Turgut Cansever, an interpretation of the Turkish city (original) (raw)
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History of Istanbul / VOLUME 1 /Istanbul’s Long Century: On a Global And National Scale
Istanbul’s Long Century: On a Global And National Scale, 2015
Due to its unique geographical posi on, Istanbul's economic and poli cal influence spread over a wide area. Istanbul lies at a key intersec on of strategic sea-lanes, and connects two con nents, working as a hinge-city. The city was established on firm land to the north of the Marmara Sea, which connects the Aegean and Black Seas, and towards the southern end of the Bosphorus, straits that have undisputed geo-strategic importance. Like the Marmara Sea, Istanbul is a place where the cultural ecologies of the Aegean and Black Seas intertwine. Including the Balkans and Asia Minor, it can be considered to be in the economic and poli cal heart Eastern Europe. As the mee ng point of passageways and ac vi es that join together many ci es spread over two con nents, Istanbul is also a vital bridge for numerous social networks. This complex formula has resulted in both its fortune and misfortune. Istanbul is a port city, a military city, a poli cal city that was the center of two empires, a commercial city which served as a mee ng point for transna onal colonial networks, a financial city, an educa onal city with numerous secondary and higher educa on ins tu ons, and also a cultural city that func oned as the center of ethno-religious diversity. In the history of the city, these features o en intertwine. Istanbul has collected all sorts of complicated and diverse features that resist singular defini ons of the city; these diverse features o en interact with each other through symbiosis, allowing different historical layers to survive con nuously. It is a rare example of a city in which historical and geographical features are represented in both eclec c and synthe c forms and integrated (assemblage). Looking at the transforma on of the city throughout history, we encounter a different Istanbul in every period. Istanbul is the sum of all these geographical and socio-historical differences. In this paper, focusing on Istanbul's recent history, I will a empt to explain the city's comprehensive sociological transforma on over the last century. THE NINETEENTH CENTURY CONTEXT AND THE MODERN CITY Demographic mobility in recent O oman history has determined the new forma on of Istanbul. The demographic movements , intertwined with late nineteenth and early twen eth century socio-technological developments to form the main features of Istanbul in the Republican period. Demographic changes include the internal structure of popula on movements, the forma on of public health (sanita on) ins tu ons, large popula on movements caused by wars and geographic separa sm, and ethno-religious components of the popula on. Socio-technological processes define the versa le effects of techno-industrial revolu ons, which took place one a er another. The city's history can be be er understood by explaining how it was transformed by economic, spa al, cultural, and administra ve processes, thus providing a context for socio-historical change. Among those processes which transformed the city by following predetermined and original routes are: large fires and subsequent periods of reconstruc on, the spread of railways, the renewal of harbors, the introduc on of the telegraph, telephone and electricity to urban life, the a empt to shape the urban macro-form with motorized vehicles, and the evolu on of communica on technologies. The cultural transforma ons that surrounded the moderniza on of the O oman State and the Turkish Republiccan also be understood in terms of the decisions that shaped conflic ng poli cal and administra ve structures. This ar cle will discuss the city's recent history, which was shaped by conflicts and breaksthat carry it from the past to the future.. As the capital of a mul na onal empire, which was damaged by hegemonic disputes between the great powers of the nineteenth century, Istanbul found itself in the eye of a storm. As one of the most prominent and fascina ng ci es during military-agrarian empires, Istanbul had to keep pace with the innova ons of this period. It represented not only one of the ci es that were involved in manufacturing for the progressive capitalist markets of the me, from which the industrial revolu on emanated, but also witnessed different types of se lements typical of growing economies. The capitals of modern na on-states, as seen in both their architecture and planning, were venues for symbolic power in this period. When the problem of subsistence provisions was eradicated following a boom in produc on, the number of se lements accommoda ng large popula ons started to increase rapidly. Growing and urbanizing popula ons in Europe and America reflected the birth of a new city form. The most tangible results of 1 2
In the 1930s, the attention of Turkey' s politicians shifted back from Ankara and Anatolian cities to İstanbul. In 1932, the Governorship-Municipality of İstanbul organized an urban design competition for İstanbul, and four foreign city planners were invited. In the meantime, Martin Wagner came to İstanbul for the preparation of urban reports. In 1937, Henri Prost, the prominent urbanist of Paris, was invited to İstanbul and prepared the first master plan of the city. In Turkey and in İstanbul, town planning processes have been significantly influenced by "Western" planning principles, cultures, and experiences while gaining a local meaning in the context of Turkish politics and the state-formation process. The aim of this study is to describe the urban design competition of 1933 and the first master plan of 1937. Beyond references to Western European cities as in the "city-beautiful" planning approach, this study, based on a series of official documents, plan reports and their rhetoric, investigates in particular the role of foreign planners/urbanists in İstanbul in the context of the construction of a nation-state. The analysis of these foreign planners' work suggests that urban planning in Republican Turkey was closely linked to the construction of the nation state.
This article explores the social history of İstanbul’s extra-mural urbanization during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It focuses on the Beyoğlu district, where the modernizing city emerged as a dense urban sprawl on what had been an area with rural characteristics well into the second half of the nineteenth century. The examination traces the main axis of development from the northern shores of the Golden Horn to the Taksim area, concentrating on the people who created and inhabited this nascent space. It delves into the formation of modern class structures and identifies migratory patterns in the variegated spaces of the area, including Kasımpaşa, Tarlabaşı and Galatasaray. Utilizing Ottoman state documentation, local school reports and contemporary descriptions and memoirs produced by the inhabitants of the city, this study contributes to the existing scholarship by incorporating the human element and a social perspective into examinations of the urban development of modern Istanbul. On a broader level, the article suggests that in the context of the rapid and drastic transformation which Istanbul is experiencing in its cityscape today, we need to look more closely at the origins of this phenomenon, particularly with an eye to the social stratification that came into being in the late Ottoman period.
Mastering the Conquered Space: Resurrection of Urban Life in Ottoman Upper Thrace (14th – 17th c.)
PhD Dissertation, 2013
This dissertation examines several cases of urban development in the Ottoman Balkans aiming to demonstrate the existence of an established Ottoman model for urban modification and creation of new towns. Focusing on the morphology of four towns rebuilt or established from scratch the dissertation finds a normative pattern in the methods applied by the Ottomans in reclaiming urban space in the conquered territories. The Ottoman central power and the semi-autonomous border raider commanders in the Balkans applied a program for changing of the inherited spatial in order in the Byzantino-Slavic cities in the Balkans through a conscious attempt for shifting of the existing urban core away of the fortified parts. The concept for changing of the spatial order through architectural patronage has followed a long evolutionary path and certainly predates the Ottoman state. The T-shaped multifunctional imaret/zaviyes used in the Ottoman urban program as colonizers of urban space constitute the important novelty that came into being in Ottoman Bithynia and was subsequently transferred to the Balkans. Keywords: Ottoman Balkans, urbanism, urban morphology, architectural patronage, historical demography, Filibe (Plovdiv), Tatar Pazarcık (Pazardzik), Karlova, Konuş