Formal and informal public space: common spaces and usage practices in ataşehir barbaros neighbourhood

It has become a fundamental trend to study what is social from the basis of space in social sciences along with the argument of "social phenomena cannot be understood independently from the space." Reflections of this change experienced in social sciences on the design community such as architecture/planning have come from behind. Studies aimed at the code of space of what is social in Turkey entered the academic world as a new phenomenon. While physical analysis and produced maps, which are frequently used especially in planning and architectural disciplines, are an important factor in reading, interpreting and understanding the space; they were inadequate for displaying the dynamics of social relations, everyday life and space, therefore new pursuits were made. The starting point of this study is, how to experience the studies that we can trace the social realities embedded in the space, the problem of how the physical can meet with the social in the world of design. While discussions were made on how to use and produce spaces such as parks, squares, shopping malls produced in Istanbul with formal procedures, it has become meaningful to make an evaluation on the use and production of public spaces in informal settlements that have been formed as a result of the self-organization of the residents and their collective production in terms of urban and architectural perspective. According to the spatial production processes, in Ataşehir Barbaros Neighborhood, a settlement where formal and informal states can be examined together, it is aimed to make an evaluation on the public spaces where people living in squatter (gecekondu) are the users. The aim of the study is to examine a physical and social based public space in formal and informal spaces. Based on all these inputs, the question of "How the public spaces formed as a result of formal and informal developments are produced and what are the usage practices of these spaces?" has become the main research question of the study. Ataşehir, where the transformation took place in an accelerating manner, has been supported by plan decisions of local and central administrations where squatter (gecekondu) life continues. Spatial convergences of the squatter neighbourhood and Western Ataşehir that was often called "a new living space" where major architectural groups continue to operate has become the most significant criterion for the selection of location of the research. Two different types of everyday life and architectural texture, contrasts and similarities that exist in Barbaros Neighborhood provide the potential for public space research. It is considered that documenting the state of destruction and temporality expected to be due to the urban transformation project in the neighborhood and acquiring it in the urban memory is very important. For these reasons, Barbaros Neighborhood was chosen for the case study. The conceptual aspect of the study has been formed by the space and its accumulation. In the second part of the thesis, firstly, it has been revealed how and when the concept of space and the accumulated knowledge related to it has developed. The content of the concept of space on a historical standpoint and how this content changed has been examined. The philosophers who contributed to the concept of space were included and the discourses on space were discussed. Opinions or studies that refer to both the social and physical characteristics of space have been examined. Beyond identifications, the necessity of handling space together with its social and physical aspects has been the main starting point of this study in terms of literature. In this context, the concept of space, the aspects of this concept, the production processes and their reflection on everyday life have been examined. Based on the discussions on the multidimensionality of the space, the concepts of 'public space' and 'informal space' forming the research question of the thesis and being the subject of the field study have been discussed. Literature review established within the scope of the thesis has been considered as a start of the discussions on how public spaces are formed in informal settlements. In the third part of the thesis, the spatial development of the Barbaros Neighborhood in the historical process has been questioned within the data obtained from literature review. This study has not been a historical reading, but rather a chronological follow-up of the transformation of spatial production by urban policies and interventions. It is aimed to expose this multidimensional, multi-actor development process at the national and local scale and to allow both formal and informal development in the context of the socio-economic development of the period. In this context, the printed newspapers of the period, statements of the actors of the development, air and satellite photographs of the area were examined. It is not possible to elaborate the informal development process of Barbaros Neighborhood independently from formal and informal development trends in Turkey and the administrative/legal basis of this development. The formation of the region, the dynamics of development, and the legal regulations that shape this process have been addressed in order to trace the spatialization of the neighborhood. Administrative and legal regulations directing the development were put forward and the spatial development effects were questioned. Finally, within the scope of the case study, the projects in all the parcels located in Barbaros Neighborhood have been registered. In the light of the obtained data, the existing land use map of Barbaros Neighborhood including the existing project information was established. The existing public spaces and practices of use in the neighborhood are examined in the fourth chapter of the thesis on the axis of the people living in a squatter (gecekondu) in the informal development area of the neighborhood. In the direction of spatial development analysis, the "formal" and "informal" public areas determined in the current situation where the inhabitants interacted was identified and a sub-study area related to these areas at maximum level was formed. Social relations in the sub-study area analyzed by methods such as survey, interview etc. and the reflections of these relations to the public space were examined. Since the ongoing urban transformation project is an important breaking point for the neighborhood, it is aimed to evaluate the mentioned relations in the perspective of the urban transformation project. Finally, how everyday life and public spaces transformed due to the ongoing urban transformation project in the neighborhood and how this transformation shaped the future expectations of the neighborhoods have been examined. In the fifth part of the thesis, cases to be primarily discussed according to the outcomes of the study, the information or relations that could not be foreseen before the study, determinations about which direction the informality is evolving towards and the new questions emerged after the study were evaluated. The issues evaluated within the scope of the thesis are; the quality of physical space readings about informal settlements, the differences of public spaces in informal and formal settlements, the concepts of informality, the subjectivity of informal neighborhoods, the evaluations of the 'illegal' attributions of squatter (gecekondu) neighborhoods and the relations between the informal spaces and individuals studying/operating in the production of the interdisciplinary work processes in informal settlements and spaces. Finally, new research questions about the future of the neighborhood and neighborhood residents open to many possibilities due to the urban transformation project have been addressed.