The Enduring Influence of Informality in Istanbul: Legalization of Informal Settlements and Urban Transformation

Abstract

The phenomenon of urban informality has coincided with rapid urbanization in Turkey from the 1950s onward. By the urban transformation act that was presented in 2012, formal developments and activities have increased in informal areas. Although recent activities are legal/formal, they have caused the reproduction of informality in these areas. With focusing on this spontaneous collaboration of formal and informal activities, this article seeks to understand the new urban fabric that was created by formal and informal builders who are both rule-breakers and rule-makers. The research was carried out in the Güzeltepe neighborhood, a complex neighborhood with a mix of squatter houses and renewal areas. The field study was conducted from 2014 to 2017 with site visits, photo analysis, and archival research. We will reveal and discuss legalization and upgrading processes, and the effects of this transformation. We will then analyze how informality operates as a logic of urban life.

About the Authors

Hatice Sadıkoğlu Asan is a postdoctoral visiting researcher in the Centre for Environmental Design Research in UC Berkeley. She completed her doctoral thesis on existing housing stock and urban regeneration in Istanbul, and she teaches urban housing and design courses in Bahcesehir University.

Ahsen Özsoy is a professor in the Department of Architecture at ITU. She conducts architectural design studios as well as lecturing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Her major fields of interests are housing design and quality issues, earthquake and housing design, environment-behaviour theories, and modernism and housing. 

2006 and 2018 Photos from Güzeltepe neighborhood (Images from Istanbul Municipality Archives and adapted by the authors)