Istanbul

Demet Mutman

Istanbul –
City Between The Continents
Germany 2009
27:54 min
Director: Olaf Jacobs
Director of photography: Thomas Lütz
Editor: Christoph Sturm
94 ISTANBUL PROFILE Population [city]

12.5 million

Area occupied [city]

5,343 km2

Gross domestic product (GDP)

182 [$bn at PPPs]

Average density [metro/city]

2,622 Inhabitants/km2

Diversity
Romans, Greeks, Armenians,
Jews, Arabs, Gypsies,
Caucasian, Balkans, Turks
96 ISTANBUL PROFILE Income inequality
[A high Gini Index indicates greater
income inequality.]

43
Informal settlements

50 % of the land

60 % of the population

Unemployment rate

11.2 %

Literacy rate/population with a high

school education

92.3 %

19.2 %
Number of projects compiled [DBUAA]

87
Number of registered Non-profit
Organizations

18,660
Informal Economy

30 %

Green space per capita

6.05 m2/person
98 ISTANBUL OVERVIEW
Social Cohesion in Istanbul
Many of the projects addressed critical problems faced
by Istanbul’s most fragile communities—new immi-
grants, isolated women, disadvantaged children, the
disabled, and homeless young men.
Eighty-seven initiatives combined the spirit of social
entrepreneurship and collective action that character-
izes many of the grassroots initiatives developed in
Istanbul.
Istanbul’s spatial inequity is a result of a rapidly
growing process, which has intensified problems over
time: traffic congestion, lack of open space, the infor-
mal and self-made city, as well as the restoration of the
city’s heritage and derelict areas. Many of the initia-
tives found respond directly to some of these issues,
impacting the urban environment while focusing on
social aspects.
1
Music for Peace is impressive in its simplicity. It
offers music training as a catalyst in a depressed inner-
city neighborhood, where extra-curricular opportuni-
ties are not ordinarily available. The project was first
located at two primary schools of the neighborhood,
but was later able to move into a structure exclusively
built for its use. By focusing on the children in the
neighborhood, Barış İçin Müzik aims to connect people
and empower residents, while raising the quality of the
neighborhood.
2
Nurtepe First Step Cooperative—under the um-
brella of Kadın Emeğini Değerlendirme Vakfı—creates a
neighborhood center where women are able to access
cooperative childcare, which allows them to find part-
time employment. The women’s center focuses on the
value of women’s labor, its cooperative dimension, and
its contribution to the emancipation of newly urban-
ized households.
Children of Hope—Youth House offers a modest-
scale shelter and limited employment training for
young men who have been forced to live on the streets.
It makes a humble but important contribution towards
the recognition of a significant problem.
2
3
1

20 km
 100 ISTANBUL TIME LINE AND POPULATION GROWTH

1600 1700 1800

1453 1875 1923 1940

Constantinople is declared
as the capital of the Ottoman
Empire.
1455
Construction of the Grand
Bazaar begins.
The third metro worldwide is With the foundation of the
inaugurated. Turkish Republic, the capital
is moved to Ankara.
1877
First Ottoman Parliament. 1928
Istanbul becomes the official
1885 name of the city, which is the
The Orient Express pulls into largest in the republic.
Istanbul.
1937
Henri Prost develops a master
plan for the city.
Urban boom and the start of
in-migration.
1945–1960
New urban developments and
industrialization.
1950
First Gecekondu: rapid devel-
opment of horizontal illegal
settlements.

1970
Increase in horizontal and ver-
tical illegal settlements. Rapid
unplanned urbanization.
1973
First suspension bridge over
the Bosphorus is built.
1975
Permission for horizontal
illegal growth
1980
Neoliberal impacts on the city
and sharp urban transforma-
tions. City center gains popu-
larity, new settlements are
developed in the periphery.
1900
1985
The historical peninsula of
Istanbul is declared Unesco
World Heritage Sites.
1988
Second bridge over the Bos-
phorus is inaugurated. The
Büyükdere Levent axis starts
to develop as a major urban
development area.
1990
Kemer Country: first gated
community is built in Gök-
türk.
2000s
Effects of global economy
on spatial development and
increased urban renewal
implementations, increase
in building heights, societal
fragmentation, and social
exclusion.
2004
City renewal project starts:
initiated by TOKI and the city
government, it demolished
over nine thousand illegal
buildings and Gecekondus.
2003–2009
TOKI coordinates the building
of 340,000 social housing units.
20
10
2000
2006
An invited architectural
competition is organized by
the Metropolitan Municipality
for urban transformation of
the city’s two sides with star
architects like Zaha Hadid.
2007
Metrobus, which began as an
18.3-kilometer rapid trans-
portation system between
Topkapi and Sirkeci, is now 52
kilometers.
2012
Urban regeneration through
infrastructure: Asian side’s
first subway is inaugurated.
102 ISTANBUL INITIATIVES

