Speaker
Description
“It is impossible to build a better world if we cannot first imagine it.”
Lesley Lokko, Venice Biennale
The Kahramanmaraş Earthquakes of February 2023 in Türkiye raised numerous questions about the accountability of various domains contributing to the widespread devastation. As politics and governance, urban planning was not exempt from such criticism. Particularly during the post-disaster reconstruction and development phase, Turkish planning institutions fell short in effectively guiding the recovery of cities severely impacted by the disaster. In addition to the planning system's inability to adequately address the urgent needs brought on by the disaster, the absence of a cohesive vision for the region and its cities led to significant shortcomings that prevented effective design control processes. In this context, the urban districts that used to be the heart of the cities had to encounter an uncertain and precarious condition at the hands of state agencies (i.e., TOKI) and the developers. In most instances, urban redevelopment efforts lacked a systemic and robust strategic framework for the regeneration of new urbanities required, especially at the core areas of the cities.
In this framework, this paper offers a critical perspective on Türkiye's post-disaster reconstruction experience and suggests some alternative model frameworks for the recovery of post-earthquake urban districts. To that end, after examining ongoing redevelopment efforts in major cities such as Antakya, Kahramanmaraş, and Adıyaman, the paper discusses the possibilities of renewed planning and design perspectives on the issue. Drawing on the outcomes of the METU Master of Urban Design Studio, which has focused on the earthquake region over the past two years (in the cases of Antakya and Kahramanmaraş city centers), the paper explores a series of strategies towards a ‘recovery urbanism’. Examining the international cases of downtown redevelopment projects, the design research conducted by the graduate studio, in this regard, aims to propose a new conception of urban regeneration in the aftermath of earthquakes in the cities of Türkiye and some other similar trans-regional contexts.
References
Allan, P., Bryant, M., Wirsching, C., Garcia, D., & Teresa Rodriguez, M. (2013). The influence of urban morphology on the resilience of cities following an earthquake. Journal of Urban Design, 18(2), 242-262.
Babrainy, H. (1998) Urban Planning and Design in a Seismic-Prone Region (The Case of Rasht in Northern Iran), Journal of Urban Planning and Development 124, 148-181.
Bahrainy, H., & Bakhtiar, A. (2022) Urban Design in Seismic-Prone Regions. Springer Nature: Switzerland.
Çalışkan, O. (2024) Deprem Sonrası Şehirciliği İçin Bir Model Arayışı [Searching for a Model for Post-Earthquake Urbanism], Arredamento Mimarlık, 2024/03-04, 61-64
Currà, E., D’Amico, A., & Nettekoven, M. (2016) Seismic vulnerability and urban morphology, tools for urban and building integration. City as Organism New Visions for Urban Life; Strappa, G., Amato, ARD, Camporeale, A., Eds, 473-484.
Garvin, A. (2019) The Heart of the City: Creating Vibrant Downtowns for a New Century, Washington, DC: Island Press.
Liu, L., Lin, Y., & Wang, S. (2014) Urban design for post-earthquake reconstruction: A case study of Wenchuan County, China. Habitat International, 41, 290-299.
Tekeli, İ. (2023) ‘Kahramanmaraş ’nın deprem sonrası kent planlamasıiçin bir strateji önerisi’, https://sarkac.org/2023/04/Kahramanmaraş nin-deprem-sonrasi-kent-planlamasi-icin-bir-strateji-onerisi/, accessed in September 2023.
| Keywords | post-earthquake recovery, downtown redevelopment, revitalization, urban design |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
