştırdığı kurumsal sınırlamaları aşmak ve yeni bir kentsel mücadele dili üretmek hedefiyle “Saltanata Son” adlı bir kampanya düzenlemiştir. Kampanyanın dikkat çekici özelliği, son yıllarda özellikle internet üzerinden örgütlenen ve kent mekânının anlık, hızlı ve çarpıcı kullanımları ile karakterize olan ve literatürde “flash-mob” ve “smart-mob” gibi kavramlarla tanımlanan eylem türlerinden ilham almış olmasıdır. Kampanya, yerel yönetim seçimlerinin sonuçları açısından başarısızlığa uğramış olsa da, örgütlediği katılımcı süreç ve öne sürdüğü kentsel taleplerin gördüğü genel kabul, kampanyanın dikkate değer bir kentsel mücadele deneyimi olduğunu göstermektedir.
Open Access
70’ler: Siyasetin odağındaki kent, kentin odağındaki siyaset
(İletişim Yayınları, 2013) Batuman, Bülent
70’lerin ortalarında Türkiye kentlerine bakıldığında görülen şey, kentin özgül bir siyaset odağı haline gelmiş olduğudur. Bir yanda –hem politik bir aktör hem de toplumsal bir çevre olarak– gecekondu, diğer yanda MC hükümetleriyle çatışan CHP’li belediyeler eliyle gelişen yerel yönetim modeli çerçevesinde hızla politikleşen kentsel hizmetler bulunmaktadır. Bu dönüşüm, sadece on yıl öncesi düşünüldüğünde bile çarpıcıdır. Zira, 60’ların ortalarında gecekondu, himayecilik ilişkileriyle yeniden üretilen ucuz bir kentleşme yöntemi, kentsel toplu tüketim hizmetleri ise, devletin yerel uzantıları olarak görünen belediyelerin doğal işlevleri olarak kavranmaktadır. Bu makale, işte bu dönüşümü, yani 70’lere damgasını vuran bir boyut olarak kentsel politikanın özgül bir siyasal mücadele alanı biçiminde ortaya çıkışını tartışmaktadır. Makalenin temel argümanı, bu dönüşümün özellikle mimar ve kent plancılarından oluşan mekân tasarımcılarının mesleki faaliyetlerini toplumcu siyasal eğilimleriyle buluşturan pratikleri dolayımıyla gerçekleştiğidir. Bu çerçevede makale, mekân tasarımcılarının kentsel siyaseti kuran iki temel alandaki etkinliklerini inceler: konut sorunu ve kentsel siyasetin kurumsal bağlamı olan yerel yönetimler.
Open Access
Now you see him, now you don’t: anthropomorphic representations of the Hittite Kings
(University of Chicago Press, 2019-10) Durusu Tanrıöver, Müge
Hittite kings lived as mortals and became deified only after death. Beyond mere flesh and blood, the identities of the kings were encapsulated in their office, title, and the idea of kingship. Their representations were also divergent, ranging from figural renderings of royal bodies to the writing of names and titles in hieroglyphic Luwian,1 mainly on rock reliefs and seals. Starting with the 14th century BC,2 anthropomorphic representations of Hittite kings3 were incorporated into a very small corpus dominated by seals and rock reliefs, with the name of the king often accompanying the image. Similarly, royal names and epithets in the hieroglyphic script started in the Hittite Old Kingdom with the reign of Tudhaliya I/II (early 14th century BC)4 and were standard features of reliefs and seals in the 14th–13th centuries,5 as represented by numerous examples. The pervasiveness of hieroglyphic Luwian is visible in the fact that almost all the preserved anthropomorphic representations contain a hieroglyphic element, while there are many more inscriptions which are not accompanied by figural imagery. As such, the written and the anthropomorphic illustrations of the Hittite kings represent a contrast in terms of quantity: royal names and titles in the hieroglyphic script were liberally used, while anthropomorphic depictions were reserved for select examples.6 In this article, I argue that the adoption of anthropomorphic representations by Hittite kings were a selective phenomenon. Signifying power and presence through rendering royal titles in hieroglyphic Luwian signs flanking individual names was a conscious preference to visually emphasize the office of kingship more than the individual kings. Starting with the 14th century BC, however, Hittite kings started commissioning anthropomorphic representations explicitly identifying themselves, and continued this practice until the fall of the empire at the start of the 12th century BC. The reign of Muwatalli II in the early 13th century was the most active period of royal patronage of anthropomorphic illustrations executed on seals and rock reliefs. The triggers for the accelerated use of