Music for Peace

The initiative aims to provide children from low-

income groups with access to music by clearing the
boundaries to music education. In order to do this, the
project has organized music classes, practice rooms,
and tutors since 2005.
Within a deprived, inner-city neighborhood in Istan-
bul, the music school is important not only because it
offers a cultural facility for children, but because it also
brings self-confidence and social empowerment to the
neighborhood where it is located.
In the process of organizing a music school, the
project upgraded several areas in surrounding schools
to create a proper spatial environment for music
classes and practice spaces, as well as for small-scale
presentations. It later transformed a primary schools’
abandoned storage facility into a music school. The
next step was the creation of new spaces for music in
two other local schools. In 2009, construction began on
a new neighborhood music center, which opened the
following year.
Today, nearly 700 students are learning and prac-
ticing together at the Music for Peace center and its
schools. The training offered has expanded from ac-
cordion to piano, violin, cello, and drums. The cen-
ter, located at the heart of a deprived neighborhood,
impacted the perception of residents of their neighbor-
hood, empowering youth and their families.
The project invests in human and social capital,
making use of arts and culture to promote self-confi-
dence, integration, and alternative use and intensifica-
tion of the use of public space. It defines an alternative
support for urban regeneration.
 104 NAVIGATION INITIATIVES
ISTANBUL X

Functions / program: music school for chil-

Headline
dren five to sixteen years old in open, formerly
unused spaces; music classes at local schools

AUThOR’s
Benefits Name
to the community: keeping kids off
the streets and
Author’s cultivating
position them
in the through
project etc.music.
Among the social and psychological advantages,
it improves the quality of life for children and
their families. The multiparticipatory environ-
ment of the workshops also supports a commu-
nity-based organization. It generates work as a
local micro economy.

Positive impact on the built environment:

it offers a new facility for learning music that
connects with public space, making temporary
use of it for rehearsal and presentations. It
activates space via a music school and is socially
inclusive.

People involved: an architect (initiator), three

full- and ten part-time instructors, nine student
assistants, and six staff; local staff personnel.
MUSIC FOR PEACE 2005 ≥ 2012
106 ISTANBUL INITIATIVES

Nurtepe First Step Cooperative

Women immigrants moving to the city experience a

difficult transition. They lose the support of traditional
networks, and are often unable to find employment in
an urban economy. Located in Nurtepe, a mixed and
socially fragmented area with a high proportion of de-
prived immigrant families, the Women and Children’s
Center provides child care, skills training, and educa-
tion facilities designed to empower local women.
The foundation aims to support women’s leadership
in improving their lives and communities, through the
provision of space at the Women and Children’s Centers
(WCC). Run on a volunteer basis by First Step Women’s
Environment, Culture and Enterprise Cooperative, the
center holds classes on leadership, entrepreneurship,
and domestic violence, thereby creating networking
and capacity-building for women from all backgrounds
to overcome marginalization and social exclusion.
Kadın Emeğini Değerlendirme Vakfı/Foundation
for Support of Women’s Work (FSWW) supported the
creation of a neighborhood center where women are
able to access cooperative childcare allowing them to
find part-time employment. The affordable parent-run
and child-centered early childhood education is the
core of the empowerment process. Nurtepe WCC is an
example of this model. FSWW’s training and organizing
support helped a group of community women analyze
and prioritize their needs, negotiate with local offi-
cials and businesses for space and resource allocation,
establish their own center, and realize formal organiza-
tion. Through the courses and programming, the center
gives them the tools to face social challenges, fostering
their integration in the city through participation in
economic networks.
Unlike the top-down social welfare and charity
model, it’s a site of cultural production—an enterprise
run as a cooperative, by the families themselves.
108 NAVIGATION INITIATIVES
ISTANBUL X

Headline
AUThOR’s Name
Author’s position in the project etc.

Functions / program: women’s capacity building

and community center, skills training, income
generation, workshop activities, child care, recre-
ational activities, and leisure.

Benefits to the Community: offers a cultural

facility with workshops, child care space, a small
backyard, garden, and mural; fosters interaction in
a learning environment and increases solidarity

Positive impact on the built environment:

visibility of the community and attachment to
the neighborhood via the physical presence of the
center; users feel safer in their neighborhood.

