Levent Series

Levent is one of the main business districts of Istanbul, located on the European side of the city. It is a part of the district of Besiktas, wich is situated to the north of the Golden Horn, at the western shore of the Bosphorus strait.Levent is in direct competition with the nearby Maslak business district for new skyscraper projects. One of the major skyscrapers clusters of the city is located here; the area host the tallest completed skyscraper of Turkey, the 52-floor Is Bankasi Tower I, wich has a height of 181m (195m including the flag spire on top). The tallest skyscrapet currently under construction is the 54-floor Sapphire wich will reach a roof height of 238m (261m including its spire).

www.istanbulsapphire.com

Bahçesehir_Bizim Evler Series

Bizim Evler, located in the district Bahçesehir, is a new housing development mega-project, created by Ihlas Holding together with Toki. This new urban area comprising of 720 houses organized in high towers surrounded by gardens, swimming pools, sports fields, avenues and recreation areas. The project area is fenced off, creating a separation in the urban landscape of a public space and a private space reserved for persons living within the residential complex.

Toki (Toplu Konut Idaresi Baskanligi) is the Housing Development Administration of Turkey. In his website, there is an interested slogan:

WE ARE BUILDING FUTURE'S CITIES FOR THE FUTURE OF TURKEY

There is also a reference to an article of the Turkish Constitution which refers to the obligations of the State on urban projects:

"The State shall take measures to meet the needs of housing within the framework of a plan which takes into account the characteristics of cities and environmental conditions and shall support mass housing projects."

Article: 57

Kiraç Series

Kiraç is a subdistrict belonging to the municipality of Büyükçekmece. Mostly comprises a poor area. Like many other neighbourhoods nearby Kiraç is a vicinity that began 20 years ago to populate. Small urban areas without a city planning formed by a tangle of small streets and concrete buildings are spread over the surrounding hillsides.

Esenyurt Series

Esenyurt is a fast growing municipality (belediye) in the European side of Istanbul. It is located just west of Istanbul, next to the Büyükçekmece Lake, and had a population of 253,084 in 2007. In the past many of their areas were shantytowns (gecekondu), and over the time these areas have been transformed into chaotic neighbourhoods of small concrete houses, having two or three floors each one. Generally constructed by the own owners, many of those houses remained unfinished.

The five enormous Regnum Astrum Towers, 31 floors each, have been built in an empty land there. It's a residential complex for medium-high class. It’s very interesting to compare the renders offered by the constructing company and the real images of the place, an empty land surrounded by low class neighbourhoods.

http://www.astrumtowers.regnum.com.tr

Beylikdüzü Series

Beylikdüzü is a district located in the European side of Istanbul, away from downtown and adjacent to the Marmara Sea. Until 20 years ago, was an extension of land with a small quantity of population. There were only a few small towns, some summer houses in the sea side, small factories and large areas of farming. Since the 90s, the area has been developed and many residential buildings have been built. There is a big number of residential towers concentred in the area.

Mostly the new residents belong to the middle class and they have the possibilities of buying houses cheaper than in the city centre and with high standards of life (residential complexes with gym, swimming pool, garden, shopping centre and all the facilities of the so called “modern life”). The increase in population and the urbanized area has been spectacular, as is showed below:

1990: 2.000 inhabitants
2000: 39.884 inhabitants
2007: 112.131 inhabitants
2008: 122.452 inhabitants

On the road from Bahçesehir to Istanbul

Some urban development projects in Istanbul

In adition to the theoretical concepts discussed in this art project, I think it would be interesting to review some of the new urban development projects undertaken today in Istanbul, projects which are characterized by the creation of satellite towns with all kind of facilities for its inhabitants: shopping centres, spaces for sports, swimingpools, green areas... All of them in a "calm and beautiful environment, well conected by highway with the centre of the city".

Dragos Royal Towers, Dragos
My World, Atasehir
Beyaz City, Beylikdüzü
Mashattan, Maslak
Selale Space Centre, Umraniye
Koza, Bahçesehir
Up Hill, Atasehir

Maltepe Series

The coast of Maltepe has been a retreat from the city since Byzantine and Ottoman times, and right up until the 70s was a rural area peppered with summer homes for wealthy Istanbul residents. The population grew rapidly from the 70's onwards when, following the building of the Bosphorus Bridge, it became possible to commute from here to the city. Also the former rural area became an urban area with hundreds of concrete buildings. The E5 highway cuts through Maltepe and north of the highway is the poorer area of Başıbüyük, a tree-covered hill with a hospital on it (formerly Istanbul's tuberculosis isolation hospital) and also a large cemetery.

Nowadays, Maltepe offers the hopeless landscape of thousands of concrete buildings constructed in a similar way and piled up side by side, in a small piece of land limited by the Marmara Sea in one side, and some small mountains in the other side. There is not any kind of master plan there. In the middle of this space, there is huge mosque built in the 90s, an impressive post modern copy in ottoman style. The small mountains surrounding the district in the back were in the past slums, and over time, the original shacks built in the slopes have given way to the construction of small houses of concrete, piled one another among small alleys.