Urban Development and Planning in Istanbul

This special issue of International Planning Studies offers a set of papers addressing urban development issues in Istanbul. It is published in parallel with a Turkish version, in the e-journal Megaron (2011, Vol. 6, No. 1). Megaron is based in Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, and is edited by Dr Yigit Evren. The papers gathered here focus on the transformation of the social and spatial structure that has been underway in Istanbul since the end of the last century. They offer a range of perspectives on the dynamics of what in English is called ‘Urban Regeneration’. In much of Western Europe and North America, the age of ‘Urban Regeneration’ was officially announced in the mid-1990s. It reflected a shift towards urban-focused economic strategy-making, the rise of new urban consumer groups, and the diversion of capital from industrial investment to asset markets and property development. Since the recession of 2008 brought an end to the credit-fuelled house price boom, ‘Urban Regeneration’ has lost its lustre. For many it is now discredited. The promises held out in its name generally failed to materialize, and the built environment engineered in its name has often turned out to be superficial and unsustainable, socially divisive, and of dubious architectural and urban design value. Owen Hatherley (2010) mocks urban regeneration in Britain – dominated by architects, urban designers, large-scale developers, property financiers, and local politicians desperately seeking a ‘competitive image’ – as the hyped-up architecture of Blairism. But if urban regeneration has lost credibility in its western homelands, in Turkey it is still fashionable, especially amongst those with access to State power and investment capital. And the measures introduced in the name of regeneration, or renewal, are rapidly transforming the look of at least the central parts of many Turkish cities. This is International Planning Studies Vol. 16, No. 1, 1–4, February 2011