People involved: cooperative is run by a group

of community women and the neighborhood’s
families.
NURTEPE FIRST STEP COOPERATIVE 2004 ≥ 2012
110 ISTANBUL INITIATIVES

Children of Hope—Youth House

After the age of eighteen, young men and women are

no longer supported by the state. As a result, some be-
come marginalized and homeless. Disadvantaged young
men are an increasingly vulnerable group in Istanbul.
Economic changes have caused unemployment figures
in this group to rise. Because of their vulnerability,
they are targeted by several services offered by public
and non-governmental programs, which also address
the problems of disadvantaged women and children.
The mission of the association is to save these
young men from the negative effects of marginalization
and to return them to mainstream society. Since 1992,
the Hope for Children Association has managed a wide
range of projects to provide better living conditions for
children and young people living on the streets.
Under the umbrella of the association, Bakirkoy
Youth House aims to develop a temporary shelter for
homeless youth as the initial phase of an empower-
ment process. This citywide initiative provides a safe
environment for mainly young men who have been
involved in family violence, crime, and drug abuse. The
Youth House provides clean and safe accommodations
for the abandoned community, where the temporary
residents receive health and social advice, as well as
limited training in skills to help them reengage with
society.
112 NAVIGATION INITIATIVES
ISTANBUL X
Functions / program: shelter (temporary housing
for homeless youth), skills training, empowerment
center, and psychological support

Headline Physical structure: a temporary shelter and

center for the homeless youth of the city, dormi-
AUThOR’s Name tory, spaces for leisure activity, collective kitchen,
Author’s position in the project etc. meeting rooms, and workshops

Benefits to the community: it aims to make a

positive impact on homeless youth by empowering
them through education, skills training, psycholog-
ical support, shelter, assistance with job searches,
and a sense of belonging

Positive impact on the built environment: the

project is a closed facility, but takes youth from
the streets to rehabilitate them from addiction and
protect them from crime. It creates a safe environ-
ment for a young generation and offers cooking
sports, job and life skills training, psychological
support, and self-esteem building

People involved: a former homeless man (co-

ordinator), other youth from the program, and
volunteers.
CHILDREN OF HOPE-YOUTH HOUSE 1992 ≥ 2012
114 ISTANBUL INTERVIEW COMMUNITY
Presence and Vision of a Grass Roots Initiative
Yeliz Yalın Baki is Co-founder of Barış İçin Müzik Vakfı / Music for Peace
How did the project start? What motivated you
to become engaged?
Our faith in the absolute necessity and inevitability
of peace, as well as the changing power of music is
the source of this initiative. Music has a transform-
ing, affecting, and unifying universal power. Music
is and will remain our sole unifying tool to engender
non-violence: between people, within the family, in
the neighborhood and the school, between men and
women; namely, any form of discriminating factors
that cause discrimination itself.
Which partnerships were created to strengthen
your project? What needs did these partner-
ships fulfill and when were they formed?
Actually, we created a few partnerships: One of them is
an academic partnership, which has similar initiatives.
The other one is an interactive, academic partnership
with “El Sistema-Venezuela,” and in that context, we
share education models, forge teacher exchanges, and so
forth. We are also part of an international databank and
network, which shares knowledge and experience. And
in the meantime, we are also trying to develop a project
in collaboration with the Municipality of Fatih, which is
entitled: “An orchestra for each and every school.”
We are also working to strengthen and improve
our own initiative, by working on other ventures
to self-finance our project. One of these is especially
significant: we are working to establish our own “Luther
workshop” and transform it into a vocational high school.
Essentially, we make all of these efforts in order to
firmly establish our “model” and spread this infrastruc-
ture to other initiatives.
Was community support important to the setup
and continuation of the project, and how was
this mobilized? What challenges did you face
and how were they overcome?
We are working hard in order to overcome all the
obstacles to the existence of Music for Peace. However,
we encounter problems such as serious institutional-
ism, a systematical administration schema, and self-
promotion. Our most essential strength is the support
of our participants and of their families. When parents
who send their children to us see them on the “stage”
performing, they perceive immediately that this is a
serious cause. The parents, then, try to assist their
children as well.
Besides its sociocultural impact, Barış İçin
Müzik created a proposal for the physical and
economical upgrading of an environment, using
culture as a tool. Did the desire to improve the
urban environment play a role from the outset?
How do you assess this achievement?
Naturally, the figure of Mr. Baki, who is an architect,
would create the biggest impact here. Since the first day,
we have always aimed to transform what we do into an
urban model. We worked on a “reality,” with the aim to
harmonize it with the social and urban texture. According
to our point of view, a proper architectural approach does
not always necessarily mean constructing a new building.
Thus, we always proposed that it is essential to get “in-
side” the urban area and do something “local” there.
How has the project changed or grown? What
are the next goals? Where do you envision the
project five years from now?
What we essentially did, was to construct the school,
as a test model, in a small area. Our initiative complet-
ed its process in terms of creating the model, adapting
to existing forms of “life,” and eventually belong-
ing somewhere. Now, we intend to spread this “role
model” even further around.
Receiving the award motivated us to believe in our-
selves; it energized and strengthened us. This “approval”
legitimized us in the eyes of others—the neighborhood,
the local government, and various institutions. From
now on, our mission is to establish the distribution of
such a model, both in local and foreign platforms.
 Since there is a dialogue with other stakehold-
ers (municipality, for instance), what impact
does this dialogue have on the project? In your
opinion, can similar approaches create an alter-
native solution against rapid urban transforma-
tion in urban upgrading processes of a living
environment?
We have to see things from an integral point of view;
the existence of such initiatives cannot be evaluated
independently or separated from the city, architecture,
community, culture, infrastructure, health, or peace.
We try to have exactly this point of view, and try to di-
rect the local governance to this particular perspective.
When approaching the problem, we see and evaluate
things in a multidimensional and integral way. This
allows it to influence the education model in a positive
way while also trying to create a state of awareness.
For seven years, we have been trying to set our model
firmly in every sense, holding up with our own means
and facilities, to make sure that the children living
here have access to music. On the side of civil society,
we commit to improving the existing conditions. As
more achievements are revealed, both the visibility of
the initiative and the communication with the deci-
sion-making mechanisms increase. This is extremely
important, as we can only count on the support of local
governments for this kind of initiatives by convincing
them. It is possible to convince the municipality today,
and maybe the government tomorrow; however, in
order to do that, there has to be a visible accomplish-
ment, as well as a factual output and visible results.

