princessislandsistanbul
City of Istanbul, Turkey
Metropolitian Istanbul is situated in one of the strategically important locations in the world, that is, on the two sides of the waterway that separates the Europe and Asia. The city, having an history of over 2600 years, had been the capital of the Ottoman Empire, which ended with the establishment of Republic of Turkey. Having been the cradle of a variety of cultures, the city bears the marks of these cultures. The Istanbul metropolitian area is now spread over 6500 square kilometers, bordering townships of Tekirdağ. in the west and Gebze in the east, extending from the Black Sea coast in the north to Yalova in the south, thereby having actually a population of about 10 million people.
With is unique geographical situation, historical and cultural accumulation, Istanbul has continuously changed under the local and global effects, through all its history.
After the demolition of Ottoman Empire, new Turkish Republic was established and Ankara was chosen a capital city of government owing to its central location in the country. At the first sight, the change had brought about a loss at its importance, however after 1930s, Istanbul regained its attractiveness by new improvements in planning studies. In this period European planners and technicians were invited to Turkey to regulate and design big cities, such as Istanbul and Ankara.
At the early years of Republic, planning studies had become effective on shaping Istanbul with the studies European planning experts such as H.Prost. Plan prepared during the period between 1930-50, had been mostly applied. Altough some decisions of the plan prepared by Prost caused affirmative spatial outcomes, Prost’s decision about opening Golden Horn to industry caused drastic negative impacts on environment. In the following years, prepared plans could not break through, owing to the approval process, excessive population increase and immigration. In 1980s, although there had been a new approved Master Plan, partial planning discernment had dominated. “ Urban Rehabilitation Development Plans” having the aim of legalizing the unfit existing status, have had negative impacts on the development of Istanbul. Among the planning studies of Istanbul, the last one was 1995 Istanbul Metropolitian Area Sub-Regional Master Plan. However, this master plan was not approved by the Ministry. In the absence of an approved plan, the city has continued to develop on the basis of informal local investment plans. In 2005, under the control of Istanbul Metropolitian Municipality, studies have been started for the new Strategic Plan of Istanbul.
Istanbul has a variety of urban areas such as social, bussiness, residential, transportational within the context of an international metropolis. The European side mainly has bussiness areas and the Asian side mainly has residential areas. For both sides of Istanbul, also the coastal areas are very important in case of urban landscape.
Among these urban areas, the total number of the parks in Istanbul is 1.288 and the amount of these parks are 13.891.965 m2, by year 2000. 1176 of them are small parks, 68 of them are district parks, 38 of them are neighborhood parks and 6 of them are city parks.
References:
- Z.Gorgulu, T.Gorgulu, 1996. “The change, evaluation and identity of Istanbul in historical process as a European City”, United Nations Conference Habibat II NGO Forum 96 Istanbul.
- F. Aycim Türer Baskaya,2005. “Dynamics Changing Istanbul”, ECLAS Conference , pp. 139-150, Ankara
- Yildiz Aksoy, 2002. “Istanbul’un son on yı.ldaki yesil alan durumu”, Istanbul Journal, vol:41, April 2002.
REGISTRATION
The following Institutions have been registered for the EULP Project. If you also want to be part of it please contact the EULP Assistant Katharina Erne:
eulp@landscape.tuwien.ac.at
- Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality [No URL available in database.]
- Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality [No URL available in database.]
- Chamber of Landscape Architects (UCTEA)
- Culture of Nature Association
- Nature Conservation Center
- Nature Conservation Center
- The Research Association of Rural Environment and Forestry (RAREF) [No URL available in database.]
- The Research Association of Rural Environment and Forestry (RAREF)