Evaluation of new physical environment according to urban continuity in urban renewal projects: Tarlabasi case

Especially in recent years, studies on cities have brought the organic structure to the forefront, along with various visual and cognitive values such as the city's destination brand and brand image. It is seen that any organism or, in a more general expression, any life form, expresses a process, moving conceptually from the word "life". Therefore, it is possible to define the concept of city as a cosmopolitan structure that carries the past to today, and today to future which is not only a physical but also an organic formation. Today, when it comes to urban transformation, newer and more modern buildings and living space images comes to mind first. In this context, on the new urban transformation projects the focus is on the economic structure in particular, and the relationship between the past and the future, which is due to the organic structure of the city which means also the continuity of the urban transformation is not adequately examined. The most important indicator of the inadequacy of urban transformation to determine the organic structure of a city is the changes that took place in the 1950s. From the past to the present day, it can be said that the practices that were carried out in the process progressed towards an understanding that gradually made the organic structure of the city more foreground. In the study, it is aimed to examine urban transformation on urban continuity limited to the architectural subjects and the knowledge levels of urban continuity with the morphological analysis of Istanbul Tarlabaşı transformation program as an example. In this context, starting points of urban organism, the elements of urban continuity in design; architectural design, plot condition, settlement pattern, density, building-environment relation, facade character, ownership status, are examined in terms of urban continuity. According to the results of the research, the renewal project on intensity has increased compared to the situation in the past. Regarding with the ownership condition, although a detailed analysis was carried out before the renovation project, there have been continuous changes over time. The changes made about the plot condition and the settlement pattern are renewed as gated community by leaving the neighbourhood structure and open settlement area of the past. Although the building-environment relationship and functionality respond more to needs than in the past, especially because of the gated community, the resulting structure and the building environment relationship appears to be very different from the past. Design features are not adequately assessed in the field application and the renewal study. Although facade characters have been deteriorated over time due to unauthorized constructions, on the renewal project sufficient importance is not given to existing architectural data. In general, the renovation project is not considered adequate to reflect urban continuity, which is an important issue in terms of architecture, and to connect with the past.