In my opinion, music was only for the rich, and what did
the B.I.M. is breaking chains … we start finding “our-
selves” in here, we have hopes, our children have hopes.
Serap Gökdeniz, kitchen employee for the foundation and a parent
of a child from Barış İçin Müzik, private interview by D. Mutman,
August, 2012
116 ISTANBUL INTERVIEW GOVERNMENT
New Planning Approaches for Building Up Cities
Erhan Demirdizen is an urban planner. His works focuses on urban policy planning and local governments
Can you summarize the current attitude/policy
of the municipality of Istanbul towards urban
improvement and the redressing of inequality?
A mix of very high and very low standards character-
izes Istanbul’s urban areas. From the district munici-
pality and metropolitan municipality’s points of view,
I cannot say that there is a positive discriminatory
investment policy on the disadvantaged areas. Today,
only limited tools allow interventions aiming at an
urban reform. In my opinion, urban renewal instru-
ments might take an important role, but only if the
local authorities can turn these applications into a local
development program. Yet, in the last ten years, we
cannot see much linking urban transformation plans
and local development. Turkey’s unique construc-
tion methods turn the urban renewal projects into
land improvements. The projects and implementation
processes digress from the need to face urban poverty.
Therefore, the map of regional inequalities in the city
changes, yet the problem stays the same.
Do you think grassroots can complement the
efforts of the public sector to integrate the city
and improve livability in all areas? If so, how?
And if not, why?
By adding public authority to this, theoretically the col-
laboration of local initiatives and the private sector can
be positive. However, due to the private sector getting
used to earning short-term gains from the investments
on urban land, it can be hard for this model to be real-
ized in Istanbul. A first idea could be to realize these
projects with wide-ranging public financing. If that’s
not possible, a second solution could be to increase the
economic values of these projects. A third one could
encourage such initiatives through the exemption of
the private sector’s taxes, provided that they would be
invested into projects that increase livability. This proj-
ects’ financing method could foster some small-scale
transformation.
Which (if any) governmental agencies/pro-
grams recognize the impact of community-led
initiatives? How does this recognition affect
the planning process in these areas? Can you
give an example?
It is pretty obvious that the local authorities do not see
the attendance of the local community in the plan-
ning processes as a natural part of the whole process.
In our society, local government is a structure where
the mayor decides alone. On the other hand, I have to
point out that some formal developments in the past
years seem to open up to new participatory methods.
City councils are at the top of this list. Yet, mostly,
local participation processes do not work and remain
in theory only. The mayors are the determiners. While
local governments live on a statist tradition, where the
public services are divided between the corporations,
no other conditions are seen rather than a determin-
istic approach and political protectionist relationships.
In that scenario, local approaches cannot directly take
part in the decisions.
Do you see scope for change in current plan-
ning methods based on the experiences of such
projects? Do you think that there is a move in
government towards integrating bottom-up
with top-down planning initiatives?
Our present planning methods rely on the urbanization
dynamics of the past forty to fifty years. Not only our
laws, but also our planning tradition is this way. How-
ever, cities now need a new planning approach that
focuses on the built-up central areas of the city, instead
of the empty areas around the cities. This requires a
planning that focuses on the design of the process,
rather than a planning that works on a physical envi-
ronment. At this point, I cannot see a sign that shows
the local authority’s desire to break the routine as the
process design and management requires.
 How do you see the development of local
bottom-up initiatives in the long term? What
possible development scenarios might be envis-
aged for the future?
In the long term, local initiatives naturally face dif-
ferent demands. This makes them gain dynamism in
the short term, but increases their vulnerability in the
long term. I think that local approaches that hold local
actors within themselves and that focus on a clearly
defined subject—like conserving a historical building or
a green area—are more likely to be successful. Experi-
ences where universities are willing to support these
types of approaches, have also gained some success.

