Urban Planning in Istanbul

 Urban Planning (Irem Dede, Berend Iscı)

Urban planning is a technical and political process concerned with the control of the use of land and design of the urban environment, including transportation networks, to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities.

History of Istanbul with Urban Planning (1923-1945)

Istanbul is under the influence of different cultures, it has been enriched, so it has a lot of developed archaeological sites and reflected the old city texture. It exhibits many architectural examples, so Istanbul has increased and preserved its importance in every period.

Istanbul has many trading ports for exporting and importing thats why Istanbul is important. During this period, Professor Prost gave importance to afforestation of all ridges in the city of Istanbul. So he proposed the idea of growing seedlings again.
He also emphasized that turkish hamams and mosques that are not used in Istanbul are important for the future of Istanbul and stated the idea of reintegration into society.

Istanbul (1945-1960)

There was a huge problem that affected the planning of Istanbul in this period, this event is the second world war. After the Second World War, there was a great migration from rural areas to Istanbul, this internal migration revealed the planning problems of Istanbul and slums emerged.The slumber structure that emerged in the report prepared by the professor in 1951 states that it contains regulations contrary to the real structure of the city. According to this report, the plan prepared by the professor to prevent this problem included an area of 8000-900 hectares.

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however, squattering spread over 23,000 hectares of land in Istanbul and unfortunately the population exceeded to 1000000. To sum up, slums affected Istanbul\'s culture and nature life negatively and caused its loss.

Istambul 1960-1980

In this period, the importance of regional planning and urban planning was emphasized. Therefore, urban planning studies of Istanbul are handled in a wider range. These plan studies started around Eastern Marmara. However, it has failed. After this incident, Professor L.piccinato was invited to Istanbul and thanks to him, the eastern marmara regional planning brought Istanbul to a radical change in urban transformation. In 1975 and 1976, strategies were developed by the world bank experts to ensure urban development.

Problems Today (3 Biggest Issues)

1. Traffic : This problem cannot be solved as we try to take precautions against Istanbul traffic.Although Istanbul traffic is less at noon, it has a very serious rate in the morning and evening hours. Although the transportation network has developed, Istanbul traffic cannot be prevented Turkey Statistics Institute (TUIK) announced that the Motor Vehicles statistics, there are 4 million 167 thousand 889 vehicles in Istanbul as of July 2018. The total number of vehicles in the city, which was 1 million 217 thousand in 2000, increased almost 4 times in 18 years. According to researchers, when registered cars, minibuses, buses, vans and trucks are brought side by side in Istanbul, it covers an area of 68 million 343 thousand square meters. The figure in question exceeds an area of 64.5 million square meters, which is the surface area of a total of 6 districts, including Güngören, Beyoğlu, Bayrampaşa, Zeytinburnu, Gaziosmanpaşa and Fatih. According to the research; Istanbul is the world champion in traffic with stop-and-go. A driver spends about an extra hour in traffic every day. This rate rises up to 94 percent during peak hours in the evening. Accordingly, drivers from Istanbul spend a total of 178 hours (7.5 days) in traffic per year.
2. There is a lot of precipitation in the last period of Istanbul, this precipitation creates flood in tunnels and metro stations. This problem can cause accidents on the roads. The biggest reason for this is that the water cannot reach the soil due to the increase in concrete.
3. According to research conducted before the 1999 earthquake, at least 50% of buildings seem risky. In addition, meeting areas are reduced by 84% and shopping malls and skyscrapers are built instead.

Our Arguments

1. It is a fundamental principle for us to prevent both psychological and physical damage to the problems we have mentioned, so urban transformation should be reconsidered. We want to increase the number of trips for traffic and increase the number of trips of the metrobus in the same way, and provide a safer and faster and comfortable transportation. We must bring innovation to attract people\'s attention against buses. We develop the transportation network of the buses, provide the inner comfort of the vehicles and determine the bus usage times of the people monthly and create gift packages according to the number of transportation at the end of each month. (5 times free ride right).
2.  Mayor of Istanbul Ekrem Imamoğlu has determined 16 critical places in istanbul to solve the flood problem. We want to increase the number of critical places even more. Because there are lots of areas that are still have problems. We would like to create and put water collecting machines to the all places where have problems and weak points. (Including: Tunnels, underpasses, Ground floor places)
3. Istanbul contains very risky buildings and slums against earthquakes. For this reason, we must strive to provide restoration for each risky building and to be resistant to earthquakes. If necessary, we will ensure the security of urban transformation and restoration by providing urban transformation and restoration conditions to the people who do not pay taxes to the homeowners who do not comply with the illegal laws by controlling all the houses between the districts. We will bring discounts to homeowners who accept this situation, and fines to homeowners who do not. In addition, each district will be inspected one by one and have a safe meeting area in order to avoid loss of life in the earthquake. Residential property in Turkey production is made more special. We want to change this situation. We think that public housing should increase in order to increase the welfare of public personnel. In this way, The public housing we will build is going to be resistant to earthquake. Stop building high-priced buildings and do public housing to meet the real needs of society. So with that rents are going to be more lower.