New models of housing supply and unjust spatial distribution of social classes in Istanbul

New Models of Housing Supply and Unjust Spatial Distribution of Social Classes in Istanbul

The most striking  and radical consequences of neo liberal economic policies in terms of urban space that implemented in Turkey after the military coup in 1980,  have taken place  in Istanbul. Realisation of legal and administrative reforms in parallel to the structural changes in economic policies during the first half of the1980s laid the foundations for the legitimisation and implementation of urban transformation processes and spatial consequences of these processes became increasingly salient in the second half of the 1990s and it reached in the 2000s to the extent of changing the type of urban representation that has characterised Istanbul since the 1970s. The new urban representation of Istanbul is mainly characterised by urban segregation led by large scale capital investment projects in the shape of mass housing sites constructed on the fringes of the metropolitan area, large shopping centres, large infrastructural investments as well as spaces for recreational activities and gentrification in the inner city areas that has changed the built environment of the 1960s and 1970s. As a result whole urban form has been changed including historical urban sites. This kind of urbanisation being an intensive struggle process among the social classes, has eroded significantly housing rights of majority of the population, gained through the struggles that started in the 19.th century and crystallised in the rapid urbanisation process  of the1950s  in Istanbul and has re-designed property ownership. In this paper we will discuss the unjust distribution of social classes in Istanbul as a result of the new housing supply models that base on property ownership in the light of comprehensive field research, implemented in Istanbul in the summer, 2011 and in the framework of right to the city conception.