What do we need to do in order to create a

mutual movement of the civil initiatives and
the local authorities for upgrading the urban
quality?
Of course, it is important for local initiatives and local
authorities to come together for the aims of increas-
ing urban quality. But the problem in Turkey is that the
gains after these kinds of first attempts cannot turn
into a sustainable urban practice. An institutional and
effective public scrutiny is crucial in order to make all
kinds of urban reforms—which have partly started with
the help of local initiatives—permanent. In this context,
city councils stand out as an institutional instrument.
However, because the city councils work under the
control of local authorities, they might become dys-
functional in providing an effective public control.
I believe that this representation of Istanbul (Turkey) as
a ‘democratic model’ in the Middle East and the North
Africa seems to be problematic if not an illusion, when
we look at the politics from an urban dimension. The
neo-liberal urban transformation process and its current
governance, with its clear interest on urban land and one-
size-fits-all de-spatialized policies, makes ‘political’ de-
mocracy (electing representatives, following rule of law,
implementing good governance principles, etc.) insuf-
ficient to bring about improved and just living conditions
for urban inhabitants—many of whom are experiencing
forced evictions, gentrification, lack of participation, etc.
Marketing Istanbul through mega projects is representa-
tion of and playground for a certain ideology.
Yaşar Adanali is a PhD candidate at the University of Stuttgart, a
lecturer, a researcher, and an urban blogger.
118 ISTANBUL INTERVIEW ACADEMIA
Action and Participation in Planning
Özlem Ünsal works closely with Istanbul-based civil initiatives and neighborhood organizations
What trends dis you recognize in the grassroots
projects in Istanbul? Do you think they unveil
fields of opportunity for urban design?
Grassroots initiatives tend to differ as resistance and
local (working with women and children) organiza-
tions, and their impact differs depending on their
objectives. Their biggest problems are raising funds
and having their statements heard by the ruling
mechanisms. Despite that, various civil organizations
focus and embrace the city’s current needs. I believe
that this approach has potential, however, the criti-
cal missing ingredient is the reliable legal base, which
would enable the realization of such formations. The
needs and requirements of a participatory community,
which is formed by diverse crowds and actors, have to
be brought to life through an implementable project.
“Negotiation” in fact, embodies all these concepts.
Some of the projects are directly having an
impact on the built environment and create
new spatial qualities. Would you identify these
as potential planning tools? How do you think
they could inspire or give feedback into archi-
tectural/ urban planning practices? And policy?
Of course it is possible to enable the local initiatives’
impact on the built environment; however, rather
than seeing them as a “tool,” local initiatives should
become a “subject” and “actor,” within a well-defined
system. Mixing these actors in the planning process
and making their needs a part of the urban planning
might guarantee and improve the quality of life and the
environment in the city.
Small-scale interventions indeed have potential,
however, in order to achieve sustainable interventions,
we need two things: a revolution in the governmental
system, and a civil community that is determined and
persistent regarding its demands. Even though its tools
might not necessarily be equally strong as the govern-
mental mechanisms, urban community has to develop
pressure mechanisms, which are as strong as possible.
The urban community, the governmental mechanisms,
and the cities of today are trying to catch up with
new strategies. Interventionist decisions are being
made, new tools and units are brought to life, and the
power difference among the actors during this process
increases rapidly. The increasing pressure creates even
more fragments, which in turn breaks down the “resis-
tance,” inevitably diminishing the collective movement.
Do solutions germinating in the communities
contribute to livability in some areas? To which
pressing issues do they respond? If so, how?
It is important to emphasize that their action responds
to the lack of participation in planning. If these kinds
of initiatives start to become a compulsory element
of the urban planning process, and if such a transfor-
mation indeed happens, then, the “citizen” not only
embraces a key element to improve his/her life quality,
but also takes on responsibility to achieve quality of
life. When the fulfilling of “citizen” demands is guar-
anteed, the form of his/her existence in the city will
inevitably improve as well.
Which projects would you say have good poten-
tial for replicability? What features should they
exhibit in order to be replicable?
In order for the local projects to be replicable, their
success has to be proven. This does not only rely
on civil initiative. The goals have to be realized. An
initiative can feed on another initiative’s experience—
successful or not—and reshape itself. This, in turn, can
create some sort of database. This kind of experience
transfer is actually a type of mobility, a state of experi-
ence transforming itself for repetition; something that
should be able to make the governmental mechanisms
content. This kind of exchange requires the existence
of a platform where different actors can put forward
their diverse experiences on diverse grounds. For that
to happen, the problems in the system’s methodology
must be fixed in the context of “governmental culture.”
 How do you see these projects impacting on the
urban fabric in the next five to ten years? Do
they have the capacity to make a difference?
I am drawn to pessimism based on a dark scenario,
where the city is shaped by the persistent, oppres-
sive methods that eventually destroy all civil initia-
tives. On the other hand, I would base my optimistic
prediction on non-government initiatives, which are
realized through encouraging local projects, learning
from various accomplishments, and strengthened by
international connections. Small initiatives, which act
for their own rights, can do more consciously regard-
ing their communal needs, eventually leading the way
to healthier cities. Ten years ahead, I would wish to
see that these small initiatives, which are born today,
are still alive, with their motivational resources
strengthened, their strategies sharpened, and having
secured a firm and well-defined place inside the gov-
ernmental frame.

