Speakers
Description
Production of public space especially in a city center is a long-lasting process which needs to provide a balance between private and public sphere and space through the planning and urban design process. After the privatization has become prevalent, the publicity sense and acceptance have been changed dramatically in terms of the private profits and the public concept has lost its importance. However, a comprehensive planning paradigm accepts that urban planning process is mainly a public activity based on public benefits. Comprehensive planning discourse has tried to create a public space as a most ontological component of public context. On the other hand, the post-neoliberal urbanization process dismissed production of public space as a policy based on the capital demands.
Old city center of Izmir, from Roman to end of the Ottoman period, mainly consists of a historical quarter (Kemeraltı and Basmane) and a modern planned quarter to the north, dated in early Republican period – both of which are well integrated. This central district is rich in diversity, public places and intensity of usage. As the city grew, capital demands began to put pressure on the historical center and its environs, and in the 1960s and 1970s, planning decisions were developed to reduce this pressure. In this period, rationalist, positivist and inclusive urban planning approach widely accepted in the world also affected Turkiye’s planning practice. Being associated this reflection, a comprehensive plan was produced for Izmir city. In 1973, this new plan proposed a new, modern, and dense center in the north part of Alsancak behind the harbor area, which was also a part of first industrial zone of Izmir and thus very rich in terms of publicly- owned spaces. Planners and decision makers made this decision to prevent the transformational demands of the capital on the historical center. High-scale plan decisions continued this proposal, but these decisions could not be implemented until the 2000s. In 2001, an international urban design competition was launched that challenged urban planners and architects to find a medium-density public and private balance for this area. However, regardless of the proposals of the winning competition project, a process of high-density construction has begun in the new central district, including the Bayraklı Turan areas behind the harbor, where large-scale public spaces have been rapidly occupied by the private. As a result the NCD has been plagued by many problems such as lack of public places, etc.
This paper aims to discuss mainly the changing publicity context in urban planning through the transition of capital accumulation process over the case of New Central District (NCD) of Izmir. For this purpose, this paper will examine the changing planning process, objections, judicial process, and related actors’ discourses on the basis of private/public conflict. The plan decisions will be examined in terms of the parameters which represent the publicity and public space concepts such as accessibility, quantity, qualities, inclusiveness, conservation dynamics, and disaster resilience of place. As a result, in the NCD of Izmir, large-scale public areas have been transformed to the private spaces and a new form of publicity such as the privately owned public space (POPS) has emerged. In this framework, this paper will discuss following questions:
1- Is Planning process without a public context the end or a new beginning, ontologically speaking?
2- Does new capital accumulation need to create public space anymore? Or are new privately- owned public spaces a new form of public space?
In conclusion, this case will allow us both answer the aforementioned questions and give us a comprehensive perspective about how urban planning practice has transformed in public context in Turkiye.
References
Bal E, Altınörs A, Doğmuş O.E, (2005) "Kente Yön Veren Aktörler Temelinde İzmir Yeni Kent Merkezi Nazım Planı", Ege Mimarlık 53, pp:32-36
Penpecioğlu. M. (2013) "Büyük Ölçekli Kentsel Projeler, Mekanın Üretimi ve Neo-liberal Hegemonya: İzmir Örneğinde Karşılaştırmalı Bir Araştırma", Megaron 2013-8, pp 97-113
| Keywords | Public space, urban planning, new city center, Izmir |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | Yes |