this iconography in the 13th century, I suggest, rested mainly on two phenomena. First, Hatti was under a lot of pressure from the borderlands of the empire as well as the neighboring states. Second, the royal succession in Hattuša was rife with conflict, disrupting the continuity of kingship, and forcing the rulers to emphasize their individual relationships with the divine realm as legitimate kings. In an attempt to articulate the power bestowed upon them by gods as legitimate and able rulers, the Hittite kings started to commission more anthropomorphic depictions of themselves, albeit scrupulously.7 In these figural royal representations, the connection between the anthropomorphic manifestations and divinity was emphasized and reinforced. The king’s body was depicted in only three ways: when he was facing a deity; when he was in the protective embrace of a god; or when the king was a god himself. Thus, in all the examples I discuss below, the manifestation of the king in human form is conditioned by his absorption by, and encounter with, divine energy.8 In other words, a divine element (either a god or a deified king) was a mandatory prerogative for the depiction of the body of the Hittite king. Contrary to other Near Eastern traditions of representing kingship in a culturally-coded way signifying both the king and his office at the same time,9 specific depictions of both kingship and individual kings were both sought after in the Hittite examples. The hieroglyphic signs for Great King (MAGNUS.REX),10 often doubled with the winged sun disc positioned above the name of the king, emphasized the importance of the office of kingship as a continuous institution. In contrast, anthropomorphic representations intended to articulate the relationship of the individual king with the divine realm and emphasized his right to rule as the king supported by the gods. In comparison with other eastern Mediterranean traditions, especially the Neo-Assyrian and Egyptian examples, anthropomorphic representations of Hittite kings are conservative in terms of both quantity and content. The few images of the Hittite kings depict them either facing, pouring libations to, or being in the embrace of a god; or deified themselves.11 The body of the king in Hittite iconography, therefore, was visible only when he was in contact with the divine realm, as if the body of the king was a culmination of divine energy.
Open Access
“Night Hawks” watching over the city: redeployment of night watchmen and the politics of public space in Turkey
(Sage Publications, 2019-11) Batuman, Bülent; Erkip, Feyzan
Technological advances have enormously increased surveillance techniques in the last three decades. In this article, we scrutinize the re-instatement of bekçi, the traditional night watchmen patrolling the residential neighborhoods in Turkey, which was obsolete for decades. We analyze the re-emergence of the bekçi in relation to the dynamics of urbanization, and with a perspective of power and surveillance. Our discussion bridges the Foucauldian notion of “visibility,” equating it with being subject to surveillance, and the Arendtian emphasis on “appearance” as the precondition for a claim to public space (hence, citizenship) in order the uncover the role of visibility within the mechanisms of power in public space. We argue that although the bekçi seems outmoded, especially within the context of ever-increasing advancement of surveillance technologies; its recent deployment in the public spaces of Turkish metropolises brings about new modes of politics of visibility parallel to the changing modality of the urban environment.
Open Access
The Changing pattern of segregation and exclusion: The case of Ankara
(Rawat Publications, 2007) Altay, Deniz; Türkün, Asuman; Sandhu, R. S.; Sandhu, J.
Open Access
Lake-places, local hydrology and the Hittite Imperial Projects in the Ilgın Plain: Yalburt Yaylası archaeological landscape research project 2015-2016 seasons
(Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2017) Durusu-Tanrıöver, Müge; Harmanşah, Ö.; Johnson, P.; Marsh, B.; Steadman, S. R.; McMahon, G.
Open Access
The changing roles of female labour in economic expansion and decline: the case of Istanbul clothing industry
(Wiley‐Blackwell, 2005) Eraydın, A.; Erendil, Asuman T.; Nelson, L.; Seager, J.