In Turkey, a mayor’s use of authority is not always trans-

parent. Meanwhile, the demands on behalf of civic groups
for increased municipal authority in the name of national
decentralization and participatory democracy have at
times exacerbated this misuse of discretionary powers.
This is because Turkey’s city administrations have not
been completely democratized yet, and strong municipal
authority has created, in most cases, local fiefdoms rather
than widespread civic engagement.
Ilhan Tekeli, city and regional planner at the Middle East Techni-
cal University and member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences
120 ISTANBUL INTERVIEW ARTS & CULTURE
Curating Artists and Cultural Practices
Behiç Ak is a cartoon artist, playwright, children’s book author, director, and an architect
Do you think it is possible that art and culture
(artistic & cultural production), in some form,
provide the “spark” for beginning a grassroots
initiative? In which form?
The relationship between art and the city is good on
one hand, and bad on the other. Although it actu-
ally gained legitimacy after the DBUA Award, there
are still culturalist approaches. New types of cultural
strategies that create value and profit are promoted,
instead of works from civil society that support the
improvement of life quality and that would add value
to the sustainability of space. Actually, art is personal
and it does not have to serve a city or an objective.
In this context, the relationship between art and the
city does not need to be positive. However, now it is
thought that art does need to serve the city, and local
governments are working to increase the value of the
city through artistic organizations. Therefore, art loses
its independence and becomes a tool. In the context
of new cultural strategies, the use of art brings out a
global industry of culture.
How does the artist/cultural activist play a role
as a communicator, bridging different parts and
intermediating conversations and negotiations
that would otherwise rarely take place?
As everything has turned into a type of communication,
the artist has become a communicator, which actually
contradicts the meaning of art. Art communicates, but
without aiming to communicate. Art is not design. The
act of communicating with the mass and formation is
closer to the meaning of design. In this context, as the
artist/cultural activist becomes a communicator, art
starts to be limited to the design activity. It turns into a
cultural design. Therefore, it becomes an urban strategy
positioned inside the culture industry.
On the other hand, what I have seen in the example
of Music for Peace is the culturalist model it brings
out, especially with the people in the area with whom
it establishes a relationship. In this context, a civil soci-
ety initiative gives an important message by saving its
own independence and focusing on the democratiza-
tion of art education. To transform this example into a
culturalist approach can bring death to the model, and
the initiative can lose its own publicity. At this point,
the aim and method of using art becomes crucial.
Many projects count on artists to identify ur-
ban challenges and present creative responses
to them. What is your personal experience of
how arts and culture can improve urban life?
Participation has gained a very ideological meaning.
Today it’s quite different from the nineteen-seventies.
Participation at that time was used as a means of de-
mocratization—intended both for the right and the left.
There was no rigid organization. However, now, partici-
pation is planned before and the outcomes are formerly
known. A hollow concept with well-defined boundaries
… In the nineteen-seventies, the concept of participa-
tion used to include hope and was transformative in
real terms, whereas today, it is too controlled and does
not extend beyond being a tool. Today’s stakeholders
in participatory practices are restricted to operating
within predefined control mechanisms. Moreover,
urban intervention creates meaningless spaces and it
becomes difficult for one to become an individual who
can develop his own discourse in the city made up of
these meaningless spaces.
Is there something particular about the culture
of Istanbul that contributes to the nature of the
projects?
We should mention the “public” when talking about ur-
ban culture. This public is a scenario that has not been
planned before; it is the result of an accumulation of
cultural and social texture over time. Now, a non-urban
culture is trying to be built into the city, which brings
out a pseudo-public situation. In areas that are present-
ed as public, the “public” begins to vanish and private
areas appear instead. Because we are a society that
cannot fully define the concept of “public,” we cannot
realize the dispossessed public culture. In this context,
art and culture also belong to the public and are under
its guard. A society with an incomplete urban culture
today—with the art designed as a tool of the culture
industry—accepts the new, pseudo-urban areas within
the new public spaces without noticing.

How can the impact of grassroots projects be

maximized? How might artists and cultural prac-
titioners contribute to this?
Actually, urban culture can be effective on the aim of
a social and environmental transformation. And this
partnership can only be achieved through the formation
of new mechanisms that increase the life quality of
the local citizens and increase the use value of the city,
both by the society and the local authorities. Otherwise,
extreme raises and decreases in values will obliterate
the space. Change gets ahead of usage and the space
disappears. To approach a city that has been saved from
these sudden changes, public areas should be increased.

