The role of the public sector in the urban transformation projects an examination of the Kepez Santral neighbourhood in Kepez in Antalya, Turkey

Developing science and technology has, and continues to, bring about rapid physical, economic, social and cultural change and transformation in every area of life, from agriculture to industry, from trade to services. This change has reshaped the movements of people in their living spaces and given rise to migratory movements between cities and countries. In turn, the migration of people towards cities that are advanced in terms of industry or tourism, services and trade, has caused their exponential growth. Especially in countries such as Turkey subject to unplanned development, these migrations have progressively driven cities that attract them into an intractable situation, creating urban centres characterised by low-quality construction, noticeably lacking in social spaces and infrastructure and with wide socio-economic imbalances. The need for the construction of new, planned urban centres fit for habitation, combined with the constraints of urban development areas and the risks and inefficient usage inherent in unplanned construction zones, has given rise to the concept of urban transformation. Urban transformation designed to address these needs has begun to be used as a tool for sustainable urbanisation enabling a high quality of life. Urban transformation constitutes one of the means that cities must exploit in order to overcome the physical, social, economic and cultural problems faced by urban centres, as well as forging the necessary changes to the existing urban fabric. In this context, urban transformation has been put into practice through the use of various models. Each area of implementation has its own distinctive features, issues and dynamics; this necessitates a differentiation between the measures and applications to which each transformation is subject. However, alongside this requirement, the most widely recognized and fundamental tool is the execution of measures that have the least negative impact on the existing populace. As well as avoiding social harm to that population, priority is given to the physical renewal of the high-risk structures that have given rise to the need for urban transformation in the first place, and the creation of the lacking spatial zones. Yet most of the projects carried out in Turkey are implemented on the basis of a rather narrow vision, in the form of mere structural renewal in physically confined areas. They are generally realized by means of an expansion in planning permission areas. The perception of urban transformation as just a physical renewal only exacerbates its inability to meet the needs for urban reinforcement as part of an integrated, holistic process of urban planning. The social dimension is generally neglected while rising quality and operating costs make it impossible for the existing population to be accommodated and move to the new zones. At the root of the negative outcomes of the urban transformation practices listed above is the lack of an independent body organizing this work in an integrated manner. Whereas the active presence of the public sector is needed in all processes such as planning, consensus-building and contracts, evacuating people from condemned areas and demolition, and tendering to contractors, this work is effectively left to title holders and contractors when left to planning and regulations taking excessive account of political risks. The scale of successful work has not reached a level that capable of meeting urban needs as a whole, especially when considered in the light of our society's culture of compromise. The ensuing efforts have either been on a plot-based approach such as in the Caddebostan region on the Asian side of Istanbul, or, even when based on blocks of buildings such as in the Fikirtepe district of Istanbul, have progressed only with severe difficulty and, in the case of certain blocks, failed to yield any results at all. The local administration (Antalya Metropolitan Municipality) has taken ownership as the leading actor in all the above-listed processes of this thesis' field of study regarding the urban transformation of the Kepez Santral Neighbourhoods in Antalya's district of Kepez; it has put the work out for tender to contractors on the basis of a integrated planning concept, carrying out transformation work having planned the required improvement and reinforcement areas over an area of 1,300,000 m². The contractor has begun work, which continues to progress. Delivery of independent sections to all title owners is planned for completion within a period of two years.