Istanbul: The Ecology, Nature and Disasters Designing Future Cities with Innovative Housing Projects

Abstract

This research presents an examination of the problems of Istanbul which has always been known as a problematic city since the beginning of the twentieth-century, such as migrations, earthquakes, environmental and sea disasters interwoven with housing issues in the context of the effects of the new urban planning dynamics. Istanbul has witnessed migration for many years as a major factor in the uncontrolled development of the city since the mid-twentieth century. Istanbul is a historical city paradoxically has evolved into a different planning path recently by changing its priorities in housing planning considering earthquake, natural, ecological and other recent environmental disasters as well as the recent Covid-19 pandemic. Constituted a discourse primarily on new climate-based or disaster-based planning theories of the historical city Istanbul the research established on new and innovative design theories of city’s recent problematics that supposed had very few research on as well as the previous planning to maintain continuity on planning theories. This research presented an updated study of the nature and climate-based problems of Istanbul; the earthquakes, sea-disasters, and deforestation due to uncontrolled urban-sprawl has experienced in recent years and the projection and measures taken by both the government and the private sector that would mitigate the effects and new housing projects and models developed by architects. By the 2000s, the disasters became more significant for the city’s future planning and three major planning issues came to the fore; first was regeneration applications initiated just after the earthquake, in 1999, the second was Climate-change-based plannings, which was launched after the 2010s and finally with the recent pandemic the people has started to search new living styles and housing models which were gained momentum in the world and İstanbul. A research taxonomy was prepared with diachronic analysis according to the city’s recent problems as well as the previous problems as the recommended new planning theories and housing models transferred from internationally or developed uniquely for Istanbul after the recent disasters and the Climate-change issue. Although previous research on this subject included the problems of Istanbul so far, this study aimed to present an updated work dealing with very recent problems or disasters also Covid-19 with the new and innovative projects developed in the emergency disaster response plan, especially over the last 20 years.