How can the impact of grassroots projects be
maximized? How might artists and cultural
practitioners contribute to this?
Today large-scaled organizations like the Biennale
impose a “design-art” under the name of art. Because
the effect of these types of structured environments on
the real culture of the city is too small, it causes large-
scale activities to lose their effects. Therefore, I think
that small activities regarding culture that belong to
the city and contain authenticity are more special.
Urban transformations turned out to be demolitions,
and our intention is deliberately pushing for an alterna-
tive. Public art, is not even at the horizon of artists lately
but our aim is urban upgrading by using art for public.
Through our attempts, the idea of attachment increases
among the society. It is very important to show a political
stand through art. Art is for the public and struggles for
the social equality within the public realm.
Kübra Şirinyurt, artist and volunteer for a public art initiative
KSANTİST, private interview by D. Mutman, May, 2010.

Today, NGOs in Turkey, which have incorporated and

become more governmental, should provide horizontal
relationships and therefore increase participation and
also present the needed change with the initiative of
the urban community.
122 ISTANBUL INTERVIEW MEDIATION
Advocating Sustainable and
Participatory Models
Aslı Kıyak İngin is architect, designer, and activist
What is the role of culture, art, economy, poli-
tics, politicians, stakeholders, and citizens for
rebuilding a city?
Politicians must transform this debate into a broad
participatory public platform. An open system would
enable culture and arts to provide an integrationist
impact, shaped by both the environment and the com-
munity. The community, on the other hand, must come
out of its passive position to generate its own state-
ment and put forward its own vision on the reconstruc-
tion of their city. Rather than the generic solutions
imposed and executed by the authorities, original and
local approaches developed by civil initiatives must be
supported.
The existence of a sustainable economy must be
composed of a system that has close relationships with
the local dynamics inside the city and supports the
existence of smaller production units. There is also the
need for an economic vision, which takes into consid-
eration the micro-dynamics and relates and supports
them with the macro-dynamics.
You are one of the main actors causing an
impact on the built environment, what is your
role?
Basically, my duty is to actively stand against the
ongoing transformation in the city and try to show
the decision-maker mechanisms alternative solutions.
In other words, I try to make the “invisible,” “vis-
ible,” or to reveal that the cities own dynamics can
suggest alternatives to the current transformation.
From an architect’s perspective, I try to expose the
architectural identity and the economic, social, and
physical life forms that exist during the urbanization
process. I also concentrate on how existing macro and
micro settlements can be supported by those existing
dynamics.
How do you think civil initiatives could feed
back into the planning process?
Civil initiatives and the meetings/workshops we take
part in as individual participants progress too slowly.
The community still does not perceive its own value;
and the people are not aware that they have the power
to make a statement. Thus, at this point, it is still not
easy for “urban awareness” to take shape. While the
top-down systems progress rapidly with the impact
of the decisions that are being taken, the impact of
bottom-up systems is unfortunately not as efficient.
Even though micro-scale approaches are more imple-
mentable and sustainable, a participatory planning is
still not possible regardless of many strategies that
have been tried to clear the way for such an action. In
order for the participatory action to have an impact on
urban and strategic planning, administrative traditions
have to change and the administrative mechanisms
have to be redesigned for enabling it.
In that sense, are there any policies being
developed to merge top-down and bottom-up
practices to any extent?
Unfortunately, there is no such merging or reconcil-
ing political moves at the moment. However, at the
Sulukule Platform, we worked very hard to create such
reconciliation during the Sulukule demolition pro-
cess. We did our best to ensure the solution would be
achieved through the participation of the residents, but
unfortunately, it did not happen.
There is a very powerful vertical relationship be-
tween the higher authorities and the local authority
during the process, where the decisions are executed
from the top down. While the local authority is ex-
pected to represent a diverse and multifaceted com-
munity, it inevitably becomes a mere reflection of the
ruling party. The ruling party, in turn, cannot incorpo-
rate and mix the dynamism coming from the commu-
nity to its system. Yet, it is highly critical for the “local
statement” and micro-visions to increase, unite, and
transform into a powerful and single voice.

What is your role in combining the missing

links of top to down or bottom up? How do you
proceed?
There are many missing links. Primarily, there is a
communication gap and unawareness between the
institutions. At this point, our mission is to closely
monitor the processes in order to inform the institu-
tions. More importantly, I spend time with the commu-
nity, in order to better understand the spatial, social,
and economic infrastructures, and to cooperate with
them in order to achieve participatory resolution to the
existing problems.
My intention is to make the “existing” visible; to
conduct participatory meetings; to cultivate new vi-
sions through these meetings; to support and even
improve the participation of diverse social fragments;
and to reach to a larger audience through these newly
cultivated visions.

