1st Edition

Lost Informal Housing in Istanbul Globalization at the Expense of Urban Culture

By F. Yurdanur Dulgeroglu-Yuksel Copyright 2023
180 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

180 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

180 Pages 30 B/W Illustrations
by Routledge

The dynamics of globalization brought a radical change in megacities and tensions between the stakeholders and dwellers against top-down urban renewal policies. This unique book provides a worldview of multi-stakeholders in the urban housing market. With a longitudinal research approach, it paves the way for interdisciplinary researchers to critically assess the urban renewal projects and update... Read more

Acknowledgements

List of Abbreviations

INTRODUCTION

Aims and objectives

Approach and methodology

Organization of the book

Typology and change

Chapter 1 THE INFORMAL: CULTURE OF İNFORMALİTY AND SPACE

Starting point for the informal

Definition

Related concepts

Settlement pattern of gecekondus

Mahalle concept and culture

Mahalle is a socio-spatial unit

Fit of culture and dwelling in informal settlements

Local leaders

Globalism creates highly differentiated social groups

Urban development dynamics and the layered city

Summary: incremental growth as a way of informal urbanization

Chapter 2 IN-BETWEEN: URBAN TRANSITION FROM INFORMAL TO FORMAL

Interpretations for Urban transformation based on changing views about the informal settlers

State-led and Demand-led Approaches

Greed and need: urban Space Consumption

The changing role of the informal networks

Disaster mitigation Law or Tabula Rasa

Cases

Resistance to urban renewal - a strong community: Sariyer

Women’s efforts to challenge disaster threats -positively participating: Kağıthane

Submission to Top-down urban renewal- first in emergency project and UT: Zeytinburnu

Total Displacement seemingly squatter prevention: Ayazma

Gentrification of a central Roma mahalle notoriously gentrified: Sulukule

Large-scale demolition, central lum eradicated: Tarlabaşı

From house thresholds to courts: Fikirtepe

Self-control with strong tensions: Maltepe

Summary: Difficulties with policies, life quality, and demolition

Chapter 3 FORMALIZING POVERTY TO GLOBALIZE THE CITY

Setting

Global city, mega-projects, contrasting urban architecture

Major urban actors in the formal housing market

Types of affordable housing programs for the urban poor

Social housing as a panacea

Social housing characteristics

A brief comparison of informal-gecekondu and formal-social house

Evaluation of Social housing

Mass-housing or one type fits all

Mass-housing authority (MHA) / TOKI as the major agent of urban change

Interest in global projects vs affordable housing projects

Social housing via urban transformation

Cases

Mini-new global cosmopolitan settlement: Sancaktep

Pseudo-urban renewal in an old settlement: Yeldeğirmeni

Examplary social housing, or highrises for the high end of globalism: Tozkoparan

Summary: loss of informal housing, urban memory, policy implication

Chapter 4 DISCUSSION of SOME SIGNIFICANT FINDINGS

Is social housing a panacea?

Is urban land consumption and expansion a panacea?

Is vertical development and grand scale housing a panacea?

Can the conflicting interests be reconciled in the housing market?

Summary: gap between policy and practice

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Glossary

Index

Biography

F. Yurdanur Dülgeroğlu-Yüksel currently teaches several online courses at Waqkf University on culture, space, and urban renewal and has been serving on the editorial board of The International Journal of the Open House for the last three decades. She continues to lead workshops on housing in developing countries for ENHR (European Network for Housing Research). She was the director of HREC (Housing Research and Education Center) at Istanbul Technical Institute (ITU) for six years, and was the head of the Department of Architecture, of the Faculty of Architecture for two years until retirement.

Dülgeroğlu-Yüksel conducted two major research studies on housing quality and urban transformation in Istanbul, funded by TUBITAK (MHA) and ITU, respectively, and served as a consultant in a team of ITU academicians to Kagıthane Sub-Municipality for the Disaster Awareness Project.

She also served as a jury member for TOKİ and The Ministry of Urbanization and Environment; as well as did research on Quality Mass Housing sponsored by the Mass Housing Authority on a widespread questionnaire. She has been part of an international project on two nation’s affordable housing: Turkey and Scotland (Glasgow specifically) through the Urban Mobility Fund, in the direction of UN Habitat III Conference on New Urban Agenda in 2016, culminating in two international conferences in Sweden and Cuba.

Dülgeroğlu-Yüksel also organized several national and international conferences on ISVS (International Seminar on Vernacular Settlements) with Asian scholars and collaborated with OIKONET.

Her research interests include urban housing and change, social housing, and mass housing; and interdisciplinary approaches to contemporary global housing issues in poverty-stricken urban areas.