By Adriana Munoz
The past Nov. 29th, the UTSA Center for Cultural Sustainability hosted a lecture by Dr. Ege Ozdal, Assistant Professor for the Department of Architecture at Istanbul Kultur University. During her lecture she talked about past and current urban conservation issues in Istanbul, Turkey. The city of Istanbul was the capital of the Eastern Roman and Ottoman Empires and is believed to be over 8000 years old.
During Roman times, the main axis of the city was the road to Rome and several forums were located along this path. The city grew continuously until the 7th century when it reached its peak. During this time, the walls around the city had to be expanded and mark the edge of the ancient city today. Growth stopped and the city was stagnant until 1453 when it was conquered by the Ottoman. From the 15th to the 17th century they built palaces, bazaars, kulliyes (mixed-use complexes), mosques, madrasas, universities, etc. and the urban fabric of the city was completely changed. Density increased and streets became narrow.
During the 14th to 19th century the city doubled in size, international trade increased and Europeans settled the areas nearby. A ferry system was established in 1851 to communicate the different villages around the bay. In 1923, Turkey became a republic. Several urban renewal projects drastically changed the identity of the ancient city; Ankara became the new capital, streets were widened, fire codes were established and new parks were created.
During the 20th century there was an increasing need for planning guidelines for the city, and in 1937 the first master plan for Istanbul was completed by the french Henri Prost. Henri Prost’s Master Plan established drastic measures to deal with the urban conditions of the city; inferior buildings and additions to historic buildings should be demolished, develop new construction to replace residential buildings with insufficient light and ventilation, establish zoning, create several parks around the city including a green belt around the ancient city walls, establish public transportation, relocate the port to a more appropriate location and define the conservation characteristics of Istanbul. His plan was criticized for applying cosmetic solutions rather than providing with a comprehensive plan for the future and wasn’t implemented in its totality. Interventions to old roads were completed, new roads were built as well as green areas and plazas; establishing public transportation and the relocation of the port were not considered. In order to create new roads and bridges, extensive demolitions throughout the city were needed.
During the 20th century, there was an extensive loss of urban fabric and integrity was diminished in order to modernize the ancient city. Instead of introducing a metro system as was proposed, streets were widened to accommodate modern traffic. Several buildings were demolished and the ones kept lost their original context. Buildings got built on Prost’s green designated areas including the gardens of ancient palaces. Today, there are guidelines in place that are not very effective and are not always followed. Developers can bend those rules if they have enough economic resources. The government of Istanbul is now trying to make the wide roads more pedestrian friendly, but unless they control growth and manage the change of their city, these efforts will not create a solution that will maintain it for the future.
Istanbul is a great example of what poor planning practices can cause. Their ancient monuments’ integrity was compromised throughout the years and the solutions to mitigate the damage only continue to make more damage. Managing of continuity is key, we need to keep in mind that solutions that consider the long term future growth of a resource rather than just a few years from now, is critical in order to keep the integrity of those resources intact.