In this chapter, we use our research on female labor in Istanbul’s clothing industry to examine the effects of industrial boom and bust cycles on women’s lives.1 First, we trace how women gained entry into new globally oriented production systems during the clothing industry boom period (1980–95), exploring how entry into factory production shifted women’s identities and roles both in the family and in society. We argue that the restructuring of production not only generates new labor processes, but also creates new relations between home and work (see also Nippert-Eng, 1996; Castells, 1997; Weyland, 1997; Felstead and Jewson, 2000). Second, we examine how this segment of labor has been affected during the periods of vulnerability and economic downturn after 1995. Our analysis demonstrates that as the state loses capacity to intervene during cyclical economic downturns, women workers suffer most directly because of their more marginal position in the labor market. The article is divided into four main sections. The first section briefly discusses theoretical debates that shape our inquiry, while the second section examines the structural characteristics of a rapidly expanding clothing industry during the late 1980s and early 1990s in Turkey. The third section turns to the changing work patterns and identities of women workers during those years of rapid growth in the clothing industry. We argue that the incorporation of women into the clothing industry, usually second-generation migrants from rural Turkey, had a significant impact on gender identities and roles within migrant families. The fourth section traces the ripple effect of economic crisis, and the contraction of the clothing industry (2000–1), on women’s identities and family survival strategies. Our conclusion reflects upon the challenges of analyzing the dynamics of gender and work on global assembly lines prone to cyclical downturns such as those that have occurred in the Turkish textile industry.
Open Access
Urban agriculture as a tool for sustainable urban transformation: Atatürk Forest Farm, Ankara
(Routledge, 2016) Arapgirlioğlu, Kumru; Baykan, Deniz A.; Roggema, R.
There are several necessities for human life to continue: a place to shelter, food to feed, and an income to maintain all. To achieve better conditions and accomplish life many migrate to cities. The concentration of functions in cities while creating a productive and active environment for people, also generates many inequalities. Besides these inequalities, all societies have been trying to fight against two major problems in over-populated cities: poverty and environmental degradation. Poverty and insufficient nutrition have become an important problem for many cities under the pressure of migration, unplanned growth, and urban sprawl. Urban sprawl threatens many environmental resources within the vicinity of cities, including valuable agricultural land, but also intensifies the problems of accessing safe, cheap, and nutritious food. Rapid urbanization and land speculation in urban territories causes land to be transferred into more overpriced uses such as housing, commerce, or even mega-public projects under the stroke of “urban renewal,” and these invalidate agricultural and public land. Unplanned and dense urbanization of land, while creating threats to the basic foundation of human life and human health, causes alienation from the means of production, nature, and natural resources. Cities rose and prospered as a result of fertile land and surplus food in history, but now they undervalue their main motive: nature. Major problems of urban life in relation to food supply in metropolitan cities appear to have changed: food has to be bought, is expensive, and usually unhealthy or not nutritious enough. Access to healthy and fresh food either becomes very limited or very expensive within the boundaries of cities. Though an important and necessary part of family survival and budget, food by itself becomes an expensive product and goes through a laborious process before it reaches the cities and city markets.
Open Access
Appropriating the masculine sacred islamism, gender, and mosque architecture in contemporary Turkey
(Routledge, 2018) Batuman, Bülent; Staub, A.
Religious duties for men and women differ in Islam, and they determine how the two appear in public. While men are required to perform Friday and Eid prayers in the mosque with the congregation, women are not. This has historically led to the formation of the mosque as a masculine space, in which men use the main prayer hall and women occupy a secondary and separate women’s section. The 1990s witnessed a global tide in women’s demand for equal mosque space, contesting gendered conventions. In Turkey, this tide coincided with the rise of the Islamist Justice and Development Party to power in 2002. After this, women came to the foreground not only as users but also as designers of mosque spaces. This chapter analyzes two recent mosques built in Ankara and Istanbul, both of which embody significance in terms of long-lasting tensions between modernity and tradition in mosque architecture.
Open Access
The changing patterns of segregation and exclusive in the case of Ankara: Part 2: spatial manifestations 1920-50, 1950-80 and after 1980
(Surrey, 2005) Türkün, A.; Altay, D.