Designing a smart, livable, and sustainable historical city center

Abstract

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.