How would you define a good planning model

for the city of Istanbul? What is the difference
from today’s practice?
When considering urban practices, it is not only the
plans that come to mind, but also field management,
heritage zoning plans, hierarchy, and inter-institutional
relationships. These, in turn, transform into a more
intricate and sophisticated system. Most of the time,
the community cannot understand nor perceive the
patterns in-between these non-transparent and sophis-
ticated relationships; thus, decisions are made under
ambiguity. The mechanisms have to be simplified and
made transparent so that the local communities can
understand these patterns, decisions, and their impli-
cations. At this very point, my role is, in fact to expose
these gaps and disconnections. New steps should be
taken in light of the feedback and lessons learned from
existing actions. In other words, the subject, objective
and method of a project should be created and under-
lined through participative action.
How do we gain participation? We do try to get attention
through press releases and Hasanpasa Gaswork festivals.
Through these small-scale interventions, the initiation
would possibly develop however there are absolute facts
that are cutting the sustainability of the process. If there
is a political issue, such as strategic planning included
among the process, then an obstacle appears on the road.
We aim to work with the politicians, however, we are
seen as competitors for a plot of the city.
Nesrin Uçar, volunteer for the Revitalization of Hasanpasa Gas-
works Neighborhood Initiative, private interview by D. Mutman,
April, 2010.
124 ISTANBUL COMPILATION
126 ISTANBUL BIOGRAPHIES
Yeliz Yalın Baki
is co-founder of Barış İçin Müzik (Music for Peace), which is
a privately financed social project of Mehmet Selim Baki. As
a devoted volunteer and an academician, she supported the
initiative from 2004 to 2011. In 2012, the initiative became the
Barış İçin Müzik Foundation, and she has been its manager
since then.
Erhan Demirdizen
is an urban planner and lecturer, with a Masters degree in
urban policy planning and local governments. He has worked at
several sections of the Ministry of Public Works and Settle-
ment, as well as at several local authorities. Besides being a
board member of the Chamber of Urban Planners in Ankara,
he was respectively a member, general secretary and head of
the Chamber of Urban Planners, İstanbul branch. He was also a
member of a publishing board for several urban, planning and
city related journals.
Özlem Ünsal
is a PhD candidate at City University of London, Department
of Sociology. Among her main research interests are neoliberal
urban policies, grassroots resistance movements, and rights
to the city. Her thesis focuses on neighborhood movements,
originating from the inner-city poverty and conservation zones
of Istanbul. As part of her doctoral research, she works closely
with the volunteers for Istanbul-based civil initiatives and
neighborhood organizations, critical of current urban change.
Behiç Ak
is a cartoon artist, playwright, children’s book author, director,
and architect. His children’s books and cartoons have been
published in Turkey, Germany, Japan, Korea, and China, and
featured in several exhibitions worldwide. His documentary
film, The History of Banning in Turkish Cinema—The Black Cur-
tain, won the best documentary film award in Ankara in 1994.
He also received an honorary award in 2012 for “Contribution
to Architecture,” from the Chamber of Architects for his car-
toons, writings, plays, and his position on environmental and
architectural issues.
Aslı Kıyak İngin
architect, designer, and activist. She works in various fields—
such as design, architecture, city, production and art—with
a focus on social, cultural, and economic aspects. She is also
active in the city where urban regeneration or gentrification
developments take place, by advocating sustainable and partic-
ipatory models for the alternative visions. She is the president
of the NGO, Human Settlement Association; and also developed
the concept of the Made in Şişhane project and initiative, as
well as participatory and sustainable practices in order to stop
the demolishment of Sulukule.
Chapter author and interviewer
Demet Mutman
is an architect who focuses on cities, urban development strat-
egies, and possibilities of alternative spatial transformations
by using short-term activities. She has a PhD from Istanbul
Technical University, where she researched alternative models
of urban transformation by examining short-term activities
and designs as spatial catalysts. In 2009, she was responsible
for the management of the Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award
Istanbul. She is part of the Archis Interventions Divided Cities
Network, which concentrates on the politics of space within
divided regions that do not necessarily have visible borderlines.
Mutman currently works at T.C. Maltepe University Faculty of
Architecture in Istanbul and focuses on architectural and urban
design, alternative readings of the city, and public spaces.
Members of the Jury for the Award in Istanbul:
Richard Burdett
Director, Urban Age & Centennial Professor in Architecture and
Urbanism, London School of Economics
Arzuhan Doğan Yalçindağ
Chair, Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association
(TUSIAD)
Çağlar Keyder
Professor of Sociology, Bosphorus University
Behiç Ak
Cartoonist, author, architect
Enrique Norten
Founder, TEN Arquitectos, New York and Mexico City & Miler
Chair of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania
Anthony Williams
Former Mayor of Washington, DC and is the Executive Director
of the Global Government
Han Tümertekin
Architect, Mimarlar Design, & Visiting Professor, Harvard
Graduate School of Design